Youngstown State is dealing with plenty coming off of the 38-3 loss to Pitt last week.  The flu bug has spread pretty rapidly and Coach Heacock hopes a day off will help the ill heal up to prepare for the home opener against Austin Peay this week.  Austin Peay (1-0)  is coming off of a 33-24 victory over Newberry last week.  This will be Youngstown State’s 69th home opener with kickoff scheduled for 4 o’clock.

At the weekly press conference, Coach Heacock commented on the Penguins performance against Pitt.  “Our guys played pretty hard, I think we have a team of young people who want to do well.  They [Pitt] caught us a couple of times out of alignment.  We need to work on that this week and we’ll know right away whether we are improved as a team or not.  We had some guys that played pretty solid in that game.  Winning performances?  Probably not, but solid performances.  We prepared very hard for that game, I think everyone is a little bit salty.  Deep down, I think it [the loss] really bothers them.”

Heacock was impressed by what he saw of Austin Peay on film.  “They have 16 starters back, their tailback is outstanding.  [Terrence] Holt is a tremendous back.  He is about five foot eight and 160 pounds.  he is a hard guy to see, find, and tackle and is also a great return guy.  They are very methodical in what they do, they test you, and you have to be very fundamentally sound.  The more we have studied them this afternoon, the more impressive they have become.” 

Freshman Taylor Hill spoke about the defense and what to expect in the future.  “I think we have a real good defense despite the outcome.  I think our biggest problem was alignment.  We could have made plays if we were just aligned right.  The speed of the game is something we are not used to.  We have to better prepare for the speed of the game.  Everything is correctible.”

Austin Peay features a couple of real exciting running backs.  Ryan White had 23 carries for 218 yards for the Governors last weekend.  Terrence Holt also had 156 rushing yards on 15 carries and a pair of touchdowns.  Both backs averaged over 9 yards per carry and can pose problems for the Penguins.  The Governors disguise their plays and rely on misdirection to keep a defense honest.

Look for YSU QB Brandon Summers to have a good week.  Summers was constantly pressured against Pitt’s front seven and should get more time to make his reads and get good passes away.  Kevin Smith looked good against Pitt and earned every yard he gained.  He and Jabari Scott should both have better numbers this week.

Side Notes

• YSU is 44-22-2 all-time in home openers, 20-6-1 at Stambaugh Stadium.
• Since 1989, YSU is 17-1-1 in home openers and have won 13 straight.
• The last meeting between these two teams was on 10/10/87 with YSU prevailing 20-18.
• YSU kicker Stephen Blose had a 48-yard field goal against Pitt, longest at YSU since 2003.
• Crispin Fernandez ended up only playing about a dozen snaps against Pitt because he was feeling flu-like symptoms.