Archive for the ‘YSU Football’ Category

With the Red-White game just a week away, the Youngstown State Penguins hit the field for their last controlled scrimmage heading into the final week of April practices.  Coach Eric Wolford knows that there is plenty to be done, but was ultimately satisfied with the effort put forth by the team on Saturday.

“I was encouraged by the defense when we were doing third down situations the first time up”, said Wolford.  “At the end of the scrimmage, we created the Western Illinois game again.  There are four minutes left on the clock, and the offense tries to eat up the time on the clock by staying in bounds and taking care of the football.  We ended up popping a big run that put us up by ten points there.  Those are the two things that stick out as positives right now.”

From a statistical standpoint, Pat White (above) had the big day catching 10 passes for 206 yards and five touchdowns.  White hauled in a 70-yarder from Marc Kanetsky. White would also hook up with Kanetsky for touchdowns of 20 and 8 yards.  Najee Tyler found White for a 49-yard score, and Patrick Angle would also find White in the end zone from 21 yards out for six.

White commented on his big day.  “We are going to keep trying to get better every day.  I just made plays I am expected to make and didn’t know I had that many yards.  I’m gonna try to do my thing no matter who is front of me.  Coach commented that we took a step forward today, and that felt good.  We only had five receivers out there.”

Unfortunately, there were still plenty of dropped balls to force receivers coach, Andre Coleman (above) to rub his head a few times.

Wolford commented that the drops are still there and they need to stop.  “Pat White made some nice plays today, but we need to find some consistency with him.  We know we have a pretty good running game.  At receiver, we saw some positive things today, but we need to become more consistent.”

Kanetsky led the quarterbacks on the stats sheets.  The Hubbard, Ohio grad completed 15-17 passes for 241 yards and four touchdowns.  Starter Kurt Hess was 13-26 for 164 yards and one touchdown.

Jamaine Cook also had a pretty big day getting 17 touches for 170 yards and four touchdowns on the ground.

With just a week of Spring practice left, the Penguins are focusing on consistency and situations that they got beat in last season.  The Spring game will start at noon on Saturday.  Kelly Pavlik, Tim Ryan, and Jay Williams have already been confirmed as honorary coaches for the event.

To caption the picture at the risk of sounding quirky, action kicked off for the Youngstown State University football team Saturday afternoon at Stambaugh Stadium. These scrimmages are hard to gauge where a team truly is.  If the offense scores a ton of points, the defense looks really bad.  If the offense struggles, then it was a great defensive performance, but a lousy job on offense.

The Penguins had some series with the first team units facing off, or as Coach Eric Wolford would say,  the ones against the ones.  The worry coming into scrimmage play was the wide receiver position where drops have been a problem since Spring ball started.

“We need someone to step up as we continue dropping the ball.  The receivers will have to catch 20 balls for every one they drop to get used to a ball thrown harder than what they were used to in high school”, vowed Wolford.  “David Rogers, however, is having a great camp.  He has really stepped it up and looked good so far at tight end.”

The other problem that the Penguins are facing is depth.  There were a good chunk of players not suited up due to injuries.  Many are starters, mostly on defense.

“Hopefully Monday, we are going to get some guys back.  Will [Shaw] and Deonta [Tate] should be ready to go.  John Sasson should be ok, I think he tweaked his hamstring out there in the middle of the scrimmage today.  We will also get Deionte Williams and Donald D’Alesio back in to get some repetitions at practice”, remarked Wolford.

Allen Jones had a couple of nice runs for the offense including a big 65-yard jaunt.  Kurt Hess hooked up with Juilian Harrell for a couple of scores and Hess even showed his mobility on a 20-yard run for another score.  Najee Tyler connected with Pat White for a 20-yard score (above).  Tyler was picked off  in the scrimmage by free safety Justin Austin.  Adaris Bellamy scored a two-yard touchdown to round out the offensive production.

Defensively, it was nice to see Taylor Hill back on the field making plays for the defense.  Hill stuffed Torrian Pace on a third-and-one play forcing a field goal from David Brown. Brown missed a field goal earlier in the scrimmage to which Wolford stated, “He has never kicked on a field with a crown, he needs to get used to not kicking on a flat field.”

