Ransom brought stability and a spark to a young team

Brad Ransom has been in the Portland State program for all four years of his collegiate football career. He was a significant piece of the Vikings’ defense this year bringing his years of experience to his position at defensive end.

“Coming in as a freshmen I was pretty immature. I came here from California. I knew a couple guys and the older guys took me under their wing. They developed me into a better football player,” Ransom said.

Ransom grew from day one. He grew into what he needed to be to play on the team and be successful. Ransom played in a total of 33 games while on the team at PSU. He gathered 81 career tackles, with 25 for a loss of yards. He also had seven career sacks, three pass break-ups and one fumble recovery. And Ransom has seen PSU blossom from a mediocre team to a conference powerhouse.

“A lot of the time we were the underdog. My first year we were 4-7, then 5-6, then we got to 8-3, then 8-4 this year. It was just a tremendous turnaround because in the beginning people didn’t believe we were a team that could win. In the end we’ve shown we’re a team to be reckoned with,” Ransom said.

Graduating Portland State with degrees in marketing and general management, Ransom is still not quite sure what he wants to do next year. He says that his leadership expectations, which he learned through football, will definitely help him in whatever career he chooses. Leaving the team and the school will not be easy, but Ransom was able to accomplish many things in his playing years at Portland State.

“What I will miss most is being a part of a team. I’ll miss all the characters that I’ve met here that made up the team. The expectation now is to win the Big Sky. We’ve already established we can do this. This was something I instilled in myself and instilled in the others that are playing now,” Ransom said.