There is an obvious danger in spending too much time scouting Portland State this week. Oregon is playing an FCS opponent Friday night at Autzen Stadium, the Ducks have never lost to the Vikings in six meetings and the last time these teams played, Oregon won 81-7. The talent difference is substantial, and nothing about this matchup changes that basic reality.
But that also makes this an interesting week to look a little closer because, after what happened at Oklahoma State, Oregon needs something more than a victory. Dan Lanning said Monday that the Ducks didn’t play winning football on offense or defense, acknowledged problems with preparation and leadership and said the mistakes Oregon made during the week showed up Saturday. The quick turnaround means there isn’t much time to dwell on any of it, either. Oregon will be back on the field at 7:30 Friday night rather than getting the normal seven-day cycle to make corrections.
Portland State, meanwhile, probably shouldn’t be evaluated simply by what it was the last time it visited Autzen because this is essentially a new football program.
Start with Chris Fisk
Chris Fisk took over in December after Portland State finished 1-11 in 2025, and the hire is probably the most important thing to understand about the Vikings. Fisk spent seven seasons as the head coach at Central Washington, going 48-22 overall and 38-7 in conference games. His teams won three conference championships and made four NCAA Division II playoff appearances, while his final Central Washington team went 10-2, finished 9-0 in the Lone Star Conference and earned Fisk Region IV Coach of the Year honors.
Before becoming a head coach, most of Fisk’s background was on offense, particularly the offensive line, and that shows up in the kind of teams he has built. His final Central Washington team averaged 43 points and 420.9 yards per game, but this was not an offense built around throwing the ball all over the field. The Wildcats averaged 266.1 rushing yards per game and 6 yards per carry while attempting 533 runs against only 241 passes. Defensively, they allowed only 18.3 points per game and held opponents to 92.5 rushing yards per game.
That does not mean Portland State has suddenly become Central Washington. It hasn’t. But it tells us something about the program Fisk is trying to build because there is an offensive line coach’s DNA in there: run the football, stay ahead of the chains, control the game and make the other team earn its yards. Five members of his Portland State staff followed him from Central Washington, including defensive coordinator Grant Torgerson and run game coordinator/offensive line coach Alex Kastens, so this isn’t simply Fisk bringing an idea with him. He brought a significant portion of the infrastructure that made it work.
This roster was rebuilt in a hurry
If the Portland State names don’t look particularly familiar, there is a reason. The Vikings brought back only 41 players from last season, including 29 letterwinners, while Fisk and his staff added 67 newcomers — 34 freshmen and 33 transfers. Seven offensive starters returned, but only one defensive starter did.
That makes last year’s statistics useful, but only to a point. Portland State averaged just 16.2 points and 315.3 yards per game in 2025. The Vikings rushed for 114.1 yards per game at only 3.4 yards per attempt, while their quarterbacks combined for just six touchdown passes against 23 interceptions. Defensively, it was even worse, as opponents averaged 42.7 points and 447.4 yards, including 256.8 rushing yards per game at 6.5 yards per carry.
Those numbers explain why Fisk wasn’t brought in to make a few minor adjustments. He is rebuilding the thing, and three games into that process the Vikings are 0-3 after losses to UC Davis, San Diego State and North Dakota. That doesn’t look particularly impressive until you consider the schedule. UC Davis and North Dakota were both FCS top-10 opponents when Portland State played them, San Diego State was an FBS opponent and now the Vikings finish that four-game opening stretch with Oregon. They actually led UC Davis 21-0 at halftime before losing 31-24, which at least offers some evidence that the rebuild has already produced stretches of competent football.
There are also some noticeable differences from last season, especially on offense.
The passing game has become the best part of the offense
Through three games, the Vikings are averaging 260.3 passing yards per game compared with 201.2 last season. They threw for at least 250 yards in each of their first two games after reaching that number only three times during the entire 2025 season, and that improvement has come with two different quarterbacks.
Gabe Downing has started the last two games after Tyrese Smith started the opener. Downing threw for a career-high 280 yards against San Diego State and tossed three touchdown passes against North Dakota, while Smith threw for 268 yards against UC Davis and added 33 yards and two touchdowns on the ground.
The receiving group has a few players worth remembering. Terence Loville led Portland State with 517 receiving yards last season and caught 10 passes for 119 yards against San Diego State. Tanner Beaman, a 2024 second-team All-Big Sky tight end who missed all of last season with an injury, had eight catches for 55 yards and a touchdown Saturday against North Dakota.
