Heacock era begins today

YOUNGSTOWN -- If there was one thing that Jim Tressel always did during his 15 seasons as Youngstown State University football coach, it was surround himself with good people.
Jon Heacock has been the Penguins head coach only for a little more than two months, but he feels exactly the same way about his YSU coaching staff.
Heacock spent seven seasons as an assistant coach under Tressel, six of them as the team's defensive coordinator.
He learned most of his coaching from Tressel, who left YSU in January to become head coach at The Ohio State University.
Spring practice: Today, Heacock and his staff begin spring practice at Stambaugh Stadium at 3:30 p.m. And the new coach is excited about getting back out on the field with his newly arranged staff.
Since Tressel took YSU assistants Ken Conatser and Bob Tucker with him to Ohio State, Heacock had to replace three assistants for the coming season.
The first thing he did was to go out and bring back John Klacik.
A Chaney product, Klacik was an assistant under Tressel for 12 seasons, including being offensive coordinator from 1995 through 1999.
He left the Penguins after the 1999 season to join the staff at Wake Forest University.
Heacock also brought on board George Small and Brian Wright to fill out the full-time staff.
Klacik will return to his old post of offensive coordinator; he also will coach the offensive line. Small, who was the head coach at Division II Kentucky State for six seasons, will coach the team's linebackers.
Quarterbacks: Wright, who was a graduate assistant coach at YSU during the team's 1997 national championship season, has spent the last three years at Walsh College as an assistant under Jim Dennison. He will coach the YSU quarterbacks.
Since Heacock was the defensive coordinator last season, his first job was to find a replacement for himself.
He chose Pete Rekstis, who begins his third season with the Penguins. Rekstis, who played his college football at YSU under Tressel and was a four-year starter at defensive back, will also continue to coach the defensive backs.
"This switch is not new for Pete since he was the defensive coordinator at both Austin Peay and the Coast Guard Academy, Heacock said.
To make room for Klacik to return as offensive coordinator, Heacock promoted assistant Sam Eddy to assistant head coach and recruiting coordinator as well as continuing to coach the offensive running backs.
Second-year assistant Trent Boykin will continue to coach the wide receivers and has been assigned the Penguins' special teams.
Bob Stoops, the veteran of the YSU staff with 16 years experience with the Penguins, will continue as the defensive line coach.
Openings: Heacock still has a couple of part-time coaching positions to fill, since Eugene Lewis, who coached the outside linebackers, has left.
Graduate assistant Tim Tyrell, who coached the tight ends, has graduated. Second-year graduate assistant Jim Jones will return to help out with the defensive line.
Heacock will still have a hand in the defensive side of the football and plans to learn as much as he can about the offense.
"Defense is in my blood, so you know that I'll keep a close watch on that, but offense is something that I know very little about," he said.
"I can honestly admit that in my years here at YSU I never had any idea what the offensive people were doing in their meetings, and for the most part they never knew what we were doing," he said.
"I want to sit in on those meetings now and learn as much as I can about the offense."
The Penguins will practice Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday the first two weeks. The first jersey scrimmage is set for April 7 at 9:30 a.m. The annual Red-White Spring Game will be April 20 at 7 p.m. at Stambaugh Stadium.
XPete Mollica covers YSU athletics for The Vindicator.