The Tim Walsh-Bruce Barnum history
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The first meeting between Tim Walsh and Bruce Barnum was short and to the point.
It was Christmas time 1992, and Walsh had just been hired out of Sonoma State as the new football coach at Portland State.
Barnum, then an assistant coach elsewhere, paid him a visit, with job resume in hand. He was hoping to return to the Portland area, where he grew up and played for Columbia River High in Vancouver, Wash.
“I was taking a shot in the dark,” Barnum says.
Walsh politely pointed to a stack of about 95 phone messages spiked onto a memo spindle. These were phone calls to return from other coaches interested in being on Walsh’s PSU staff.
“Barney, these are the people and my friends who have called for a job,” Walsh said. “I only have about six openings, and I don’t have a job for you.”
Barnum understood.
“It was amicable,” he says. “I probably wasted 25 minutes of his time, but I was always thankful Tim didn’t just tell me to get the hell out of there.”
Now, nearly 23 years later, Barnum sits at the desk once occupied by Walsh — and their two teams will meet at 6 p.m. Saturday in a crucial Big Sky game: Portland State at Cal Poly.
Walsh is in his seventh year as coach of the Mustangs. Barnum is in his sixth season at PSU — and his first year as coach.
They now know each other a little better. While they may not be best friends, they are friendly, even at their customary summer golf outing at the Big Sky preseason meeting in Park City, Utah.
Barnum played this year with partner Mike Lund, the Vikings’ associate athletics director, in a foursome with Walsh and Cal Poly athletics director Don Oberhelman.
“I watched them get a bunch of pars while I was out in the bushes,” Barnum says.
Walsh says Barnum appeared to be getting the hang of the game as the round went on.
“First of all, when you’re playing with Mike Lund, nobody else wins, but Bruce got better as we played,” Walsh says. “He put away the driver and went with his hybrid, and he can hit it pretty far with that club.”
Walsh left the golf course with another, more important impression of Barnum, who was taking over at the time on an interim basis for Nigel Burton as boss of PSU football.
“I could see that he was going to be a players’ coach and was really into it,” Walsh says.
Three months after the golf date, Barnum and the Vikings are 5-1 and ranked No. 13 in the country among FCS teams.
“He’s proved a point — that he is the right guy,” Walsh says.
Last week, PSU athletic director Mark Rountree gave Barnum a five-year contract and removed the interim tag. Walsh promptly emailed Rountree and Barnum, saying, “Good decision. But I don’t think this is a tough decision.”
As Walsh put it this week, with 2-4 Cal Poly working feverishly on scouting the new-look Vikings: “You think you’re going to find someone better?”
When Walsh arrived at Cal Poly (after two years, 2007-08, as offensive coordinator at Army), he spoke again to Barnum about an opening on his coaching staff. This time, it just wasn’t the right fit.
“Barney, have you ever run the option?” Walsh asked.
Barnum was a West Coast offense guy; Walsh was going to go with the triple-option, a totally different, run-based approach.
“Tim, I don’t know one thing about the option,” Barnum said. “It bores me. I don’t want to do it. I’m the wrong guy.”
Barnum says Walsh laughed and told him, “If I wanted to chuck the ball in the West Coast offense, I’d hire you, but I need to run the option.”
Barnum says he has learned a lot over the years just from observing how Walsh runs his program.
“I know how he treats his kids, how he acts as a person,” Barnum says. “He was the one who gave me the idea to go to early morning practices. Not many programs do that.”
Walsh says he has been impressed with what Barnum has done in his coaching career, and not just in the past two months.
“He did an incredible job at Idaho State as their offensive coordinator. He really had a lot to do with the successes they’ve had," Walsh says. "And I knew that when Portland State hired him as offensive coordinator, they’d be good on offense.”
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The first meeting between Tim Walsh and Bruce Barnum was short and to the point.
It was Christmas time 1992, and Walsh had just been hired out of Sonoma State as the new football coach at Portland State.
Barnum, then an assistant coach elsewhere, paid him a visit, with job resume in hand. He was hoping to return to the Portland area, where he grew up and played for Columbia River High in Vancouver, Wash.
“I was taking a shot in the dark,” Barnum says.
Walsh politely pointed to a stack of about 95 phone messages spiked onto a memo spindle. These were phone calls to return from other coaches interested in being on Walsh’s PSU staff.
“Barney, these are the people and my friends who have called for a job,” Walsh said. “I only have about six openings, and I don’t have a job for you.”
Barnum understood.
“It was amicable,” he says. “I probably wasted 25 minutes of his time, but I was always thankful Tim didn’t just tell me to get the hell out of there.”
Now, nearly 23 years later, Barnum sits at the desk once occupied by Walsh — and their two teams will meet at 6 p.m. Saturday in a crucial Big Sky game: Portland State at Cal Poly.
Walsh is in his seventh year as coach of the Mustangs. Barnum is in his sixth season at PSU — and his first year as coach.
They now know each other a little better. While they may not be best friends, they are friendly, even at their customary summer golf outing at the Big Sky preseason meeting in Park City, Utah.
Barnum played this year with partner Mike Lund, the Vikings’ associate athletics director, in a foursome with Walsh and Cal Poly athletics director Don Oberhelman.
“I watched them get a bunch of pars while I was out in the bushes,” Barnum says.
Walsh says Barnum appeared to be getting the hang of the game as the round went on.
“First of all, when you’re playing with Mike Lund, nobody else wins, but Bruce got better as we played,” Walsh says. “He put away the driver and went with his hybrid, and he can hit it pretty far with that club.”
Walsh left the golf course with another, more important impression of Barnum, who was taking over at the time on an interim basis for Nigel Burton as boss of PSU football.
“I could see that he was going to be a players’ coach and was really into it,” Walsh says.
Three months after the golf date, Barnum and the Vikings are 5-1 and ranked No. 13 in the country among FCS teams.
“He’s proved a point — that he is the right guy,” Walsh says.
Last week, PSU athletic director Mark Rountree gave Barnum a five-year contract and removed the interim tag. Walsh promptly emailed Rountree and Barnum, saying, “Good decision. But I don’t think this is a tough decision.”
As Walsh put it this week, with 2-4 Cal Poly working feverishly on scouting the new-look Vikings: “You think you’re going to find someone better?”
When Walsh arrived at Cal Poly (after two years, 2007-08, as offensive coordinator at Army), he spoke again to Barnum about an opening on his coaching staff. This time, it just wasn’t the right fit.
“Barney, have you ever run the option?” Walsh asked.
Barnum was a West Coast offense guy; Walsh was going to go with the triple-option, a totally different, run-based approach.
“Tim, I don’t know one thing about the option,” Barnum said. “It bores me. I don’t want to do it. I’m the wrong guy.”
Barnum says Walsh laughed and told him, “If I wanted to chuck the ball in the West Coast offense, I’d hire you, but I need to run the option.”
Barnum says he has learned a lot over the years just from observing how Walsh runs his program.
“I know how he treats his kids, how he acts as a person,” Barnum says. “He was the one who gave me the idea to go to early morning practices. Not many programs do that.”
Walsh says he has been impressed with what Barnum has done in his coaching career, and not just in the past two months.
“He did an incredible job at Idaho State as their offensive coordinator. He really had a lot to do with the successes they’ve had," Walsh says. "And I knew that when Portland State hired him as offensive coordinator, they’d be good on offense.”