Then there is Cru Newman, who might be the most interesting player on the roster. Newman earned Freshman All-American recognition last season after producing more than 1,000 all-purpose yards, and he already has a 78-yard punt return touchdown this season while being used as a receiver, runner and returner. Running back Delon Thompson is the other familiar name after rushing for 662 yards and seven touchdowns last season. He is averaging 62 yards per game through the first three this year, and while the Vikings haven’t run the football especially well as a team — just 98.3 yards per game and 3.1 per attempt — Thompson has enough experience that Oregon cannot simply ignore the backfield.
That is also where Friday starts becoming relevant to Oregon rather than simply Portland State.
Oregon should be able to run the football
There probably isn’t a more important matchup in this game than Oregon’s offensive line against a Portland State defense that has already shown it can be moved on the ground. The Vikings held UC Davis to only 87 rushing yards in the opener, but San Diego State followed with 237 and North Dakota ran for 291 last Saturday. Through three games, Viking opponents are averaging 205 rushing yards and 5.7 yards per attempt.
If there were ever a week for Oregon’s offensive line and running game to find some stability, this is it. The Ducks entered the week averaging only 104.5 rushing yards per game after the offensive line struggled badly against Oklahoma State. Lanning called the pass protection “really poor,” particularly when Oregon lost individual matchups against three-man rushes, and he repeatedly came back to first-down efficiency as one of the things that has put the offense in bad situations.
Poncho Laloulu didn’t try to make it complicated Tuesday when he talked repeatedly about fundamentals, preparation and the habits being established during practice. Asked about looking ahead toward USC, he immediately redirected the conversation toward Friday.
“Right now, we’re not worried about L.A. Right now, we focus on us. We’re just going to attack it, focus on our game plan for this week to go against Portland State.”
That might be the real offensive War Room item this week. It is not really about whether Oregon can run against Portland State because it should. The more meaningful question is whether the run game begins to look like something Oregon can trust when the opponent changes the following week.
The Viking defense is still very much under construction
This might be the largest difference between the two sides of Portland State’s roster. The Vikings returned seven offensive starters but just one on defense, linebacker Jaxton Helmstetler, who made 71 tackles with 6.5 tackles for loss last season. Almost everything around him has been reconstructed through transfers, freshmen and younger players.
There are a few players beginning to emerge. Central Washington transfer Logan Lisherness leads the team with 22 tackles, while Helmstetler and freshman safety Lono Solomon have 19 apiece. Eastern Washington transfer Isaac Redford has interceptions in consecutive games, and freshman defensive end Avery Ducsik has two tackles for loss.
The turnovers are important because that is one area where the rebuild has produced immediate improvement. Portland State has forced five through three games and is even in turnover margin after last year’s Vikings averaged minus-1.25 turnovers per game. Still, there is a very long way to go. North Dakota put up 627 yards Saturday, including 291 rushing and 336 passing, and Portland State’s three opponents are averaging 43.7 points and 465 yards per game.
So again, this isn’t really about whether Oregon has favorable matchups because it has them almost everywhere.
The matchup Oregon actually needs
Friday night’s game may tell us considerably more about Oregon than it does Portland State because the Ducks have spent the week talking about first-down efficiency, tackling, offensive line communication, pass protection, discipline, leadership and eliminating the small mistakes that keep turning into large ones. Lanning acknowledged Monday that Oregon hasn’t created enough negative plays defensively and hasn’t been efficient enough offensively to keep itself out of difficult down-and-distance situations.
Devon Jackson used almost the same language Tuesday when describing what has happened defensively. He said the problems were “very fixable” because many came down to penalties and players simply doing their assignments, while also describing the short week as an advantage because Oregon gets a chance to move quickly from evaluation to correction and then put those corrections on film Friday night.
That is probably the right way to view Portland State. This isn’t a full scouting-report opponent where Oregon needs three days of discussion about matchup advantages and schematic counters. The Vikings are 0-3, rebuilding nearly their entire defense and facing their fourth difficult opponent in four weeks. Oregon should have an overwhelming personnel advantage.
But Chris Fisk has won a lot of football games, he brought a good portion of his successful Central Washington staff with him and Portland State has already shown some improvement in areas where it was dreadful last season. The Vikings are throwing the football better, protecting the ball better and have enough skill talent to make Oregon pay for some of the same assignment mistakes that showed up in Stillwater.
The larger question Friday night is what Oregon does with the opportunity. Does the offensive line look more connected, and can the Ducks establish the run without telegraphing what is coming? Does the defense win first down, tackle cleanly and create negative plays? Can Oregon finally play a game without extending drives through penalties and missed assignments?
Those are the things worth putting on the War Room board this week because Portland State comes to Autzen at 7:30 Friday night, but the opponent Oregon is really trying to get right before USC may still be itself.