YSU FOOTBALL Blame for woes goes to coaches

Shawn Carlson of Boardman was named offensive player of the game.
By PETE MOLLICA
VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF
YOUNGSTOWN -- Mistakes have been costly to the Youngstown State football team this season.
Add that to the fact the Penguins are a young team with a lot of inexperienced players seeing action and the results have led to a 2-3 start, 0-1 in the Gateway Conference.
Last Saturday the Penguins suffered a 44-19 loss to Western Kentucky in their Gateway opener. Again, it was turnovers that led the way to the downfall.
YSU lost two fumbles and had a pair of pass interceptions, which the Hilltoppers turned into 20 points in a 25-point defeat.
Killers
Nobody knows how much turnovers hurt a team more than head coach Jon Heacock and his offensive coordinator John Klacik.
"Statistics have proven that 85.5 percent of the time the team that wins the turnover margin wins the game," Heacock said.
Turnovers on offense and the defense giving up too many big plays have been the difference this year.
"We are giving up too many big plays," Heacock said. "Saturday night they [Western Kentucky] had four plays that totaled 192 yards. You look at the films and you see on over 30 plays they averaged less than two yards a carry, but the big plays were killers."
"We as coaches are responsible," Heacock said. "We have to give our players a chance on every play."
Puzzler
Heacock said that the fumble right before halftime was a real puzzler for him and the staff.
"We purposely called timeout to set up the power play run and to make sure we took care of the football," he said. "I don't know whose fault it [the fumble] was."
With less than a minute remaining, junior tailback Josh Cayson fumbled the handoff from freshman redshirt quarterback Tom Zetts and the Hilltoppers recovered leading to a field goal just before the intermission.
Klacik has his hands full with a young, inexperienced offense.
"Tom Zetts is doing what most young quarterbacks do out there," he said.
"He's a young quarterback in a great football league and he's going to make mistakes," he added. "But he's learning every day and we have to keep teaching him every day."
It's the unit
"But it's not just the quarterback, it's the offensive line, the running backs and the receivers all putting it together."
Klacik also referred to the extra-point attempt in the fourth quarter when the Penguins took a delay of game penalty and then went for two points.
"We only had 10 men on the field for the kick attempt, so we took the penalty figuring the two-point play, which was a rollout, was probably more effective from the eight-yard line anyway," he said.
Klacik singled out junior tight end Shawn Carlson, who was named the team's offensive player of the game.
"Shawn Carlson wasn't named the player of the game because he caught six passes, but because he did a tremendous job blocking while he was in there," Klacik added.
This Saturday the Penguins return home to play the No. 1 ranked team in I-AA football in Southern Illinois. Kickoff is set for 6 p.m. at Stambaugh Stadium.
Penguin notes
Saturday's game will feature a post-game fireworks display by Phantom Fireworks and the first 7,500 fans through the gate will receive a YSU Football mouse pad courtesy of NEO 3, the Shoe Carnival and WFMJ-TV. . .Howland's Amanda Beagle, the current Miss Ohio will be on hand to sing the national anthem before the game. . .Five lucky finalists will be given a chance to start and win a new Pontiac G-6 courtesy of WFMJ-TV and Youngstown Buick Pontiac at halftime.