Ex-Cougars player, coach Malik Roberson cooked up PSU’s winning scheme

PULLMAN – Malik Roberson tried his best to block out the distractions that usually come with a homecoming.

Successfully pulling the strings for one of the biggest upsets in college football eventually made that difficult.

Roberson, in his first game as defensive coordinator at Portland State, called a game that held Washington State’s normally potent offense to seven second-half points and cleared the way for a massive 24-17 upset victory Saturday morning at Martin Stadium.

“When it was over, yeah, walking off that field it was just insane … kind of bittersweet for me a little bit,” Roberson said. “It was more about the kids and how hard they worked this fall and getting after it.”

Roberson played at Washington State in 1990 and 1991 and came back to coach the defensive line from 2008-2010 under former coach Paul Wulff. The Spokane native still has family members in the Inland Northwest who were able to watch his defense at work.

“Yeah, my wife and children were here. And I had like 50 text messages, there’s probably some people waiting on me now,” Roberson said outside of the visitor’s locker room as his players celebrated on their way to the team bus.

Roberson returned to Portland State last season as the defensive line coach, and under coach Bruce Barnum has been given complete autonomy of the defense.

“I don’t even see Malik. I turn the defense over to him and he goes,” Barnum said. “ … I talk to him during the week, a couple tweaks in the passing game and that’s it. He did a hell of a job with this group.”

In this game, that meant often leaving his outside cornerbacks on an island against WSU’s deep passing game. Luke Falk still tallied 289 yards through the air, but often found problems in the red zone. He only tossed one touchdown pass from three tips into Portland State territory.

“Our whole scheme is designed around those corners being able to cover without any help,” Roberson said. “ … In the red zone we didn’t do anything special. It’s just hard to throw in the red zone. We knew their vertical game would not work down there.”

The Lewis and Clark High graduate won’t have much time to dwell on this special moment with his family. The Vikings immediately got on the bus back to Portland with a date against the No. 22-ranked team in FCS.

“We’re right on the bus, going to kiss my family and give them hugs and everything. Then we got Idaho State next week,” Roberson said.