Youngstown State University needs to work on their costume a bit for this weekend.  The Penguins will host the South Dakota State Jackrabbits on Halloween.  Coach Jon Heacock has unfairly taken alot of criticism for the costume not being at its full potential yet, but promises to work on making the proper alterations needed for Halloween success.

The Penguins (4-3, 2-2) are coming off of a 27-8 loss at Southern Illinois.  The South Dakota State game marks this years Homecoming and YSU Hall of Fame Induction.  The Jackrabbits are undefeated in conference play and stand at 6-1 overall.   

You probably read the first paragraph of this game preview and said,  What?  A writer defending Coach Heacock?  I am.  Let me tell you why.  The coach of a football team does not miss a tackle, he puts a player in position to make a tackle.  If the player misses the tackle it should not fall back on the coaches.  A coach does not snap on punts or field goals, he does not fumble, throw interceptions or miss blocks, players do.  All a coach can do is prepare a team for what they can expect to see by breaking down hours of film, installing a gameplan, and teaching that gameplan in a very short period of time.

Last week against Southern Illinois, I went to the weekly Monday press conference and listened to Heacock outline his plan to the media: 

•  Objective #1 was to stop All-American RB Deji Karim.  Check.  Karim had an average game by his standards and finished well below his season averages.
• Objective #2 was to pressure Saluki QB Chris Dieker.  Check.  Dieker leaves the game with a shoulder injury but felt pressure while he was in there.
• Objective #3 was to attack the defense, get after the linebackers (two of them were also All-Americans), and move the ball without turning it over.  Check.  YSU had success moving the ball and put themselves in a position to score more than once in a first half where they came away with zero points.

Ultimately, a standup coach takes the blame in a loss.  That same coach also deflects the praise back to the players in victory.  Heacock follows this trend, he is a standup guy.  At this weeks press conference, I mentioned that it seems this YSU team is snakebitten.  It is not an insult, just a feeling.  Bad luck is something you can’t coach against.  Two special teams plays cost the Penguins 10 total points.  Heacock remarked, “We practiced punt team more than anything else during the bye week.  Apparantly, we did not work on it enough.  You can’t have a punt blocked or a 2-yard pass go for 86 yards.  In three-and-a-half minutes we went from being in a dogfight to being down 14 points.”

Lay off of him already. 

Moving forward, things will not get any easier for YSU.  Another Top-10 ranked school is on the agenda for this week.  South Dakota State (6-1, 5-0) is ranked #9 and coming off of a huge road win last week at Northern Iowa.  The Jackrabbits are a very physical team.  They do not give up many points and Heacock called them the best defensive team in the conference.  Redshirt-Freshman Thomas O’Brien was 26-37 against Northern Iowa for 285 yards and a pair of TDs.  He was not sacked, a credit to the Jackrabbits O-Line.  Kyle Minett rushed for 105 yards and caught four passes for 39 more.  YSU will have to stuff the run and get pressure on O’Brien to be successful on defense this weekend.

Alignment has been an ongiong problem for the YSU defense.  When asked how the defense can still have alignment issues 7 weeks in, DL Mychal Savage (pictured) responded.  “They change the things that we see, so we have to change what we do.”  Makes sense to me.  The things a coach sees on film are not the guaranteed cliffnotes to a victory.  Teams DO change the things they do on both sides of the ball every week. 

Kickoff is set for 4:07 and the weather looks decent with mostly cloudy skies and 55 degrees.

Penguin Notes

• YSU is 4-4 all-time in Halloween games, 47-19-1 on Homecoming (19-8 at The Ice Castle), and 5-5 all-time against South Dakota State. 
• South Dakota State won last years meeting 40-7.
• Donald Jones 11 catches against Southern Illinois again tied a school record.  Jones tied the record earlier in the season.
• Senior Aaron Pitts had his best game ever against Southern Illinois with 102 yards on 7 receptions.
• Junior Na’eem Outler also had his career best effort with nine tackles against Southern Illinois.