Glanville in the limelight
Portland State head football coach Jerry Glanville will be the focus of Worldwide Leader of Sports’ investigative news show, Outside the Lines, on Sunday at 6:30 a.m. A rebroadcast of the show will air on ESPNews later Sunday morning at 9 a.m. and ESPN2 on Monday at 1:30 a.m.
ESPN camera crews, led by reporter Colleen Dominguez and producer David Lubbers, followed the former NFL head coach around at practice for three days in May and the Vikings’ spring game at PGE Park. The segment is slated to last six to eight minutes, but Glanville has a hunch it could be longer.
“I think ESPN was starting off with an eight-minute piece. It will be interesting to see what happens because they shot six days. Well, you can’t shoot six days and only put eight on television, that’s financially…people will think you’re crazy,” Glanville said. “The longest they stayed anywhere else was a full day at Alabama, they stayed partial days everywhere else.”
Aside from spreading the word about Glanville’s return to coaching and heightening the awareness of Portland State athletics, the Vikings’ head coach hopes the publicity will attract talented athletes.
“I hope this helps us with recruiting,” Glanville said. “You never know what they are going to use, but I hope they say Portland State is a place for future college prospects to think about and come to.”
Vikings fighting for eligibility
The Portland State football team continues to receive good news as last Tuesday night two former Vikings received one more year of eligibility.
Wide receiver Tremayne Kirkland received an additional year of eligibility after petitioning to the NCAA at the conclusion of the 2006 season. Kirkland started his college football career at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. After red-shirting his first year, he separated his shoulder in his red-shirt freshman year, forcing him to miss the entire 2004 season (his sophomore season). He only played one more season for the Rebels before deciding to leave.
Kirkland joined the Vikings for the 2006 season, making an immediate impact.
The 5-foot-11, 165-pound wideout led Portland State with 38 receptions for 565 yards and a team-leading seven touchdowns.
Featured running back Muammar Ali also received an additional year to play for the Vikings.
Ali played two full seasons at New Mexico and partially in a third, originally petitioning for a sixth year of eligibility after citing racial and religious problems with his former coaching staff.
The explosive back ran 129 times, gaining 589 yards and three touchdowns in only six games in a Portland State uniform last season. He averaged 4.6 yards per carry and scampered for 98.2 yards per game. Ali’s role may change this year as he attempts to enter the pass-heavy run-and-shoot offense, as he only had six catches last year.
-Compiled by Tucker Miller and Nathan Hellman