Spring practice resumed Monday and a second scrimmage will take place this coming Saturday leading up to the Red-White Game on Saturday, April 16.  Tickets and tailgate passes are on sale for the big Spring game.  Tailgate passes are available on a presale basis only and can be purchased by calling the YSU Ticket Office at (330) 941-1978.  Only 200 passes are being sold and over 100 are gone, so act quickly to tailgate from 8 a.m. to noon.  The game starts at 12:05 and game tickets can be purchased for $5 apiece.  All tickets are general admission on the home side of the Ice Castle.

A little bit more than a year ago, Ron Strollo made a great decision.  That decision’s name was Eric Wolford. In a football hungry town, someone with more passion for the game of football, his players, his family, and anyone he meets was brought in to be the savior. At first, it was hard to tell if someone could be so passionate about so many different things.  Time is usually the best test and after his first full season, the passion is genuinely obvious.  Granted, a 3-8 season will not win many coach of the year awards, but a long-term plan is in place, a huge recruiting class of highly touted prospects has been added to the mix, and winning feels like it is only a moment away.  I got to sit down with Coach Wolford and review 2010, preview 2011, and just talk about football and life in general.

Paneech: Props on the recruiting class, very defense-heavy.  Did you feel like you filled some holes?

Wolford: No question.  We signed 24 players on defense.  I don’t worry as much about our offense because we are headed in the right direction and do the things we need to do.  Now we have the ability to rotate some guys in on defense and finish games.  That was our emphasis and you can see it when you look at the recruiting class.  Our staff did a great job, and we feel it is a very good class.

Paneech: How do you feel about the Youngstown media coverage you had in the last year?

Wolford: I have had a good relationship with the Youngstown media.  If something negative gets written or announced, I feel that they are entitled to their opinion and that is what sells papers and gets ratings.  Do I always agree with what gets said?  No, but I also understand that there are media versions of stories too.  Sometimes I give you guys the media version.

Paneech: A couple of weeks ago, there was a tragedy near campus where a young man and YSU student lost his life.  If people Google Youngstown State and that incident pops up , could it deter from your recruiting?

Wolford: There are multiple shootings happening on campuses across the country, unfortunately.  There was a football player at Arizona State who was recently shot.  In our society today, it has become a little commonplace because young people don’t know how to handle their emotions.  We all get caught up in it, but I do know that we have the third safest campus in the State of Ohio. I’ll continue to dwell on the positive.

Paneech: Last year at this time, you were more worried about acclamation of getting to know the players, it seemed to be a huge focal point going into Spring ball.  With that not so much of a hurdle this season, where is the concentration centered to?

Wolford: Last year there was an acclamation period for both players and coaches.  Now, it is completely different, we are 360 degrees from where we were last year at this time.  We don’t have problems with anyone talking back or guys being on time.  They understand work ethic and doing things right.  They understand that if you are running a drill and you have to touch that line, that line, and this line at full speed and they don’t go full speed or miss a line, that they are going to go again.  We are now at the next step and we are working on finishing, learning to finish better.  All of the character issues that surfaced in the past have been taken care of.  Are we all angels?  By no means.  You will really like this football team. They are good kids and very enjoyable to be around.  The chemistry is unbelievable. We know that we have a chance to be a good football team and we are close.

Paneech: How many steps are there to get where you want?

Wolford: I don’t feel there is a set number of steps.  It is a process that you have to patiently go through.  Any football program that has had sustained success has always had a good foundation.  This group that is here right now is the foundation and I feel good about building on it.  These kids push each other and hold one another accountable, they also take care of one another.  We put in a 2 a.m. curfew because nothing good happens after two in the morning, it was done for their protection.  Not one guy complained.  I am not out there checking, but if anyone gets in trouble after two, they are going to be in serious trouble.

Paneech: You did recruit a few wide receivers among your defensive slew.  Unfortunately, gone is Dominique Barnes.  Is that position a concern?

Wolford: At receiver, we lost Jelani Berassa, which was a bigger loss than anyone could have anticipated.  He is a tremendously talented young man who is maturing.  He is one of those guys that it is a pleasure to be around and he has got a bright future if he continues to work hard and do things right.  I think we are untapped at receiver and that we underachieved.  [Kevin] Watts came in here and did some good things as a freshman, but other than that, I think we underachieved, and that is not acceptable.  I have addressed that with my coaching staff and we are going to become overachievers at that position in the immediate future.  We signed three kids from South Carolina and one from Cleveland that are very talented.  They are going to be raw and are not a quick-fix solution, but we are not looking for a quick-fix, but rather a foundation.  I didn’t want to play a lot of freshmen last season, it just happened.  The best players are going to play.

