Psu Watches Its Ship Come In

Distance enhances perspective, or so Portland State football coach Tim Walsh seems to be discovering.

When defensive tackle Brad Ransom snuffed the overtime PAT kick by Montana’s Kris Heppner on Saturday night to preserve a 51-48 victory for the Vikings, Walsh didn’t hesitate in calling it “the biggest victory in school history.”

And why not?

Portland State (3-0, 4-1 overall) had just taken control of the Big Sky Conference championship chase, breaking a first-place tie with the Grizzlies, who were overwhelming preseason favorites in polls of both the league’s coaches and media. UM entered the game ranked second nationally; the Vikings have never been above .500 in their three previous years in the league.

By Monday, Walsh - his team ensconced at 20th in the national rankings - had downgraded the victory to only “huge.”

“The impact of how big it is will be dictated by how we play the rest of the year,” Walsh told the Oregonian. “If we go about our business and continue to win, it becomes the biggest. We still have six weeks to play.”

You wouldn’t have guessed it by the way Vikings players, staff and fans celebrated - and talked - at Civic Stadium after Tanner Cole scooped up Ransom’s block and ran it back for an irrelevant two points.

Most talkative of all was Terry Charles, a 6-foot-4, 195-pound sophomore receiver who tortured the Grizzlies Randy Moss-style with 12 catches for 276 yards. His pet peeve: UM offensive coordinator Bob Cole had jumped ship from PSU in the offseason.

“I wanted to rub it in his face that he left,” Charles said.

The Vikings have made incremental progress in their Big Sky infancy, but Walsh acknowledged that “we haven’t been (contenders) the last three years, to be honest.” But as scholarships rose from 38 to 55, PSU became increasingly more competitive. “We were fat cats in Division II,” said center Ian Falconer, a fifth-year senior. “`When we stepped into the Big Sky, we didn’t know what a shock it was going to be. It was like jumping into a cold pool. It was smack in the face. We weren’t ready, and we knew it.”

The schedule is helping the Vikings be even more ready this year. Among the teams picked to finished ahead of them, the Vikings have already beaten Montana and Eastern Washington at home - meaning either of those teams must have PSU lose twice in order to win the Big Sky title outright. The Vikings finish the season at Northern Arizona.

Little help?

So Eastern (2-1, 3-2) will need some assistance to dislodge Portland State from the driver’s seat. At least the Eagles are still along for the ride.

They’re even back in The Sports Network’s NCAA Division I-AA poll at the No. 25 spot this week on the strength of their 14-10 victory over NAU in Flagstaff. It’s Eastern’s first appearance in the rankings since a season-opening loss to Idaho last fall.

And now the Eagles are ready for postseason play - or the equivalent, in coach Mike Kramer’s eyes. Eastern steps out of the conference to play at Boise State this weekend.

“We’re not out of the woods yet in the conference race by any means,” he said, “but this is like a bowl game for us. We’ve got nothing to lose and everything to gain.

“In the Northwest at our level, there’s two great places to play. One is Missoula and the other is Boise. Those places are really fun - the crowds are loud and wild and really support them, and it’s an atmosphere that you can’t help but relish.”

Pick apart, or get picked

Portland State’s Jimmy Blanchard and Montana’s Drew Miller combined for a whopping 1,048 yards of passing in the shootout in Portland - but some Big Sky quarterbacks had a tough day.

Northern Arizona’s Travis Brown was yanked in the third quarter of the loss to EWU after throwing three interceptions, though sophomore backup Preston Parsons wasn’t much of an improvement.

Ricky Ray, Sacramento State’s junior transfer who had not thrown an interception in the Hornets’ 3-1 start, had three passes picked by Weber State’s Keenan Gordon in a 52-49 loss.

Sky writing

Sacramento State’s Charles Roberts, the nation’s leading I-AA rusher and the first at any level to reach 1,000 yards this fall, cracked two ribs in the loss to Weber State and will be outfitted in a flak jacket for this Saturday’s game against Portland State.

Montana, plagued by placekicking problems all year, has replaced holder Mike Smith with T.J. Oelkers. But Dennehy is putting the blame squarely on kicker Kris Heppner, who is just 2 of 6 on field goals and 21 of 26 on PATs: “Our kicker has become a little bit more consumed with everyone else’s job than his own,” Dennehy said. Give Weber State a hand for bouncing back from the 81-22 pasting the Wildcats absorbed at Montana to upset Sac State. But since the Wildcats gave up 49 points in that game, you have to wonder about linebacker Jason Allen’s assertion that, “We’re a defensive team.”

Both Sac State’s Roberts and Montana’s Miller have been named as candidates for the Payton Award, given annually to the outstanding I-AA player. UM’s Marcus Wilson and Sac’s Anthony Daisley are finalists for the Buchanan Award for I-AA’s top defensive player.