…  it’s worse than that. His pants are on fire. Really, he should be gone by the end of the day.

I thought it was the right move to hire him — but only with Mouse Davis as his offensive coordinator. When he started messing with Mouse’s offense, he had to know Mouse would walk. Bad move.

The result was that then they couldn’t play offense OR defense, because as we all have seen this season, the only thing Jerry knows about offense is that he can’t stop it.

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Tags: Dwight Jaynes, Jerry Glanville, Mouse Davis, Portland State Vikings

Man, when you’re starting to get blown out of home games in PGE Park, in your third season as the head coach, there are problems.

But I’d also say the even larger problem is that when Oregon and Oregon State are in bye weeks and you’re the only big-school game in the state that day, and all you can draw is a crowd generously called in the 6,000 range, you’re in some trouble.

Glanville made a terrible move last summer when he forced Mouse Davis out of his job as the offensive coordinator because he figured that offense scored so quickly it put his defense in a difficult position. Glanville wanted to establish the run, take time off the clock and not have the poor defense on the field all the time.

That’s after Mouse installed an offense that was one of the best and most efficient in the country.

Now Glanville is stuck with a defense that is still on the field all the time, but now instead of scoring too quickly the offense is punting too quickly. And let’s face it, Glanville is supposed to be a defensive wizard. That’s his coaching strength.

But the sad fact of the matter is the Vikings haven’t stopped anybody since he got there and the problem seems to get worse instead of better.

I just don’t see any progress. In  fact, I see a lot of regression. And it’s becoming very clear, the wrong guy left the program last summer. And it’s a shame.

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Tags: Dwight Jaynes, Jerry Glanville, Mouse Davis, Portland State University

More than a few times I’ve wondered what 19-year-old college football players must think of Jerry Glanville. I mean, they aren’t old enough to actually remember him as an NFL coach. Or even an NFL commentator on television.

So here’s this little guy wandering around the practice field, struggling to remember his players’ names, speaking with (although he’s from Ohio) a southern drawl, dressed all in black — and yesterday wearing a black Army calvary hat with the crossed swords and everything.

Man, who is this guy?

We’re going to find out who he is this season. He admits that this is the first Portland State football team that he feels is all his. His players and the way he wants to play. Gone is one of the great offensive minds in football history, Mouse Davis — who no longer felt welcome when Glanville wanted to mess with the run-and-shoot offense. You have Mouse, you get the run and shoot — if you want him gone, you merely even suggest using a tight end or giving him a little help with the play calling.

That’s fine. Glanville’s the head coach. But I’d also suggest what the PSU coach is attempting to do — basically going without an offensive coordinator with one of the most intricate offensive schemes around — is close to really, really stupid. My guess will be that the longer the season goes, the more removed the players get from Mouse’s teachings, the worse things will get. When adjustments have to be made, I’m not sure who is going to be there to make them.

Look, I admit a bias. I’ve covered Mouse Davis since he coached at Sunset High School and we were trying to figure out what to call that goofy little offense he was running. That was back when everyone in football said that it was impossible for pass receivers not to run predetermined routes. They said there was no way high school kids would be smart enough to read defense, then make moves accordingly — and for the quarterback to make the same reads. They said you couldn’t play without a tight end and you needed to have two backs in the backfield.

Now just about everybody in football is using some form of what Mouse created.

This could be a triumphant season for Jerry Glanville. By now, he should have his defensive unit ready to play his aggressive style. It could all come together and it’s my alma mater, so I wish him the best. But honestly, I have no confidence in the whole thing.

Without Mouse at the helm of that offense, I have my doubts.

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Tags: Dwight Jaynes, Jerry Glanville, Mouse Davis, Portland State football

Former Portland State coach Mouse Davis will join us to talk about his decision to retire as the Vikings’ offensive coordinator. And — for those out there who never have really understood what his run-and-shoot offense is all about, we’re going to try to get him to break it down for us.

All of that, plus Jim Pasero, live tonight at 6 o’clock, from The Agency, on Comcast Sportsnet.