Paneech: What about other positions like defensive backs and a new kicker?

Wolford: We have got two junior college safeties coming in here that can flat out play and they could have went a lot of other places, so we have competition now.  Donald [D’Alesio] is going back to corner a year older now.  Randy Louis is a guy who exceeded our expectations last season.  He is working hard and is up to 184 pounds now, he is all-in.  Obviously, we lost a great kicker, but we feel pretty good about [David] Brown. He is a highly-rated kicker whose film speaks for itself.  He has got a little bit of swagger but he knows what the expectations are.  Jake Smith decided to transfer and he isn’t even playing football anymore.  Football is not for everybody.  It takes work, it’s hard, and it’s tough and some guys can’t take it. We have raised our levels of expectation around here with stronger work ethic and more commitment.  Some guys can’t keep up, so they have to find something else to do. It doesn’t make them a bad person, I just say ‘I wish you well’, and let them know if there is anything I can do to help them out, that I would.

Paneech: Discuss the charity you are involved with and what sort of things you and your wife do to keep it active.

Wolford: We started a foundation because my wife and I have a son who basically has a disability.  We realized that there are a lot of costs that come with having a child with a disability that medical insurance companies don’t cover.  We said we wanted to start giving money to kids with disabilities to help them do various things.  This past year we gave 100 turkeys away at Thanksgiving.  We want to put something else together for Easter, we sponsor people for Christmas, I have paid people’s rent, I have given computers to families so that they can get their business back to a level where it needs to be to financially support their family, whatever the case may be.  It’s a very open-ended foundation with the key component being to help families or kids dealing with disabilities that don’t have the financial ability to make ends meet.

Paneech: The foundation is called No Stone Unturned, named after your son Stone.  Is it growing?

Wolford: It’s getting bigger and our goal was never anything other than helping people.  We give all of the money away.  I give away more money than I have.  It’s something I believe in and I call it “paying forward”.  I have been very fortunate to never have been hurting for anything, but I also believe part of that is from being generous.  I am a paying forward kind of guy.  My wife is the foundation.  We are having a Pancake Breakfast April 17th, the day after the Spring Game at Mt. Carmel in Youngstown.

Paneech: What were the highs and lows from last year?

Wolford: I think that there isn’t a day that  goes by where I don’t feel honored to be the coach here.  This is a very special place with tremendous tradition.  I know there is a lot of pressure and the average person cannot handle it.  I think there are so many speaking engagements where I see the community and people that support this program.  I embrace the expectations.  Last year is gone, and that was part of the process.  Would we have a solid foundation today if we won five games last year?  You learn more from losing than you do from winning.  When you win games, you just push forward and never address your weaknesses.  So what happens is, over time, your weaknesses become bigger cracks.  There are a lot of coaches who have never lost, they have never had to pick themselves up off of the floor.  Some people joke that God wanted to see if I was going to pull a Woody Hayes last year and just go crazy. Through my family and support, I enjoyed things.  It was a lesson learned.  Sometimes I feel if we would have won a bunch of  those games and would have came back with a false sense of security.  As much as I hate to admit it, we are not the most talented football team out there. We are gonna be someday, but we are not right now.  The guys that come in need to be developed.  There needs to be accountability.  We shouldn’t be the inferior team on the field, it’s unacceptable.  We’re Youngstown State, we are Youngstown State.

Anyone who drives on Route 422 to get to or from Youngstown State University will notice a huge structure being erected.  That structure will be called the WATTS, as many of the local readers already know.  Tim Stuart (above) will be in charge of many of the scheduling and personnel decisions as well as the day-to-day operations of the center.  I recently got a chance to interview Stuart about the facility and learned many interesting points that I did not know.

Paneech: I called the new facility the WATTS Center when I first learned about the plans to build it, and Matt Morrone nearly took my head off correcting me.  Why is it wrong to call this place the WATTS Center?

Stuart: WATTS stands for Watson and Tressel Training Site.  So if you called it the WATTS Center, you would be calling it a training site center.  It would get a little redundant, so we just call it the WATTS.

Paneech: How long before it opens and what will it be used for?

Stuart: We anticipate the facility not being used until May.  With some of the inclement weather we have had this past Fall and so far, this Winter, things have gotten backed up a little bit.  Once it opens, it will be used for all of our sports and we anticipate it being used 365 days a year.  It will be used by recreation and intramural sports.  There will be a 300 meter track, a 7500 square foot mezzanine on top of our offices that we will be utilizing for batting cages and stuff like that.

