Portland St. gives coach Bruce Barnum 5-year deal

PORTLAND — Portland State’s Bruce Barnum, a first-time head coach whose Vikings opened the season with their first-ever victory over a Pac-12 team, has been given a five-year contract, the school announced Wednesday.
Barnum, a Clark County resident and Columbia River High School grad, had been the Vikings’ offensive coordinator but he was elevated last year when the Portland State dismissed Nigel Burton after five seasons. Barnum was given a one-year contract, largely seen as a try-out for the top job.
Portland State opened the season with a 24-17 upset of Washington State on Sept. 5, a first for the Vikings. Portland State has gone on to compile a 4-1 record.
Athletic director Mark Rountree said in announcing the contract that, “Coach Barnum has proven he can lead our team to compete at the highest levels.”
When the announcement was made to the team on Wednesday morning, players broke out in cheers and began chanting “Barney Ball.”
“We have a little pep in our step from knowing that we’ll be together for awhile, a long while,” Barnum told the players. “But we have a job to do this Saturday.”
Portland State plays Montana State at 12:30 p.m. Saturday at Providence Park. It’s the Vikings third Big Sky Conference game of the season, having split their first two.
The seeds of Barnum’s style were planted at one of his first coaching jobs. After graduating from Eastern Washington University in 1987, Barnum became an assistant coach at his alma mater Columbia River High School.
River’s coach at the time, Gordon Elliott, saw potential for Barnum to become a coach at the college level. Within two years, he had landed a job as Western Washington University’s offensive line coach.
What followed were stops Cornell, American International and the U.S. Coast Guard Academy. By 2001, Barnum had landed his first offensive coordinator job at Idaho State, where he stayed through 2006.
In 2007, Barnum went back to Cornell as offensive coordinator. In 2010, he became Portland State’s offensive coordinator and once again took up residence in Vancouver.
“At almost every stop, I was with a first-year head coach,” Barnum said. “That makes this perfect, because now I’m in that seat.”