Vikings football hires former NFL coach

The Portland State Athletic Department named former NFL coach Jerry Glanville as its new head football coach Wednesday, ending a speedy search that began after longtime head coach Tim Walsh accepted a job at Army last month.

Walsh left PSU after 14 years to become offensive coordinator at Army Feb. 16. Glanville will be leaving his associate head coach and defensive coordinator position at Hawaii to become the 12th head coach in Viking football history.

“When we started this search we were looking for two things in a football coach: we were looking for someone to come, win games, put a product on the field that everybody was really excited to come watch,” said interim Athletic Director Teri Mariani at Wednesday afternoon’s press conference. “But also to continue to recruit the great young men that we have in terms of their character and their academic ability. And we think the hire that we made today will be committed to that.”

Glanville was the head coach of the NFL Houston Oilers from 1986 to 1989 and the Atlanta Falcons from 1990 to 1993, compiling a 60-67 record with a 3-4 record in the playoffs. Recently, he has been working with Portland State Hall of Fame players June Jones and Darrel “Mouse” Davis at Hawaii, who helped influence Glanville to take the job at PSU.

“If this job were anywhere else, you never would have heard from me,” Glanville said.

He said that most of the teams he worked for in the past brought him in to fix a losing record. Glanville said he thinks the Vikings are already a good football team that needs an extra push into greatness.

“I think we’ve got a shot not to be just another football team. We’ve got a shot of something really good happening,” he said.

Glanville has no plans to change the foundation the former staff built, but does plan to put a new mentality into his players’ heads, he said.

“I don’t even care if we gain a yard, we are going to knock someone down, and that is what our team is going to become. We’ll be the hardest-hitting football team on the West Coast,” Glanville said. “If you come here, to our home-field advantage, we’re going to knock you out.”

Former Portland State head coach Mouse Davis is expected to return to the Vikings coaching staff, according to Glanville.

Wednesday’s press conference at the Smith Memorial Student Union browsing lounge (Room 238) was packed to capacity. Football players wanting to find out who their new head coach would be made up the largest group in the room.

Last week, the football team held protests at both men’s basketball games to let the selection board know that they wanted defensive coordinator Greg Lupfer to be the new head coach.

Senior safety Michael Dorsey was one of the leaders of the group supporting Lupfer.

“I think that if Greg Lupfer had been hired, or even now that Jerry Glanville has been hired, change is going to come and that is what this program needed,” Dorsey said. “As players we voiced our opinion that we wanted coach Lupfer, but in the end it’s the university’s decision.”

Last season’s starting running back Mu’Ammar Ali said he understands the controversy within the football team. He said he believes that the team is in a good situation and will get a lot of help from the defensive-minded Glanville.

“It definitely is a plus with all his great history, he is going to bring a whole new vibe and a whole new coaching perspective, so I think we are all pretty excited,” Ali said.

Glanville said the real difference he plans to make is on the greater Portland community. He said he wants the Vikings to become Portland’s football team.

“My sense is to make it an event for the city,” Glanville said. “What I want to do is get everybody that lives in the city wanting to come to see what we are doing. It will be exciting and it will be fun.”

Glanville will head back to Hawaii this weekend and return on Monday to start interviewing current coaches and prepare for spring drills.