Paneech: Was the concept developed as a way to keep up with the Joneses or was it designed out of necessity?

Stuart: A little bit of both actually.  It will most definitely be used as a recruiting tool against the Kents and Akrons.  It is a great tool for us.  Regardless of weather, it allows all of our athletes to train in a climate-controlled environment.  If we get a week of rain in April, our baseball and softball teams can be in there practicing.

Paneech: The average distance of a centerfield fence is about 400, is there space for all that, or will it just be fungo and cages?

Stuart: There is netting that will be draped.  The netting is so tight that you will not be able to hit a golf ball through it.  It contains a full-length football field, or 120 yards from the back of one end zone to the back of the other end zone.  Obviously, they will not be able to play a baseball game because it isn’t a full field, but many simulations can be accommodated by the great amount of space between the walls.  Hitting, pitching, and fielding practice will be just like practicing outside.

Paneech: So how long before Hively Construction throws you guys the keys and says you can start moving in?

Stuart: We are still, a few months away.  The in-ground heating is in. (*Note – The heat will be on the ground and move upward toward the ceiling not to lose much for optimum temperature control. )  We are almost done with the windows and once everything gets enclosed we will be able to really get rolling.

Paneech: Tell me what your role is.

Stuart: I have been appointed to be the manager of the facility.  I will be overseeing the scheduling as well as coordinating what will simultaneously take place in Beeghly and Stambaugh.  Whether that is scheduling practices, basketball events at Beeghly, football events at Stambaugh, or whatever is coming must be coordinated by us.  With the renovation of Kilcawley Center, all three of these facilities are going to be used more than ever.  We will be in charge of scheduling camps for our programs as well.  In the past, camps have always been restricted to the two facilities and trying to coordinate intramural activities and regular practices was becoming more and more of a challenge.  The WATTS will eliminate many of these overcrowding problems and time conflicts.

Paneech: Because it generates the most money traditionally, will football be the top priority or is there more of an even-split attitude about who gets first use of the facility?

Stuart: It is an all-sports facility.  Obviously when football is in-season, it will take precedence over other sports, but it is so big that as long as there is coordination between the coaches, there will be enough room for multiple sports at any time.  Football can be on the field having practice and baseball pitchers and hitters can be throwing and hitting on the mezzanine at the same time.  We now can stretch things out a little with the extra facility so everyone will have a place for adequate practice times and conditions.

Tom Morella, the Assistant Athletic Director, spoke about the WATTS opening soon as well.  “I really can’t wait for the day we can get in there.  It will make everything in the two existing buildings smoother as far as time commitments.  It is a nightmare in Stambaugh and Beeghly Center some days because there just isn’t enough space for everything.  This facility is a tremendous asset to not only the sports programs, but also for the students.

Zach Humphries thinks that this is a great time to be in school.  He claims the the job market is soft and that if he opts to pursue an MB Degree that he will be better suited for the real world when that time comes.  I first met Humphries at a YSU home football game in the 2009 season.  He was a polite and quiet kid who would deliver stat sheets to the assorted media personnel covering the games.  Not ever knowing what his title or role was, I talked with him to find out what kind of program the college has created to utilize the talents of people like Zach.

Rewind to 1985, I was a freshman enrolled at Youngstown State pursuing a Telecommunications degree.  There were some of the same extras that there are today like intramural sports, fraternities, and too many others to mention.  However, I admit, I am jealous of the opportunities given to Zach as a Sports Information intern.  I would have loved to work for people like Trevor Parks, Jamie Hall, and John Vogel for a grade.  I would have enjoyed calling a YSU game for the HLN or Sirius Satellite Radio.  I would have loved working with a professional the likes of a Robb Schmidt or a Rick Love.

The reality was, back then, there was nothing.  No link at all between the communications department and anyone.  You went to Bliss Hall, learned to cue up a record and follow an on-air log, and not much else.  We were pacified with a hard-wired radio station called WUGS which was only heard in three locations of campus, one being Arby’s in Kilcawley Center.  They left the volume on three and no one heard anything that we did, ever.  Humphries knows that he is pioneering new opportunities for the next wave when he is gone, and I respect that. Having studied journalism, Humphries is a multi-functional type who has great upside when his time comes.  I’m a fan.

I recently got to sit with Humphries and talk with him about these opportunities, where they may take him, and what his plan of attack is for the future.

