Jerry Glanville — is he history?
Will Portland State bring Jerry back next season? I keep hearing that it’s likely that he won’t be back.
Man, this is a guy whose football identity is tied into defense. He’s supposed to be able to stop people. That’s his thing. It was his thing throughout his entire National Football League coaching career. But his Portland State Vikings can’t stop anyone. Not even close.
I was a big advocate of hiring him in the first place. I admit that. I thought it was a great idea, particularly as a package deal with Mouse Davis. But Mouse is gone after walking away last summer when Glanville wanted to mess with his offense.
Now the Vikings not only can’t stop anyone, they can’t move the ball, either. The string of three-and-outs in the second half Saturday was an embarrassment at a home game.
I just don’t see how it can continue.
Coaches, College football, Portland State Vikings | Dwight Jaynes | October 26, 2009
Instead of firing Jerry, how about bringing in a top rated assistant who will eventually take over in the future? Kind of like what they did at Oregon for Ernie Kent.
I don’t have anything against Jerry. But when he was hired I didn’t see it as anything other than a gimmick- a big name to call attention to the program, even though he hasn’t produced anything in years and years.
I personally don’t care that much how Portland State does so I hope they keep Jerry Glanville around.
The thing I like about him is that he’s a true character. The sports industry is full of people trying to be more colorful than they really are. They exaggerate their personalities and yuk it up. Everyone wants to be that zany character that makes the fans shake their heads and smile – usually these wacky wannabes just come off as pathetic and phony.
Jerry never had to worry about that. He’s a true character from the stock car racing to the Elvis tickets.
He’s enthusiastic in a business that makes people dour and he’s genuinely funny. Plus he has a wealth of big-time life experience to draw on and he’s not afraid to share his opinions. I’m sure his players are having a memorable experience. I bet you could mic him at practice and it’d be more entertaining than a lot of sports shows.
So what if Portland State doesn’t have a good record? How many people really care about that? Jerry Glanville makes this city a more entertaining place.
Portland State should keep him around.
Not sure they can afford to keep him around only for your amusement, Bill.
Facilities, Facilities, Facilities. Give Glanville the facilities and money Oregon has and I bet you see a dominate program in Portland. I like Glanville and support the team, but feel he is limited to what he can accomplish with a horible stadium, horrible training/weight room & no indoor facilities. The renovation of PGE Park for a soccer/football only venue is a golden opportunity for PSU football to have a legitmate stadium to play in. After reading the latest reports that show no additional capacity being added (17,000) I don’t see much benifit to the program. I would of like to seen Glanville more vocal in talks regarding the renovation of PGE Park. I would love to see PGE Park continue the seating bowl to a true horse shoe design that mirrors the west side raising capacity to about 35,000. Adding 6,000 seats below the wall on the east side and putting a metal screen to cover about 6,000 seats in the North end is going to look cheap and half ass. Quality facilities helps draw fans into the games and players into your program. I’m more disappointed about Glanvilles lack of involvement in the stadium renovation than play on the field. This makes me think he is not commited to the program long term.
Tim Walsh was doing better than Glanville with less support from the AD’s office. Glanville did a poor job transitioning from that group to his. Many of the players that played on a team that should have gone to the playoffs walked away after Glanville’s first meeting with the team. He left them thinking they wouldn’t have a place in his system. He put himself in the position of starting over from square one and he just has not been able to get anything going. It is too bad PSU didn’t work harder to keep Walsh here.
He really needs to be the “public” face of the program, getting boosters, ticket sales, money, etc. and get good, young, offense and defense coordinators and let them do thier jobs. Way back, when the Vikings were exciting to watch, people came out.
Though not a PSU fan, I decided to go to the home game vs. Northern Arizona on Oct. 17th. Dwight is right when he writes that on a weekend when BOTH the Ducks and Beavers had a bye, they couldn’t draw 7,000. I mean, you could set off a bomb in the stands and hardly anyone would get hurt.
I am rooting for PSU and Glanville, I actually ran into him downtown last summer and he was a great guy. But it’s his third year and the product has gotten worse, not better. For a guy who has a background in defense, their defense couldn’t stop anyone.
The PSU job is actually very difficult. As a commuter university, most of the students don’t care about the sports teams. Their home field is a soccer stadium that has little parking around it.
When Jerry first got here, he proclaimed the “six hour” rule, telling the media that he was going to get the best players within a six mile radius of Portland, and then was aghast when he found out that the best players in Washington and Oregon would rather play in the Pac-10. His first recruiting season, he had a couple of players verbally commit, and then two days before signing, when of the verbal commits got a last second offer from Washington State, the kid changed his mind.
The programs has always been underfunded and there is no money to improve facilities in this crappy economy unless a successful fundraising effort can get it.
You have to win big to draw at PSU, and the last time someone won big at PSU was Pokey Allen in the early 90′s, but remember, they were still Division II back then. They haven’t won big since moving to Division I-AA (or FBS, or whatever they call it) in 1996. It’s a little harder to compete with the Montanas of the world when you’re not funded and most of your students take off right after class and head home to their job/wife/kid.
It makes what Tim Walsh did here, have a winning record, seem even more amazing, in retrospect.
Good luck PSU and Jerry, you’ll need it.
When reading this thread I keep hearing The Doors song ‘The End”…
We all hoped or even thought this could work. It is only getting worse. The most humane thing we can do is let Jerry go.
Just wasn’t meant to be