YSU FOOTBALL Better late than never for 'Hootin'

The traditional contact drill added some passion to the spring practices.
By PETE MOLLICA
VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF
YOUNGSTOWN -- Youngstown State football players got a chance to redeem themselves a little Monday afternoon when the Penguins conducted the "hoot and holler" drill at Stambaugh Stadium.
The drill, which lines up four offensive players against four defensive players in a 10-yard wide area, is normally the first contact session of spring football practice every year.
This year, because the weather had forced postponement of several practices and moved another indoors, the drill had been postponed until Monday.
Bouncing back: The players enjoyed it because it gave them a chance to bounce back from last Friday's first jersey scrimmage, in which their performance was labeled as "unacceptable" by coach Jon Heacock.
Heacock, who was visibly upset with his team following the scrimmage, was back to his old self on Monday when he talked about both the scrimmage and the "hoot and holler" drill.
"The most important thing about today is the fact that these kids did not accept their performance from last Friday and they came out here today and worked hard and that's a lot more important than what I think," Heacock said.
"We just have to learn to play this game with a passion and I think this group is eager to do that, now they just have to do it," he added.
" 'Hoot and holler' has always been a part of Penguin football and usually it sets the tone for all our drills, but we were unable to hold it earlier, but we still wanted to make sure that we got it in," Heacock said.
After looking at the films from Friday's scrimmage Heacock said there were some good things and some bad things.
"It's always the same when you scrimmage among yourself," he added. "Things are never as bad as you thought they were and they are never as good as you thought either.
The mistakes: "It still comes down to eight turnovers and after looking at the films there were a couple of good tips by the defense which produced turnovers, but we also put the ball on the ground several times on our own mistakes," he said.
"We put in a lot of new things this spring already and after looking at the films, those things showed up. There were times when we looked real good, like the first offensive drive of the scrimmage which was real impressive," Heacock said.
"There were some good defensive plays also, but the bottom line is that we still have a long way to go, but we still have seven more days of practice left this spring," he continued.
Monday was a 50-percent contact day and the Penguins, following the "Hoot and holler" drill did some live scrimmaging.
Heacock has made one change in this week's practice schedule as the team will work out on Thursday at 3 p.m., instead of Friday. The Penguins have a regularly-scheduled practice on Wednesday and will hold their second and final jersey scrimmage on Saturday morning at 9:30 a.m. at Stambaugh.
The Penguins have two practices slated next week, on Monday and Thursday, with the Red and White spring game slated for Friday at 7 p.m.
mollica@vindy.com