YSU FOOTBALL Spring 'D' earning a D

Coach Jon Heacock said the defense needs to improve.
By PETE MOLLICA
VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF
YOUNGSTOWN -- The Youngstown State defensive unit is nowhere near where it needs to be this spring and coach Jon Heacock is starting to show his concern about the problem.
The defense took another pretty good beating by the offense Wednesday in an afternoon scrimmage, and afterwards Heacock showed his concern verbally.
"I know that they've had to take on a lot of changes this spring, but there comes a time when you have to start playing the game," Heacock said. "Today I don't think we were mentally prepared out there and I told them that and now we have to start playing Youngstown State football on defense."
Setting the tone
The tone for the scrimmage was set on the first play when junior tailback Josh Cayson took a handoff from junior quarterback Aaron Marshall and raced right up the middle for a 45-yard touchdown.
Cayson and freshman redshirt transfer Monquantae Gibson ran well once again, while Marshall and redshirt freshman quarterback Tom Zetts threw the football effectively.
Zetts once again showed remarkable accuracy with his passes, completing over 80 percent, including a 45-yard scoring strike to senior wide receiver Matt Rycraft.
In the short scrimmage the quarterbacks completed nine passes for 20 yards or more.
Marshall connected with sophomore Tyler Morton for a 40-yard completion and had 20-yard completions to T.J. Peterson and Rycraft.
Freshman redshirt transfer Vince Gliatta connected on a 35-yard pass to senior Phil Larmon, who made an impressive catch, going up over the defender.
Few highlights
There were times when the defense did apply the pressure and made some key plays, but for the most part the offense dominated again.
Once again the secondary had trouble covering the receivers downfield and on most passes the receivers were wide open.
The defense, like it did in last Friday's jersey scrimmage, is using very few blitzes and Heacock indicated that there would not be much blitzing in the next jersey scrimmage.
"Defense isn't about X and O's," he said. "Defense is about playing the game and right now we are not playing the game."
Heacock thought there was some improvement on both sides of the football this week.
"But we are nowhere near where we need to be," he added.
The Penguins return to action Friday afternoon with the second and final jersey scrimmage at 3:30 p.m. at Stambaugh Stadium.
The offense rolled to a 43-15 victory in the first scrimmage while rolling up over 600 yards to hold on to the red practice jerseys.
The winner of Friday's jersey scrimmage will keep the red practice jerseys until the first jersey scrimmage in the fall.
mollica@vindy.com