Paneech: What has happened in the past year that takes you from passing out copies at sporting events to doing the play-by-play a year later?

Humphries: I have learned a lot from Trevor [Parks], Jamie [Hall], and John [Vogel], as well as Todd Mounce when he was here.  All of those people have seen what I am capable of and created more opportunities for me.  As a result, I am getting on the air and calling some games.  All of the little things we are starting, like The Penguin Rundown, we are passing on to the younger students so that they can carry on into the future and even expand.  You can only learn so much in the classroom in this field and you have to get out there and do some hands-on things before you can think about getting a job.

Paneech: Tell me about some of the programs that exist.

Humphries: The Horizon League Network (HLN) is great because it focuses on some of the smaller varsity sports.  Everyone hears about the football and the basketball, but the HLN will do a lot with the soccer, tennis, and volleyball that do not get much attention from the larger media outlets.  We have the access to jump right in and get interviews for the website.  Speaking of, the new website is phenomenal and features a lot of technological progressive features.

Paneech: Do you see, or have you had, problems with coaches.  I’ll give you an example of what I mean.  The unwritten rule is that when the Men’s Basketball Team plays poorly, leave Coach Slocum alone. Rank your favorites for me from one to five with Slocum, Boldon, Wolford, Pasquale, and Burrows.

Humphries: I think it just comes down to being a good communicator.  There are certain people who will come right up to you and start talking and there are others that you just have to know how to approach.  I feel I am a good communicator and that helps me gather interviews from the shy as well as the outgoing.  Pasquale is definitely the easiest. I would probably put Wolford next, then Boldon.  I really haven’t had a chance to talk with Coach Burrows as much as the first three.  Slocum is definitely the hardest.  He wins games, look at his record, he one of the winningest coaches in Division-I Basketball.  I just feel he is harder to approach and uses a different set of people skills than most others.  Boldon, who is fairly new, complimented me a couple of times already and Wolford always acknowledges that he sees the Penguin Review and says nice things.  They are all different, but all very good people.

Humphries (left), pictured with Roy Jones Jr. (center), and Todd Mounce (right), is the kind of guy who likes the new challenge, likes to make the inroads, and is closer to being the finished product than the work in progress.  Robb Schmidt, a veteran media mogul, recently called a game with Humphries and commented on Zach’s performance.  “Zach is one of the kids that has taken this opportunity to heart and really made the most of it.  He is a youngster who is really more mature than a college student doing games while still cutting his teeth.  It is obvious that he cares, but the most important thing is that he prepares. Broadcasting is a hands-on thing and you can only read so much about it.   Zach has had the opportunity to experience some of those things on the internet and radio where he can see what he has done and learn from those mistakes.  John Ridell, Zach, and these other students are really setting up something special for incoming students to have at Youngstown State.”

Zach Humphries is a name you will hear more of if you follow sports.  Check out the Penguin Review on the YSUSports.com website and enjoy the hard work that is being put in.

Saturday was the end for some young men and women.  It was the last football game that the seniors would participate in.  It was the last football game to cheer, twirl, march, or dance for.  This was a good group of seniors that played football.  A 3-8 record is not something to pattern a life after, but as Coach Wolford said, “It will be the way that these young men handle real life situations in the face of adversity that will define the people that they have become.”  On that note, this group was undefeated.  Here are a few pictures from that last day to remember what a life-changing event the last game is.

  

 

Congratulations on all of your achievements as athletes, cheerleaders, musicians, and scholars.  Best wishes on a productive and healthy future, and keep Tweeting!

Youngstown State University and Indiana State University entered Saturday’s game with no shot at a playoff berth or a conference championship.  This game was simply a way to play out the string and look to next year, a test of pride.  For the Senior Class, this was it, the last game and last chance to shine as a Penguin.  The young Penguins proved truth to the old adage that you cannot play to the level of your competition for 59 minutes every week.  In a game that YSU should have won on paper, playing to the level of their competition again hurt the home team, as the Penguins fell, 30-24.

The Penguins jumped out to the early 7-0 lead two-and-a-half minutes into the contest.  Adaris Bellamy capped off a six-play drive with a one-yard scamper.  The lead was short-lived as Indiana State responded.  Ronnie Fouch found Alex Jones for a 68-yard score, and just like that (two plays), the Sycamores had a chance to tie the game.  The Penguins were whistled for a penalty on the extra point enticing ISU to go for a two-point try.  The attempt was successful as Darrius Gates converted on the run to give the Sycamores an 8-7 lead.

