The Vikings and the Bengals share a mutual respect for one another as they prepare to open Big Sky Conference play on Saturday.
No. 24 Portland State’s trip to No. 23 Idaho State is the first Big Sky game of the season. It’s a matchup between two top 25 teams not a whole lot of people saw coming. PSU climbed into the national poll with a 24-17 win over Washington State of the Pac 12 last week. Now the Vikings will look to slow down an Idaho State offense that piled 710 yards of total offense in a 55-0 win over Division II Black Hills State last week.
Xavier Finney against Black Hills State
“I don’t even need the film to see how good they are. I just turn on ESPN. They are all over the place,” Portland State first-year head coach Bruce Barnum said. “They didn’t miss a beat. Yeah, they lost a great one (at quarterback in Justin Arias) but their stocked. Their offensive line, their running back, they have receivers. The numbers they put up…the scariest part is they goose egged somebody. That’s tough to do in college football. Talk about a challenge. I got my fingers crossed we can give old Krames a game.”
Krames is Mike Kramer, Idaho State’s fifth-year head coach. His Bengals are not a surprise after last season’s breakthrough 8-4 campaign. ISU returns a slew of talent on both sides of the ball, including All-America wide receiver Madison Mangum and All-America running back Xavier Finney. Yet the Bengals, a team picked to finish toward the top of the Big Sky, are not taking the Vikings lightly.
“We thought last year of all the teams we played, that Portland State’s defensive front seven played the best,” Kramer said, alluding to his team’s 31-13 win in Portland in which PSU held ISU to 3.2 yards per rush. “We’ve always respected how hard those guys play. We are playing all seven guys against all seven of our guys up front. It should be a great matchup because we really like our offensive front and they really like their defensive front. That’s why we sell tickets. It should be entertainment value.”
Portland State finished third in the Big Sky a season ago by allowing 160 rushing yards per contest. The Vikings’ 27 sacks were the fifth-most in the conference. Senior Daniel Fusi, a 6-foot, 340-pound plug in the middle, along with senior Sadat Sulleyman and junior Savali Talalemotu return to anchor the defensive front. All-Big Sky linebacker Jeremy Lutali leads a young linebacker unit. Senior All-Big Sky cornerback Aaron Sibley and senior safety Patrick Onwuasor, a former Arizona transfer, are the key cogs on the back end.
Savali Talalemotu & Sadat Sulleyman
“Their defense will certainly be a little more challenging than Black Hills State’s was,” said Mangum, a first-team All-Big Sky selection in 2014 who caught three touchdowns against Black Hills State, including one that made SportsCenter’s Top 10 plays of the day. “I think Aaron Sibley, the corner, was player of the week. Those were the same two cornerbacks (with Xavier Coleman) who played last year when we played against Portland State. Their defense is strong.”
Idaho State’s offense is a variation of the spread flush with run-pass option plays throughout the attack. A season ago, ISU quarterback Justin Arias threw for more than 4,000 yards and 38 touchdowns while Finney rushed for more than 1,400 yards and 14 scores. Finney returns but Arias departs, making way for junior college transfer Michael Sanders under center. Sanders threw for 278 yards and five touchdowns in the first half of his ISU debut.
“He’s similar to Justin in a way in that he’s good at going through his reads and he’s good at putting the ball where only the receiver can get it,” said Sibley, the reigning Big Sky Conference Player of the Week after his game-sealing interception against WSU. “He gives his athletes a chance to make a play.
“The timing is perfect because we just played Wazzu who has a potent passing attack and Idaho State is kind of similar but they have more of a high-powered offense with their running back and their offensive line. This being a Big Sky game will set the tone for us for the rest of the season.”
Idaho State’s veteran offensive line might stifle the Portland State front seven more than Washington State’s did (who would have ever thought that would be a reality when Kramer took over in 2011?) but an emphasis on getting the ball out of Sander’s hands quickly will be key.
“The first thing we want our quarterback to do is to get the ball out,” Kramer said. “Every time I see a quarterback start moving in a pocket, sliding in the pocket, moving from side to side, you are watching a quarterback who is definitely confused. If you watched Luke Falk from Washington State last week, from the first play to the last play when he went out of the ball game, he never, never, hardly ever got in a rhythm where he could stand up and throw.
