I'm taking a quick break from watching Andre Agassi's riveting opening round match at the US Open, which I fear may be the last of his career, to bring you this Lobo football update.

Lots of news from today. It was the first media lunch of the day, which ran slightly different than the account the Linz posted on his blog. Since he addressed the food (and alleged fight), I'll go with news from coach Rocky Long.

Long talked up Portland State big time, as was to be expected. Today I wrote a story about the Vikings, whose roster includes at least 14 Division I transfers and adds a little bit of heft to Long's argument. The Lobos, however, should win this game.

Long talked about just how much he had to tweak his defense this year. In addition to adding a second Lobo, he will be substituting more based on field position and down than on personnel groups. He used to base it heavily on the other team's offensive lineup, but he scrapped that becuase last season the Lobos had at least three bad defensive performances because they were fooled by the opposing team's lineup. He said some teams would use trick formations, while others would illegally let 12 guys linger in the huddle and settle on a lineup moments before the ball was snapped, which did not givve the defense enough time to sub and adjust. The spread offense, which has been used heavily in some form throughout the Mountain West Conference, also seems is based on a lot of trickery that can throw off Long's defense. So, bottom line, Long said he'll settle for sound assignments rather than a physical advantage.

He said he wasn't sure what type of offense Portland State would be running. Coach Tim Walsh, who is an offensive specialist, played for Lobos' offensive coordinator Bob Toledo at U.C.-Riverside and runs Toledo's offense. However, the Vikings just picked up offensive coordinator Jeff Hoover, who runs a completely different style of offense. For what it's worth, Walsh said he was running Toledo's offense and thought his defense would have a pretty good chance of whethering Toledo's attack since it had seen the offense so much before. He's more concerned with Rocky's defensive adjustments, something he is certain his team as never seen before.

And just to get a taste for Walsh's success, here's a look at the assistant coaches who went on to other coaching jobs:
Gary Paterson, TCU head coach, Walsh assistant at Sonoma State
Chris Peterson, Boise State head coach, Portland State assistant
Dan Hawkins, Colorado head coach, Sonoma State assistant
Dan Brown, Fresno State defensive coordinator, Portland State assistant
Nigel Burton, Oregon State cornerbacks coach, Portland State assistant
Jesse Williams, Colorado State defensive line coach, Portland State assistant
Mark Criner, Minnesota linebackers coach, Portland State assistant
Rich Rodgers, Holy Cross defensive line coach, Portland State assistant
Robert Prince, Atlanta Falcons running backs coach, Portland State assistant
Randy Hansen, St. Louis Rams assistant cornerbacks coach, Portland State assistant
Bob Cole, Florida A&M offensive coordinator, Portland State assistant
Brian Harris, Humboldt State offensive coordinator, Portland State assistant
Jaime Hill, BYU secondary coach, Portland State assistant.

Today was a light practice, the kind of brief workout the Lobos would have after a game. It was pretty much a walk-through, with no injuries or other major advances.

I'll do my best to post the audio from the luncheon first thing Tuesday morning at our new Web site, http://www.lobozone.com so that you can listen to what Long had to say. Lots of interesting stuff there, but these were the highlights before I get to work on my story for Tuesday's Trib.

Good night and catch the end of this Agassi match if you can because it's pretty cool.

Posted by ilimon at 09:10 PM | Permalink