The success of a season is not defined by a single game

The harsh reality for any team entering a championship playoff series is this: Every team but one will lose its last game. The last team standing is the champion.
But that certainly doesn't mean that the other teams are losers. To even reach the playoffs, those teams had to have excellent seasons and sometimes (YSU fans will remember last year as a prime example) even teams with very good seasons are left at home when the playoffs begin).
Saturday, Youngstown State University's season came to an end in a semifinal match for the NCAA Division I Football Championship. The Mountaineers of Appalachia State, defending national champions and the No. 1 seed in the tournament, were a whole lot quicker and a little bit stronger than the Penguins.
It was the seventh time the Penguins had gone to a semifinal game and the first time they lost. With all due respect to Massachusetts, which will meet Appalachia in the national championship game Friday, YSU almost certainly lost to the team that will take home the trophy.
Consolation
That, however, is small consolation. The Penguins can, however, take consolation in an outstanding season and in the increasing respect that the YSU football program is gaining, after a letdown in the post-Jim Tressel years.
Coach Jon Heacock led the Penguins to a Gateway Conference championship, and he was named the American Football Coaches Association Region 4 Coach of the year for the second straight season. Sam Eddy, the assistant head coach and running backs coach, was named the AFCA Assistant Coach of the Year.
Those kind of honors for the coaching staff represent the team's 9-2 record, the only losses being a rout by Penns State early in the season and a late season 31-23 loss to Northern Iowa. The Penguins outscored their opponents 353 to 222 in the regular season (350 to 185, if you take the Penn State game out of the mix).
Good coaches make teams better, but ultimately it is the players on the field who make the difference. Every Penguin on this year's squad can be proud. But some received special honors for their efforts.
Players honored
Senior tailback Marcus Mason of Potomac, Md., was named to the AFCA All-America team and was the Gateway Football Conference's Offensive Player of the Year. He rushed for a school-record 1,847 yards on 302 carries and scored 23 touchdowns this year. Mason was joined by senior center Ryan Jewell of Warren on the Walter Camp Football Foundation's All-American team, the first time the Penguins have had two players on the team. Jewell was also a two-time All-Gateway first-team selection and as a senior was a first-team all-league pick.
Besides Jewell and Mason, eight other Penguins were on the Gateway all-conference first team: Offensive tackle Patrick Walker, defense, cornerbacks Jason Perry and Codera Jackson, linebackers James Terry and Marty Hutchinson, defensive linemen Mychal Savage and Jim Phelan and Punter Joe Bishop rounded out the group of first-team honorees.
Offensive guard Brad Samsa and tight end Derrick Bush were second-team selections. Quarterback Tom Zetts, linebacker Jeff Koval and wide receiver T.J. Peterson received honorable mention.
The Penguins collectively were the recipients of an even higher honor, fan loyalty, with about 11,000 fans coming out for the two playoff games in Youngstown, which included a hard-fought come-from behind victory over James Madison in the first round. More than 600 Penguin faithful made the nine-hour trip to the mountains of North Carolina for the Appalachian State semifinal.
Those 600 and more could have been counted on to be on time in Chattanooga this Friday, if YSU had made it to the big dance. But the fans and everyone connected with Penguin football know that this season represents a job well done and that there are more good seasons in the future.