“If you are waiting for the receivers to get open, that’s not going to happen. You can’t eat toast until you cook it. You have to be able to throw straight and when you plunge the handle on the toaster, it’s going to come out brown eventually. But you don’t want to burn it.”
In past years, Portland State employed man coverage principles on the outside to less than stellar returns. Last season, PSU gave up 285 passing yards and 34 points per game thanks in large part to big plays over the top. PSU is playing a much more varied collection of coverage this season.
Portland State will counter with a run-based offense that employs a slew of weapons. The Vikings rushed for 233 yards against Washington State and threw just 12 passes in the upset win.
Alex Kuresa against Washington State
Up front, junior Kyle Smith is the anchor at left tackle. The 6-foot-5, 310-pounder has started every game since his freshman season. Alex Kuresa, a former BYU and Snow Junior College quarterback, rushed for 72 yards against Washington State and is the catalyst for PSU’s Pistol-style offense. Speedy senior David Jones, a converted wide receiver, and small but shifty sophomore Steven Long are the main ball carriers out of the backfield. Paris Penn, a junior who rushed for 57 yards last week, is a “Utility QB” according to Barnum and will line up as a Wildcat quarterback, a running back or as a slot receiver. Josh Kraght, a former quarterback who started two games last season under center, is a starter at PSU’s X wide receiver spot.
“Last year, we beat them because they threw five picks,” Kramer said. “They don’t throw picks like that anymore. It’s pretty easy. They are still running the ball. They are still multiple tight ends, multiple formations but they are not putting their quarterbacks in situations where they have to win it especially if it’s close. We anticipate Portland State will not turn the ball over five times. We will have to play real well offensively to hang on. Portland State wants the chains. They want to drag you up and down the field with the chains attached to your neck.”
Senior defensive lineman Tyler Kuder is a stalwart for ISU’s 3-4 scheme. Hayden Stout has become the leader at linebacker after Mario Jenkins, the 2014 Big Sky Freshman of the Year, tore his ACL during a non-contact drill in early August. The secondary returns standout cornerback Erik Collins and All-Big Sky safety Cody Sorensen, a senior who will be relied on even more heavily with fellow All-Big Sky safety Taison Manu out for the season with a torn ACL as well.
Barnum and Kramer have crossed paths throughout their careers in the Big Sky. Barnum played linebacker at Eastern Washington in the late 1980s. Kramer was an assistant at EWU from 1989 until 1993 before serving as the school’s head coach from 1994 until 1999. Barnum coached at Idaho State for nearly a decade, serving one year each as the school’s offensive line (1998) and defensive line coach (1999), one year as ISU’s defensive coordinator (2000) and six seasons (2001-2006) as the Bengals’ offensive coordinator. Barnum came to Portland State in 2010 and served as Nigel Burton’s offensive coordinator before Burton was fired last November, granting Barnum interim status.
“This head coach thing, it’s new,” Barnum said. “You have to talk to the referees and you have to know what’s going on all over the place. Going back to that place (Idaho State), there’s some history. My kids, Brody and Cooper, were born there. Great people. We (wife Shawna) met in that town. We still have connections. There’s some history. I know what it’s like to play a game. We won a lot of football there. We won a Big Sky championship there (in 2002). The history is fun. As a head coach, I don’t think it will be any different. It’s still just putting the kids on the field and calling the chess match.”
Idaho State essentially missed the playoffs by a single game last season. The Bengals are hungry to chase a Big Sky banner this season. Kramer says he won’t be satisfied until they hang two in a row. The quest begins on Saturday.
“It’s a huge opportunity,” Mangum said. “Like our wide receivers coach likes to say, every conference game is an elimination game. If you keep winning conference games, you are well on your way to a conference championship. We are treating this game as if it’s an elimination game for the Big Sky championship. We are dialed in and we are going to be focused this week.”
Photos courtesy of Portland State and Idaho State Athletics. All Rights Reserved.