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Tags: Comcast Sportsnet, Dwight Jaynes, Jim Pasero, Mouse Davis, Talkin' Ball, The Agency

Man, just about the only thing Portland State football had going for it was Mouse Davis. The man’s a legit offensive genius and from the first down of the season two years ago, he had the Vikings dashing up and down the field scoring points.

His offense is still, all these years later, about the coolest thing in football.

It certainly appears, though, that head coach Jerry Glanville has tried to mess around with the offense, with has always been a no-no with Davis. He’ll bring the circus to town, as long as he can be the ringmaster, but he doesn’t put up with a lot of interference.

UPDATE: Kerry Eggers has the story from Mouse… and yes, Glanville wanted to make some changes.

I’m sorry, because I like Jerry — but I’ve been a Mouse guy since he was coaching at Sunset and Hillsboro High School. I love the guy. And if he’s not running the offense at PSU, why, exactly, would I be going to the games?

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Tags: College football, Dwight Jaynes, Jerry Glanville, Mouse Davis, Portland State Vikings

I’m not sure how much longer 76-year-old Mouse Davis is going to continue coaching the offense at PSU, but if you’re a football fan, you owe it to yourself to watch his teams go about their business.

I watched the Vikings Saturday afternoon beat Eastern Washington 47-36 at PGE Park and saw PSU quarterback Drew Hubel throw for 623 yards and five touchdowns. And the thing was, between missed open receivers and dropped passes, there had to be at least another 150 yards out there the Viks didn’t get.

“If he had made all the throws he was capable of making, he would have had a huge game,” said Davis, the man who virtually invented the run-and-shoot offense.

As crazy as it sounds in a game where Hubel set a school record for passing yardage, Davis was right. Hubel completed 44 passes but still threw 29 incompletions. That’s right, he threw the ball 73 times. The offense is a thing of beauty — there were Portland State receivers running free in the secondary all afternoon.

The Viks’ execution is not always as good as it should be, but just watching the way Davis manipulates the game to develop open receivers, is worth the price of admission.

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Tags: Drew Hubel, Eastern Washington, Mouse Davis, Portland State football, run-and-shoot offense

A while back I wrote about cause and effect and what it has to do with Oregon’s quarterback situation. But still, I’d always thought the Ducks did a decent job of getting their signal callers ready to play.

Until Saturday afternoon. Wow — did the coaching staff really think Oregon was so much better than Boise State that it could slide through the game by just lining up and shoving the ball down the Broncos’ throats? Forget about injuries to the quarterback, what in the world was Oregon’s game plan? If you really want to play smash-mouth football, get out of that spread offense, put a couple of tight ends on the field and hand it to a fullback 30 times. Otherwise, use the spread to get your receivers isolated in space and throw the ball up the field! Don’t bring a baseball bat to a tennis match.

That was an expensive mistake for the Ducks, who couldn’t afford a nonconference home loss. But neither starter Jeremiah Masoli nor backup Chris Harper seemed capable of making anything but the most elemental of throws and while they were in the game, the capable Oregon receiving corps was totally wasted. Sure the fourth-quarter comeback behind Darron Thomas (finally, a quarterback who can throw!) was nice but for most of the day, that was a very ugly Duck effort.

And speaking of ugly efforts, my goodness — wasn’t Portland State-Washington State one of the worst games ever played? I realize the Vikings need every penny but $225,000 wasn’t enough to justify that whipping against the worst team in one of the worst major conferences in the country. Honestly, I think there are Big Sky teams that could give the Cougars a go — but not PSU. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen Mouse Davis quarterbacks look so inept.

By the way, this just in — the Pac-10 stinks. And after a full season of playing in the Pac-10, USC will be hard-pressed to keep its edge for the BCS playoff to come.

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Tags: Big Sky Conference, Boise State Broncos, Chris Harper, Dwight Jaynes, Jeremiah Masoli, Mouse Davis, Oregon Ducks, Pac-10 Conference, Portland State Vikings, USC Trojans, Washington State Cougars