Is this thread still about the upcoming game against PSU

Less than 2 weeks away from the start of the season! Here's just some PSU stats at a glance.

PSU passing game

The Vikings last season averaged just over 200 passing yards per game and split time between 2 main QBs, both of whom are returning for their 2026 campaign. John-Keawe Sagapolutele was their main "passing" QB who completed 148 of 261 attempts (56.7%) for 1623 yards with 4 passing TDs and 16 interceptions (WOOF). Tyrese Smith complimented Sagapolutele as their "running" QB. While he did complete 40 of 69 passing attempts (58%) for 551 yards with 2 TDs and 4 interceptions, he was more impactful as the teams 2nd leading rusher where he ran for 475 yards on 98 attempts with 6 TDs.

The Vikings also have rostered QBs Gabe Downing, Jackson Presley, and Hunter Herrera. As far as I can tell a starting QB has not been named by Fisk.

PSU receivers

The Vikings return several of their main receivers from last season. While they did lose their statistical leader in receptions in Zachary Dodson-Greene, they return a larger percentage of their reception yards leaders. They return WR Terence Loville who had 517 yards on 33 receptions with 1 TD, WR Cru Newman who had 302 yards on 29 receptions, and WR Jaylen Lynch who had 250 yards on 20 receptions with 1 TD.

PSU run game

Outside of the aforementioned Tyrese Smith, the Vikings relied heavily on a singular RB, Delon Thompson, to carry their run game. Thompson returns for another season after a 2025 campaign where he rushed for 741 yards on 191 attempts with 7 TDs. Their 3rd leading rusher was actually previously mentioned WR Cru Newman who rushed for 72 yards.

PSU defense

The Vikings last season allowed 42.7 points and nearly 450 yards per game and will look to turn things around under Fisk. The Vikings lost their team leader in tackles DB in Isaiah Green, interception leader in DB Carsten Mamaril, sack leader DL Spencer Elliott, and 2nd leading tackler DB Pierce Walker. They do return LB Jaxton Helmstetler who had 2 sacks and 6.5 TFLs last season.

I'm not sure if it's a good thing or bad thing that they basically lost all of their statistical leaders from last season. On one hand, their defense was atrocious so maybe some new guys will do them some good. On the other hand, unless they start all new transfers and freshmen, the guys on the field would be guys who couldn't win the job last season on a absolutely horrendous defense.

Like I have noted previously, we can't take them lightly and seemingly have a good guy leading the program now, but the Aggies should clean up here as far as I'm concerned.

If I remember correctly, Plough stated the main reason this happened was that PSU completely redid their defensive gameplan from scratch leading up to our game and that caught us pretty off guard in what we had prepared offensively. They had gotten walloped 4 games in a row leading up to that point in the season. I don't think Plough will go into this game expecting anything in particular. Prepare for anything and everything.

PSU was really REALLY bad last season and Fisk has a lot of work to turn things around there. He's a good coach so I don't expect them to be pushovers, but Davis has the talent to put a beat down on them if we play up to our potential.

Most recent scrimmage report from PSU

https://goviks.com/news/2026/8/15/FB_20260815.aspx

Also looks like the Viks are stepping up their uniform game... however their video has so many jump cuts it's hard to actually see what they look like.

I didn't make it out there, bit of a trip from Maryland for a Friday scrimmage. No articles on the athletics website or in the Enterprise yet about it and no video updates on the athletics youtube since the first day of practice.

Scrimmage #2 is this morning 9-11. Hopefully folks can get out there (on a week day) and give us their thoughts.

they can come up with every excuse they want, but THEY are the ones who changed the circumstances of us not playing... not us. It's not our athletics department duty to cater to them.

I think Poly and Idaho are a wash for me right now. Poly has the unknown factor with the new staff and numerous transfers coming into the program and I'm just not a believer in Idaho's new staff. I know they lost a lot of players with Eck's departure, but the drop off was evident. We'll see how they do with another season of prep under their belts

I think PSU will be improved with Fisk, but a new coaching staff only goes so far without the resources to back the program and PSU has shown at an organizational level that they don't really care and that puts a cap on what success they may have. Aggies still win by a healthy margin.

EWU and NAU should be close, but giving it to the Jacks on home field advantage.

Idaho State, Montana, and Montana State should all win big

Weber wins over Northern Colorado

that's a tough loss if he isn't playing. He was really coming into his own last year.

I am glad that the staff and team were able to settle to QB battle this early though. Get Cleeland as many reps with the 1s as possible now. Build that chemistry so we hit the ground running against PSU.

yeah, Pinnick gave us a lot of exciting plays when he chose to run the ball, but there were too many times that held onto the ball waaay too long resulting in big losses. He was a freshman so some poor decision were to be expected, but that is something that I hope is cleaned up this year with Cleeland under center.

from what I remember of his recruiting tape is that he's definitely mobile for his size and he has a cannon for an arm. I would expect more deep shots this season compared to Pinnick.

If Plough and the team are backing him then I'm sure the correct guy was chosen. Looking forward to seeing him play live.

Thanks for the update/insight.

I know others have mentioned that Ceeland looked like he had a leg up on the others at previous practices and the team's Instagram page featured him heavily over the other QBs in a recent post (though I don't necessarily think that is a serious indication of who will be starting).

Hopefully the special teams strategy is looking different from last season now that we have a dedicated guy to lead that group. Woefully bad last year.

I noticed that too. Those were the only 2 missing from what I could tell, but strange that it was both Idaho recruits.

the only info I had was the practice schedule... So somewhere between 9 and 11

Also it looks like they are actively working on updating the roster now. It's not complete yet, but it is updating.

Anyone planning on going to the scrimmage tomorrow?

I'm not going to say it's the biggest issue or anything, but we shouldn't be the lone Big Sky team not able to get a simple task like this done on time for fall camp.

I don't know man. I looked through all of the Big Sky rosters and we are quite literally the only program to not have our roster updated to include the freshmen yet. Some of the other teams don't have roster pictures up yet, but the talk of some folks thinking we can go FBS sounds cheap when we can't even update our rosters online in a timely fashion.