Passing may be preferred

After watching the Youngstown State football team go through its jersey scrimmage Saturday, several things quickly seem evident.

Offensively, unless somebody really steps forward in the next two weeks, look for the Penguins to be a much more varied offense.

That doesn’t mean YSU is going to be throwing the football on every down, but the Penguins certainly won’t be running off tackle 25-to-30 times a game, either.

In past years the Penguins have always used their running game as the bread-and-butter and to help set up the passing game.

This season might just be the opposite with the passing game helping to set up the running game.

Two big reasons.

No Mason or Gibson,
or even Reams as RB

The Penguins don’t have a running back anywhere near the ability of Marcus Mason or Monquantae Gibson of last year. They might not even have one as good as last year’s No. 3 tailback, Justin Reams.

The other reason is that senior Tom Zetts is starting his fourth year as the team’s starting quarterback and has gotten better every year.

He also has an outstanding crop of receivers, although his best wide receiver, Rory Berry, is still on the injury list but is expected back this week.

He also has two of the best tight ends in the Football Championship Subdivision in Louis Irizarry and Derrick Bush.

Zetts may be called upon to run the football himself more this season. He can do it and proved it last year when he ran for 110 yards on 12 carries at Illinois State.

One question was answered Saturday in that the offensive line, which includes three returning starters, appears to be able to handle the job of protecting Zetts.

Zetts has backup
who transferred

Another big reason for the varied offense would be that now Zetts’ backup quarterback is junior transfer Ferlando Williams, who was a quarterback at Georgia Military College before transferring here.

The Penguins planned on using him as a wide receiver, but when sophomore backup Todd Rowan suffered another leg injury this camp, coach Jon Heacock had to move Williams.

Rowan was unable to do anything but hold for extra points and field goals last season while recovering from a stress fracture in his leg.

He’s believed to have the same injury this year, but in the other leg and will still hold for placements.

“Todd’s going to be out a few games and we had no other choice but to move Ferlando to the backup spot,” Heacock said.

Williams brings another dimension to the YSU offense since he is one of the team’s quickest players and very elusive, especially when he gets one-on-one with a defender.

In Saturday’s scrimmage he was wearing a black jersey, which meant he couldn’t be tackled, so he was whistled down as soon as somebody touched him. But after watching him in the spring and in camp, that surely wouldn’t be enough to stop the 6-foot, 200-pounder.

Quarterback recruits
not ready anytime soon

The only other quarterbacks are three true freshmen recruits: Paul Corsaro of Indianapolis, David Rogers of Kent Roosevelt and Scooter Hargate of Girard.

None of the three are anywhere ready to move into the backup role anytime soon.

Possibly one of the more pressing problems for the Penguins lies in the kicking game and it doesn’t appear to be the punting.

Junior placekicker Brian Palmer, a two-year veteran from Mineral Ridge has really been struggling.

Saturday Palmer missed field goal attempts from 37 and 23 yards.

Redshirt freshman Stephen Blose was right on the money, hitting a field goals of 48 yards on his first try and then adding two more of 39 yards each.

During the kicking portion of the scrimmage, Palmer made eight consecutive field goals, which ranged from 22 yards to 49 yards, before missing his last one from 52 yards.

Blose was only 5-of-9 in the drill, making kicks from 42 and 49 yards, but missing from 29, 37, 45 and 52 yards.

“Missing those short field goals is unacceptable, especially from a veteran,” said Heacock. “We’ve got some work to do there.

XPete Mollica covers YSU athletics for The Vindicator. Write to him at mollica@vindy.com.