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Kickoff scheduled for 5 pm PDT from Portland's Jeld Wen Field. The Vikings take a break from their Big Sky slate and welcome the DIII Willamette Bearcats. Willamette (pronounced wil-LAM-ett), located in Salem, Oregon, has played in the DIII playoffs each of the last four years. This season, they will play outside the state of Oregon once (last week at Tacoma, WA). Coach Speckman was a finalist for PSU's job to replace Glanville, that was filled by Burton. The Vikings will start Connor Kavanaugh at quarterback but hope to play Drew Hubel most of the game. Also, the Vikings will look for a replacement for Cory McCaffrey at running back and will showcase Shaquille Richard most of the game, although Willie Griffin should see action as well. Willamette holds an edge in the all time series but these two have not played since the early 60's. Weather should be a slight chance of rain and temps in the mid 50's.

Portland State play by play: http://www.freedom970.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

TV: no TV.

This should be a good game.

End 1st

Portland State 16
Willamette 0

Bearcats have been able to move the ball somewhat, but have lost two fumbles. Bearcat D doesn't seem to be able to stop Vikings offense.

Tell me again why are we playing this game...

Halftime

Portland State 29
Willamette 3

Myles Wade, Vikings big 300 pound run stopper injured on the last play of the half. Tell me again why are we playing this game...

so how badly did Portland state choke?

ODUalum11 wrote:so how badly did Portland state choke?

Final, 36-10, PSU. Very ugly game. Far from our best performance.

The way it was going, PSU would have won by fifty or sixty. Second and third string QBs played to second half, along with just about everyone on the bench or standing behind it. No wonder it got ugly. Why did we play them? I heard that Colorado backed out at the last minute because of PAC-10 demands. Could we have gotten a D-II under the gun? Certainly not a D-I. And Burton is playing a lot of freshmen and sophomores and pushing hard to recruit Oregon condidates. I remember that not so long ago Montana went through several years playing D-IIs and NAIAs and everyone moaned. It didn't hurt their playoff chances, and it won't hurt ours. Losing to EWU and Sac State will.

JALMOND wrote:

ODUalum11 wrote:so how badly did Portland state choke?

Final, 36-10, PSU. Very ugly game. Far from our best performance.

Thats it?! Oh boy, PSU has some serious issues on offense.

frinq wrote:The way it was going, PSU would have won by fifty or sixty. Second and third string QBs played to second half, along with just about everyone on the bench or standing behind it. No wonder it got ugly. Why did we play them? I heard that Colorado backed out at the last minute because of PAC-10 demands. Could we have gotten a D-II under the gun? Certainly not a D-I. And Burton is playing a lot of freshmen and sophomores and pushing hard to recruit Oregon condidates. I remember that not so long ago Montana went through several years playing D-IIs and NAIAs and everyone moaned. It didn't hurt their playoff chances, and it won't hurt ours. Losing to EWU and Sac State will.

Uhhh...no.

frinq wrote:The way it was going, PSU would have won by fifty or sixty. Second and third string QBs played to second half, along with just about everyone on the bench or standing behind it. No wonder it got ugly. Why did we play them? I heard that Colorado backed out at the last minute because of PAC-10 demands. Could we have gotten a D-II under the gun? Certainly not a D-I. And Burton is playing a lot of freshmen and sophomores and pushing hard to recruit Oregon condidates. I remember that not so long ago Montana went through several years playing D-IIs and NAIAs and everyone moaned. It didn't hurt their playoff chances, and it won't hurt ours. Losing to EWU and Sac State will.

Sorry, frinq, I'm not buying our schedule woes. The first I heard that we had Colorado scheduled originally in this slot was this week and it is highly unusual, given how "newsworthy" our scheduling is that that game would have been so hush-hush. Also, Burton has said he would schedule OSU, OU, Washington and one other FBS school for each of the student's eligibility term. He has also said that he likes the model that other Big Sky schools schedule, the FBS, FCS and DII. Neither Southern Oregon nor Willamette are even DII. We had TCU on the schedule from Glanville this year. It makes no sense for us to consider adding Colorado to the slate. It also makes no sense to replace a money game with a lower division game where we have to pay a team to play, as well as run the risk of no gate revenue either.

It is high time for Portlanders to realize that we are FCS and we have been FCS for awhile now. Since 2004, the only non Big Sky FCS opponent we've played, other than UC-Davis, has been McNeese State once (that is it, only one time in 2007). This season, the only other Big Sky school to not play any FCS teams is Idaho State. Do you think the other FCS schools outside the Big Sky would not want to come to Portland to play, given that they seem to want to play at places like Flagstaff, Ogden and Greeley? In 2006, we played three FBS teams, going 1-2 and we missed the playoffs. If we would have replaced two of those games with OOC FCS teams, we would have definitely gone to the playoffs. Playing more than one FBS team, or more than one lower division team makes it difficult to go to the FCS playoffs no matter how good we may think we are. Give us the same OOC model as the other Big Sky schools (as well as the rest of the FCS) and I think we would surprise some people.

I agree with you. Even if UC Davis was good this year, they would be throttled by having two FBS and one D2 team on the schedule. Southern Utah has done this a lot in the past, too. I would go with no more than one FBS team and the rest FCS. I would make the FBS game at least remotely winnable - not Oregon for example. I hope with UC Davis joining the Big Sky that we stick to all FCS teams except possibly one FBS. Stanford on our schedule for next year looks like a 100 percent chance of a loss which I don't like - this is a lot different than when we beat Stanford in 2005. We were somewhat better and they were a lot worse than now.

GoAgs72 wrote:I agree with you. Even if UC Davis was good this year, they would be throttled by having two FBS and one D2 team on the schedule. Southern Utah has done this a lot in the past, too. I would go with no more than one FBS team and the rest FCS. I would make the FBS game at least remotely winnable - not Oregon for example. I hope with UC Davis joining the Big Sky that we stick to all FCS teams except possibly one FBS. Stanford on our schedule for next year looks like a 100 percent chance of a loss which I don't like - this is a lot different than when we beat Stanford in 2005. We were somewhat better and they were a lot worse than now.

I really don't mind playing the Pac-12, as long as it is only one game, like next year we're playing Washington. But I don't want to see us adding a Boise State, or Fresno, or Utah State to it. Even if it appears winnable (maybe not Boise, but I think you know what I mean), the chances are slim for a win with the increase in scholarship allotment. I'd rather see us do a home and home with a Southland team or the SWAC. We played TCU this year as kind of a homecoming for our Texas kids. I would have rather played Sam Houston or Stephen F Austin on the road and have a chance at a meaningful game than take the money and loss at TCU. Texas Southern recruited the Portland area big these last couple years, set up a home and home with them and have it count, instead of playing the Colorados and Willamettes of the football world. When we've only played one non Big Sky FCS opponent since 2004, other than UC-Davis, it makes me seriously wonder if we are looking at all options to put us in the best position possible for a playoff berth, or is the athletic department just whoring out the football team for money.