Indiana State would extend their lead to 15-7 with 6:45 to go in the opening period as Fouch kept the hot hand and found Bryant Kent for a 50-yard hookup.  The Sycamore drive covered 66 yards in 3:25.  The Penguins would respond when Jamaine Cook found the end zone on a 5-yard rush.  The Stephen Blose extra point was good and the Penguins only trailed by one.

With 7:27 left in the half, YSU claimed the lead when Stephen Blose nailed a 19-yard field goal to cap off a 10 play 46 yard drive . Fouch and Bryant again connected, this time on a scoring strike covering 11 yards.  Indiana State showed some poise controlling the ball for 5:34 on a drive that took 11 plays and covered 67 yards.

Youngstown State got the ball back with a 1:45 left in the first half.  Kurt Hess tried hard to maneuver the Penguins into at least field goal range but was picked off by C.J. Cook (below).  The Penguins were able to keep the Sycamores off of the scoreboard and the half came to a close with the Sycamores ahead of the Penguins, 23-17.  Fouch had a great first half for Indiana State completing 11-15 passes for 199 yards and three touchdowns.

On their first possession of the second half, the Sycamores pushed their lead to 30-17.  Jones was the recipient of an 8-yard pass from Fouch capping off a 4 four play, 52 yard drive.

The Penguins showed some resolve as they marched 81 yards in 13 plays to cut the lead to 30-24.  Bellamy jaunted in for his second 1-yard touchdown run of the day and Dominique Barnes had a few touches within the drive to keep things rolling.  Brandian Ross came up big with an interception to give YSU the ball back on their own 47-yard line.  The Penguins would not convert the turnover into any points.

The Penguins defense held tough and the offense got the ball back on their own 12 with 8:56 left in the game.  On the drive, Dominique Barnes threw a pass on a reverse finding Ely Ducatel for a sizable gain.  The Paneech.com player of the year was doing a little bit of everything in this one.  On a fourth-and-four, YSU went for it, but came up empty giving the Sycamores the ball back with 5:20 to go in the game.

YSU would get one last crack gaining possession at their own 21-yard line with 2:19 left in the game and no timeouts left.  Hess and Barnes hooked up for a couple of key completions covering about thirty yards.  From the Indiana State 31, and facing a fourth down and 14 to go, Hess scrambled for a first down.   With nine seconds left in the game, YSU had the ball down to the Indiana State 11-yard line. On the first shot, Hess looked for Barnes, but it was broken up in the end zone.  On the final play of the game, Hess, threw to the middle again, but overshot Barnes and Indiana State held on for a 30-24 win.

For YSU, Hess finished the game 12-27 for 191 yards and was picked off four times.  Dominique Barnes had 10 catches for 132 yards and one pass for 50 yards.  Bellamy and Cook combined for 39 carries for 155 yards.  For Indiana State, Fouch was 16-23 for 290 yards and four touchdowns.  Gates had 16 carries for 75 yards and a pair of scores for the Sycamores.

After the game, a dejected Eric Wolford addressed the media.  “As bad as we played we had an opportunity, that part is exciting.  We have to find a way to make a play when your number is called.  Give respect to Indiana State, they have developed their players and a pretty good quarterback.  Those kids (seniors) are heartbroken.  They will be successful and able to handle adversity, I can guarantee you they learned those lessons this year.  We are in it together.  We have some work to do.  We just don’t match up well and have to get caught up with the rest of the league.”

Dominique Barnes talked about the end of his career.  “I think the future is bright.  Youngstown will make noise next year in the conference.  I take my hat off to Wolford and his staff, they have things headed in the right direction.  I cannot be happy about the result of this game or this season, there is a lot of emotion going through me right now.”  Barnes and the other seniors deserve praise for smoothly escorting in the Wolford era and having to undergo so many changes.

The Penguins finish the year at 3-8, and 1-7 in the Missouri Valley Football Conference.

Favorite Penguin. Not an easy choice with Ross, Blose, Elliott, and Rodemoyer in the category.  This was a great bunch of seniors, but one is a future YSU Hall of Famer, one has his name etched in the record books, one scored a touchdown against a 1-A opponent on a bubble screen.  Perhaps the biggest reason why Dominique Barnes is the Paneech.com Player of The  Year is because he would trade those last three achievements in for a shot at the playoffs and a better ending for his team.  Barnes is humble, still somewhat shy, and is a huge-hearted person.  Youngstown State will lose a great wide receiver, but more importantly, a great leader, the kind who led by example both on and off of the field.

