Don’t Get Haunted by the Ghost of Glanville’s Passed.

As you may have heard by now, the tenure of Jerry Glanville as Head Coach of the Portland State Viking Football team has come to an end. Yes, the city-wide long nightmare has finally ended, with the football team posting its worst record in 27 years. This article isn’t about football or sports in general; rather, this is about the possibilities that come from Glanville’s resignation.

First, it is important to point out that without a football team, Portland State Athletics faces serious problems for every other athletic program on campus stemming from the way divisions are organized. Without PSU, universities across the region would be affected adversely, including ones with teams that are actually successful. The point of this is that you should get rid of those dreams of PSU eliminating the football team or athletics in general. Not only is that not going to happen, it’s pretty selfish, even if a rational argument could be made supporting such a position.

Jerry Glanville’s salary as Head Coach of the Football team was $165,000 per year. By comparison, Coach Rob Ash of the Montana State University Bobcats earns an estimated $130,000 annually, according to Montana State public records. For that salary the Bobcats are the top-rated team in the division. What did Glanville bring to PSU for his salary? Character. Glanville was a cartoon character of a coach. He brought a rock-star personality to the team, which increased interest in PSU Football for a brief period of time. Unfortunately this did not coalesce into an actual increase in students actually caring about the football program in any real way. By comparison, the men’s basketball team has been winning for the past few seasons, which has brought increased interest to the basketball program.

The next coach of the football team should not make anywhere near what Glanville was paid. That money should instead by redirected to the most successful competitive team that PSU has produced to date, the Debate team. PSU’s Debate team has been nationally ranked and respected for years. Increased funding could only produce good things for PSU debate. Or, failing that, the university could exercise a little fiscal responsibility and just cut the salary of the coaching position to a rate comparable to that of universities in the same sports division as a response to the economic crisis facing the university at this time.

One thing is certain: PSU Football can only get better from here out. The team was the second worst team in the division with a record of 2-9. This is not a case where throwing money at the problem will yield positive results. We already tried that by bringing in Jerry Glanville. A different approach is required, one that Dr. Wiewel should be up to the task of meeting.