Since taking over the position in 2010, head football coach Nigel Burton has worked to build the Vikings, who had been in a half-decade long slump, into a competetive force in the Big Sky Conference. Late last month another piece to the puzzle was added when the Vikings named former University of Alabama assistant defensive coach Lester Towns as their new linebackers coach.
Towns will take over for Ahmed Zarrugh. Zarrugh was a Viking alumni who originally joined the team as a graduate assistant coach.
Towns said he’s already met with the linebackers on Portland State’s 2012 roster, and he hasn’t found anything to complain about in their work ethic.
“It’s almost like auto-pilot,” Towns said. “A lot of them are seniors. So right now, they know. They go to class every day, so I don’t need to call them and talk to them about school because they know to do the right thing. And a lot of that has to do with the coach that was here before me.”
In addition to coaching the team’s linebacker squad, Towns will take over the position of recruiting coordinator. He’s currently working with the other coaches to develop a map of recruiting responsibilities for each of the coaches. He said his job for now is assisting and learning the system that has been in place.
”I come from the University of Alabama, where we’ve had some top recruiting classes, so I maybe have some fresh ideas I can bring here to Portland State,” Towns said. ”What I want to do is try to bring some fresh ideas, but at the same time, do it the same way it’s been done here before.”
The new linebackers coach spent four years at Alabama, during which time the college, a historic powerhouse at the highest level of college football, won two BCS championships.
”I had played linebacker in the NFL and worked with linebackers while I was [at the University of Alabama],” Towns said. ”I worked with the defense, but specifically with the linebacker core. Coming here has kind of given me an opportunity to go off on my own. I learned a lot there. I had an opportunity to learn a lot. I learned from a lot of great coaches, [Alabama head coach Nick Saban] being number one.”
Towns spent seven years in the NFL, playing for the Carolina Panthers, Arizona Cardinals and Miami Dolphins. While with the Panthers, he participated in a coaching internship program which started him on the road to becoming a coach.
“Lester is a guy that I was very familiar with, and I know what is important to him” Burton said. It’s more than just football, it’s about the kids.” “He is an extremely intelligent guy, and he has been around great coaching from his days at Washington to his time in the NFL to working with Nick Saban the last four years.”
Burton and Towns first met when they played together in college at the University of Washington, and they kept in touch afterward.
“We were team mates,” Towns said. “I was in his wedding after we graduated. We’ve always had a great relationship. When I went off to play in the NFL, he went into a coaching career and we always stayed in contact.”
When he retired from the NFL, Towns was caught between wanting to continue his coaching career and wanting to settle down and stop moving around the country. When he got the chance to return to the Pacific Northwest, he was eager to take the opportunity.
“When I left, I think I was ready to go,” Towns said. “When I was here, I was ready for my career in the NFL. I was so excited, you know? But, to be gone and now to come back here, I was just like, ‘Oh my God, I missed it so much. It’s beautiful.’ I think being here, it just reminded me of my college days. Portland is a great city.”
Towns said he wants his players to know he intends to be an honest and up-front coach and that his door is always open.
“I played linebacker, I know what it takes,” Towns said. “I get excited watching those guys make plays. So they need to know that I’m going to have energy. I’m going to be on them, I’m going to be hard and I’m going to demand a lot from them.”
Portland State’s new linebackers coach will get the chance to meld with the team on the field starting this Monday when the football team’s spring practices open.