Paneech: What is it going to feel like when this all ends?

Barnes: It still hasn’t hit me.  I have played in every game here since I got here in 2007.  It’s probably going to hit me after the game Saturday, it’s going to be emotional.  I just hope we can go out with a win.  When I got here as a freshman, I was immature and young, not really sure what I was doing.

Paneech: Who was influential to you here and helped you?

Barnes: The old coaching staff taught me how to grow up, how to mature.  Playing with Donald Jones for two years taught me a lot, and I still talk to him.

Paneech: What’s next?  What will you do after football?  You have looked forward to next year since fourth grade knowing for sure there would be a next year, so where can you go from here?

Barnes: Who knows.  Hopefully I can get a shot at the next level.  I’m here and my mom wants me to graduate, and I really want to graduate from here.  I only have a few classes left, not too much longer.  I’m pretty sure that me, Brandian [Ross], Andre Elliott, Ely [Ducatel], Deonte Snow, a lot of us came in together and formed solid friendships.  It’s going to be tough not playing with those guys anymore.  I’m sure we are going to keep in contact in the future.  I’m still gonna come and see games, I still have friends who will be back next season.  I think next year, we are going to be really good, I’ll be excited.

Paneech: This team was upset about being picked seventh in the preseason polls.  The record does not indicate what kind of year YSU had and it has to leave a sour taste to come so close so many times.

Barnes: It hurts, any loss leaves a sour taste in your mouth.  Our record could be very different based on four or five plays.  We could be 8-2 and getting ready for a playoff game.  It really hurts with all of the time that the seniors put in here and this being the end.  We came into the season with a new coaching staff and it is what it is, but it will always hurt.

Paneech: What was it like adjusting to a new coach and new staff?

Barnes: I won’t lie, it was hard.  They came here in the Spring and we had our differences with the coaching staff.  I was so used to Coach Heacock and his staff because that is who brought me here and that is who I grew up with.  I think I adjusted well and had a pretty good year.

Paneech: What is your proudest achievement here?

Barnes: Well, Youngstown State is a known school across the country.  The fact that I played in every game and when I leave here, people will remember my name, they will remember who Dominique Barnes was.  I was fortunate to break a consecutive games reception record and my name is in the top five on a few other lists too.  Don’t get me wrong, all of the records and history-making stuff is good, but I would trade it all for winning.

Paneech: This is an active group on Twitter.  Are you going to keep Tweeting?

Barnes: When you are winning and everybody loves you, it’s easy to tweet, tweet, tweet.  I’ll make sure I go on Twitter when this story goes up so I can re-tweet it to my followers.

Paneech: I thought Coach Wolford showed a lot of class when he said he would make sure that this graduating class would get a ring when the Penguins win a championship.

Barnes: It’s a great honor.  I wish we could have earned it ourselves.  Once you play at Youngstown State, you are always a Penguin, and thats a great honor.  We are all going to thank him for that and I think within a few years that it is going to happen.

Paneech: Reflect on scoring a touchdown against Penn State, what was going through your mind as you were running down the sideline?

Barnes:  Don’t get caught, don’t get caught! I seen Coach Wolford on my left as I ran by and I kept thinking about not getting caught.  I looked back a few times and thought that if I did get caught how everyone back home would harass me about it, but I made it.

Yes, you did make it. Congratulations on a great career and best wishes for a productive and healthy future Dominique!

One Word Answers

Favorite Cartoon Character: Superman.

Favorite Meal: McChicken, Fries, and a Sweet Tea at McDonald’s.

Worst Class You Took: Accounting.

Best Class You Took: Public Relations, taking it now.

Favorite Halloween Costume As A Kid: Football Player.

Favorite NFL Player of All-Time: Donald Jones.

Other Colleges You Watch: Michigan and Michigan State.

A Coach You Would Love To Play For: (laughs) Whoever is throwing the ball 45 times a game, like Boise State.

Cell Phone Choice: iphone and A T & T.

Favorite ESPN Anchor: Chris Berman.

