Last season, senior wide receiver Justin Monahan led the Vikings in every receiving category with 52 catches for 707 yards and six touchdowns.
         
He had 28 catches in the last four games, caught nine passes for 109 yards against TCU and made eight catches for 77 yards in the win at Eastern Washington. He earned honorable mention All-Big Sky Conference honors.

Last Saturday at North Dakota, Monahan had six receptions for 156 yards, two touchdowns, and totaled 226 all-purpose yards.
         
Not bad for a young man who wasn't heavily recruited out of high school (“I wasn't the fastest guy…”), receiving walk-on offers from PSU and Oregon. He did get a scholarship offer from Eastern Washington but there was a coaching change which put him off.
         
He had lots of advice. Take one of the walk-on offers, do this, do that. He got tired of the advice and decided to make his own decision. He'd join his older brother Matt playing baseball at Whitworth near Spokane. To heck with football!
         
It took being a spectator at two Whitworth games for him to realize the pull football still had for him so he joined the team there, but decided he wanted to play somewhere bigger.
         
“My high school coach and my dad both knew Mouse Davis (then offensive coordinator under head coach Jerry Glanville), so I came to Portland State.”  Monahan had to sit out a year per NCAA transfer rules, but “just practicing against the number one defense, I knew I was in a good spot.”
        
Then, there was a coaching change here that brought in Head Coach Nigel Burton and his run-oriented Pistol offense (“a bit of a bummer,” from a wide receiver's perspective). This time, though, he decided to stick it out.
           
And, everyone is glad he did.
           
But, years earlier, there was another decision he made, with the help of a guilt trip from his dad, which also might have sent him down a different path.
         
A soccer player until the fourth grade, Monahan got excited about football. His dad Joe, a former linebacker at the University of San Diego, agreed to coach the team.
         
“A week or two before I was to start, I had second thoughts. I felt uncomfortable with the idea.  My dad said…'well, I committed to be the coach and I'm going to fulfill that commitment.  You can make any decision you want, but I'm going to fulfill my commitment',” the former West Linn High standout recalled.
          
Looking back:  “It was the best choice I ever made”…both because he loved playing football and because it helped him bond with his dad, now a high school baseball coach.
         
“We had great conversations about football and about everything.  It was a bonding experience.  We talked about sports, but not just sports.  I learned a lot from my parents.  I like to think I'm a pretty good person and a lot of that is because of what they taught me,” he said.
          
Initially, Monahan was quarterback in an option offense (the offense his dad played at San Diego).
          
“I had a friend (Kyle Krauss, who played baseball at the University of Portland, currently a pitcher in the Boston Red Sox organization) who made me look good if I ever had to pass.  I'd just send him down the field and he'd get the ball,” said Monahan.
         A broken finger on his throwing hand as a high school freshman forced him to play wide receiver for two games at the end of the season. He loved it. Also, he thought he'd have more chance to play in college as a wide receiver.  
          
As a receiver “you have a chance to change the game (although 'as a quarterback you touch the ball every play and that's pretty cool').  You can be down a touchdown and with one big play you're right back in the game.  I'm one of those people who wants the ball all the time. That's just how I am.”
         
If things go according to plan, that's just what the PSU coaching staff has in mind for him this year…well maybe not ALL the time…but plenty of it.
        
“He had a great season last year and we're expecting great things from him this year... leadership, catching a ton of passes. He's smart and can make big plays when needed,” said wide receivers coach Steve Cooper, a former PSU wide receiver himself.
           
Monahan brings “leadership, experience and great hands.  He gets away without great speed because he gets off the ball quickly and runs hard.  Some guys are fast and don't run as hard,” said Cooper.
         
At 6'2, 200 pounds, Monahan has good size for a wide receiver and Cooper said that also helps him.
        
“His size helps a ton.  His body is always in the right position to receive the ball.  He can use his body to get open and shield off players.  Another thing that makes him a good football player is that he's a good blocker for the run,” Cooper said.
          
Monahan is a very team-oriented player, even though he likes having the ball.  He describes the highlight of playing football as a Viking as “getting to know a lot of different people.  A lot of great teammates.  I'm also enjoying the travel.”
           
How about a highlight on the field…”well, we went 2-9 my first couple of years and just turning it around…we were pleased to watch the program grow”…and trying one last time…”well, maybe last year's Eastern Washington game where I caught a couple of passes and helped us win.”
         
He has found competition in the Big Sky Conference all he could ask for.  In fact, he said the best backs he's played against (“and remember I've played against TCU, Oregon and Oregon State”) were Viking safety DeShawn Shead, now with the Seattle Seahawks; Montana cornerback Trumaine Johnson (St. Louis Rams); and Eastern Washington safety Matt Johnson (Dallas Cowboys).
         
A Business Management and Leadership major, he has six credits to finish for graduation, but hopes to play on the next level after college.  Eventually, he'd like a sales position of some sort.
         
Key to being a good receiver is “to know the plays.  You're doing to be disappointed if you don't.  If the quarterback doesn't know where you're going to be, you're not getting the ball.”
         
Monahan has high expectations going into the 2012 season with a strengthened and enlarged Big Sky Conference.
         
“We have a lot of good athletes.  We know we can go a long way in conference and in the playoffs.”
          
And, indeed, the team's progress charts to be filled in following each game go all the way to the national championship.