Gig Harbor grad got his chance at Portland State. Now he wants to turn Vikings into winners
In his first college start at quarterback for Portland State, few would have blamed redshirt freshman Davis Alexander if he opted to play conservative until he got comfortable.
But that’s not Alexander’s style.
“I’ve always felt like I’ve had that gunslinger mentality,” Alexander said. “I’m one of the most competitive people that you’ll ever meet. When I get a chance, I’m going for it, 100 percent.”
He certainly went for it, completing 30 of 51 passes for 409 yards and a touchdown against Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. Including that game, Alexander played in five games, including the final three as the starter, for the Vikings in 2018.
Alexander, a 2016 graduate of Gig Harbor High School and The News Tribune’s 2015 All-Area player of the year, went 82-for-146 (56.2 percent) in those games, throwing for 1,165 yards (388 average), five touchdowns passing, two touchdowns rushing and two interceptions.
Earning the chance to prove himself was all Alexander wanted.
“It was a dream come true,” he said. “That was everything I’ve ever wanted, to be able to go out, play a highly competitive level, get a chance to prove myself.”
The next hurdle for Davis, who is the favorite to land the starting job this fall under coach Bruce Barnum, is a big one: Help turn the Vikings program around.
It’s tough to sugar coat Portland State’s 2017 season. The Vikings went 0-11. In Alexander’s three starts, PSU put up 78 points, but gave up 157 points.
The defense is largely out of Alexander’s control (although Portland State did hire a new defensive coordinator for 2018) but Alexander can help by putting plenty of points on the scoreboard.
“Especially playing well in those last three games, it gave me a ton of confidence,” Alexander said. “I’m pumped for that Nevada game (the Vikings’ season opener). I want to turn this program around and do something special with it.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">TOUCHDOWN! Welcome to the end zone, Davis Alexander! He has the Vikings back within 13 at 34-21 <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/GoViks?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#GoViks</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ProudViks?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#ProudViks</a> <a href="https://t.co/MQWwZmWLsp">pic.twitter.com/MQWwZmWLsp</a></p>— Portland State Football (@psuviksFB) <a href="https://twitter.com/psuviksFB/status/924449503649738752?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 29, 2017</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
There won’t be any kind of soft landing for Alexander — the Vikings open the season in Reno against Nevada on Aug. 31, before heading to Eugene to take on the Oregon Ducks in week two.
Alexander, the ultimate competitor, isn’t going for the “get out healthy” approach against Nevada and Oregon, who will be heavy favorites against the Vikings.
“We want to go out and win,” Alexander said. “It doesn’t matter who you play. Some of our closest games last year were against BYU and Oregon State. … We just have to go out and compete.”
One thing is certain: Alexander is tired of hearing about the winless season.
“It gets brought up a lot for motivation,” he said. “The attitude has completely changed with spring ball, summer workouts. Any time you don’t win a game, that’ll impact the program. It’s ‘No excuses, no complaining’ this year. Don’t be a cancer to the team. Put your head down and grind. The coaches will put us in the right position to win.”
Alexander has seen tremendous growth from the defense in the offseason.
“They outplayed (the offense) in the spring, honestly,” Alexander said. “We’ve got some studs on the secondary and on the defense. I’ll be the first to admit they outplayed us. Our head coach says it all the time — we want to defense to outplay for offense. That’s exciting for me. It gives the offense a great challenge.”
And hopefully for the Vikings, an improved defense will produce some more positive results this season. Alexander, who took Gig Harbor High School from a “good” team to one of the state’s elite during his senior season — in which he threw for 2,825 yards, 34 touchdowns and two interceptions, while rushing for 1,091 yards and 12 touchdowns — is ready to turn this Vikings program around.
“I’m just working on renewing confidence in all our guys,” Alexander said. “We saw that we could do some damage to the top tier teams. We were averaging over 500 yards of offense per game the last few games. I hate hearing ‘0-11.’ I wish people would stop talking about it. But they won’t until you prove them wrong.”
This story was originally published July 25, 2018 at 10:08 AM.