• The 2010 YSU Football season closes out this Saturday with a home game against Indiana State.  The game will honor seniors who played football, marched in the band, or cheered this season.
• South Dakota has accepted an invitation to join the Missouri Valley Football Conference beginning with the 2012-13 academic year.  USD received a formal invitation from Conference Commissioner Patty Viverito last Wednesday and accepted on Thursday.
• Youngstown State junior Kelsey Kempton was named First-Team ESPN the Magazine/CoSIDA Academic All-District IV, announced by the Academic All-America® Committee.  Kempton, who carries a 4.0 grade-point average with a major in exercise science, is the first Youngstown State women’s ssoccer player to be named to the first-team and just the second player in history to earn academic all-district honors.
• Youngstown State freshman Allison Ludwig was named to the Horizon League Women’s Soccer All-Newcomer Team.  Ludwig, who missed five league games due to a broken hand, tied a YSU freshman record and ranked fourth in the Horizon League with eight goals in 2010.

If you analyzed the turnover that first-year coach Eric Wolford had to deal with in his inaugural season, you probably would scratch your head trying to figure out how Youngstown State was even in so many close games.  Saturday, the Penguins dropped another heartbreaker, 41-39, to Illinois State.  The loss dropped the Penguins to 3-7 overall, and 1-6 in the Missouri Valley Football Conference.

The NCAA standard for scholarships to award for a football program sits at 63.  Youngstown State is only using 53 due in part to some of the fallout of a new program.  People quit when they do not buy in to something new.  Wolford is a hard-nosed coach who wants his team to be on the same page.  Some of the returning scholarship players from last season’s Jon Heacock era did not buy in to what Wolford was selling and left seeking greener pastures.  The result of this process is a group of talented seniors who are surrounded by youth and inexperience.

The best example would be the defensive secondary.  The loss of Andre Elliott has crippled the Penguins defense, period.  One guy does not make a team, but his senior counterpart, Brandian Ross, just can’t do everything else while the new guys learn as fast as they can.  Coach Ron Stoops recently discussed the blowing of late leads and how inexperience can contribute to such patterns.  We discussed Donald D’Alesio, the talented Cardinal Mooney recruit who earned playing time.  “Donald is good and has the talent, but he hasn’t even had a year to adapt to the speed difference at this level, has not had a full year of weight training which will help him down the road.”  D’Alesio, Will Shaw, and Randy Louis tried to do as much as they could to keep opposing teams out of the end zones late in games.  Since the loss of Elliott, the Penguins are winless.

My praise goes to Defensive Coordinator Rick Kravitz, as well as Stoops, for working with what they have to come so close.  In Saturday’s loss, this defense actually kept the Penguins in the game allowing the offense to score a couple of times before yielding the big play at the end of the game again.  In this situation, Kravitz has tried many different things.  He has blitzed and gotten burned, he has sat in a prevent, like he did yesterday setting up a pair of defenders 25 yards off of the ball, he has disguised blitz and dropped back into coverage, he has disguised coverage only and blitzed…  bottom line is Kravitz is relying on mostly inexperienced players to make big plays at a new level, and it hasn’t worked yet.  He has no alternative, and I am sure it drives him crazy, as much as it baffles Wolford.

“We got closer, there was only point seven seconds left this time.  Usually we let it get away with 53 seconds or so”, commented Wolford after the game.

The critics are running their mouths about how the coaches are losing games.  Coaches do not lose games, despite Wolford always taking the heat with every loss to keep the negativity off of his players.  You can put guys in position to make plays all day long.  If no one makes a play or steps up in these crucial situations, it can’t be pinned on the coaches.  The players are giving their all, some have just never been in these situations at a higher level.  It is unfortunate, especially for the seniors.  In yet another classy gesture, Wolford has exclaimed then when this team wins a championship (and they will within the next three years), he will make sure that this year’s senior class receives rings for their contributions into the new program.

This coming Saturday marks the end for Dominique Barnes, Brandian Ross, Stephen Blose, Eric Rodemoyer, Andre Elliott, Nick Gooden, Bob Gratz, Erik Johnson, Kyle Banna, Jaimie Frasure, Rob Fernbeck, Luke Matelan, Torrance Nicholson, Brad Miller, Bobby Coates, Kyle Brown, Chris Gammon, and Tyler Figueroa.  This senior class did all they could to win, the situation with the turnover in roster hampered their chances. 

Plan on showing up to honor these seniors Saturday as they take the field one last time as Youngstown State Penguins, they are a great bunch of young men who stuck things out when they doubted where the program was headed and came out better people for it.

Kickoff against Indiana State is at 1 p.m. and the seniors will be honored.