# List of Portland State Vikings head football coaches

The Portland State Vikings college football team represents Portland State University in the Big Sky Conference (Big Sky). The Vikings compete as part of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Football Championship (FCS). The program has had 13 head coaches since it began play during the 1947 season. Since December 2014, Bruce Barnum has served as the head coach at Portland State.
The team has played nearly 700 games over 65 seasons of Portland State football. In that time, two coaches have led the Vikings to postseason appearances: Pokey Allen and Tim Walsh. Three coaches also won conference championships: Jerry Lyons won two as a member of the Oregon Collegiate Conference; Don Read and Allen won a combined six as a member of the Western Football Conference. Walsh is the leader in seasons coached with fourteen years with the program. Walsh is also the leader in games won with 90 and Allen has the highest winning percentage of those who have coached more than one game, with .703. Ron Stratten and Jerry Glanville are tied with the lowest winning percentage of those who have coached more than one game, with .273.

## Key

Key to symbols in coaches list :
| General | General | Overall | Overall | Conference | Conference | Postseason | Postseason |
| No. | Order of coaches | GC | Games coached | CW | Conference wins | PW | Postseason wins |
| DC | Division championships | OW | Overall wins | CL | Conference losses | PL | Postseason losses |
| CC | Conference championships | OL | Overall losses | CT | Conference ties | PT | Postseason ties |
| NC | National championships | OT | Overall ties | C% | Conference winning percentage | | |
| † | Elected to the College Football Hall of Fame | O% | Overall winning percentage | | | | |

## Coaches

List of head football coaches showing season(s) coached, overall records, conference records, postseason records, championships and selected awards :
| No. | Name | Term | G | W | L | T | PCT | CW | CL | CT | PCT | PW | PL | PT | CCs | NCs | Awards |
| 1 | Joe Holland | 1947–1954 | 65 | 20 | 42 | 3 | 0.331 | 5 | 10 | 1 | 0.344 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — |
| 2 | Ralph Davis | 1955–1956 | 16 | 4 | 11 | 1 | 0.281 | 2 | 6 | 0 | 0.250 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — |
| 3 | Les Leggett | 1957–1958 | 17 | 6 | 11 | 0 | 0.353 | 3 | 5 | 0 | 0.375 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — |
| 4 | Hugh Smithwick | 1959–1961 | 25 | 6 | 17 | 2 | 0.280 | 4 | 7 | 1 | 0.375 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — |
| 5 | Tom DeSylvia | 1962 | 8 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0.500 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0.750 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — |
| 6 | Jerry Lyons | 1963–1967 | 46 | 21 | 24 | 1 | 0.467 | 7 | 0 | 1 | 0.938 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | — |
| 7 | Don Read | 1968–1971 1981–1985 | 92 | 39 | 52 | 1 | 0.429 | 6 | 8 | 1 | 0.433 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | — |
| 8 | Ron Stratten | 1972–1974 | 33 | 9 | 24 | 0 | 0.273 | — | — | — | — | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | — |
| 9 | Mouse Davis | 1975–1980 | 66 | 42 | 24 | 0 | 0.636 | — | — | — | — | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | — |
| 10 | Pokey Allen | 1986–1992 | 91 | 63 | 26 | 2 | 0.703 | 30 | 7 | 0 | 0.811 | 10 | 5 | 0 | 5 | 0 | — |
| 11 | Tim Walsh | 1993–2006 | 158 | 90 | 68 | 0 | 0.570 | 42 | 41 | 0 | 0.506 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — |
| 12 | Jerry Glanville | 2007–2009 | 33 | 9 | 24 | — | 0.273 | 7 | 17 | — | 0.292 | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | 0 | — |
| 13 | Nigel Burton | 2010–2014 | 57 | 21 | 36 | — | 0.368 | 12 | 27 | — | 0.308 | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | 0 | — |
| 14 | Bruce Barnum | 2015–present | 102 | 38 | 64 | — | 0.373 | 28 | 44 | — | 0.389 | 0 | 1 | — | 0 | 0 | — |