YSU goal: Play it close and safe

Moral victories are something that nobody really likes to talk about, especially players and coaches.

But for Youngstown State, a moral victory against the Ohio State Buckeyes in Columbus wouldn’t be all that bad.

For anyone thinking that the Penguins have anything more than a chance at a moral victory Saturday can continue to dream on.

Lets face it, the Buckeyes are probably as beat-able as they are ever going to be, losing most of their offense and half the defense from a year ago, and they are still listed as 32-point favorites.

Buckeyes coach Jim Tressel spent 15 years as the head coach of the Penguins so he knows very well what YSU’s Jon Heacock faces Saturday.

The fact that Tressel is a former Penguin can only be in YSU’s favor, but only to the point that he won’t run up the score.

But then again Tressel has never been known to run up the score against anyone, even during his days at YSU.

OSU’s edge in speed,
size should be evident

Even with inexperienced players, the Buckeyes should have little trouble against the Penguins, and the game should give Tressel an opportunity to take a good look at a lot of his players.

The Penguins starting lineup has a lot of experience and it’s good, but not as good as the Buckeyes without experience. Then there is the depth factor where the Penguins are thin and the Buckeyes aren’t.

The one YSU player who has been part of both worlds is senior tight end Louis Irizarry, and he knows what the Penguins are going up against.

“You can’t even prepare for what you’re going to face down there,” Irizarry said. “The only thing you can do is to work hard on the things you know you can do and then hope that you execute them at your best on Saturday.”

Irizarry is excited about returning to Columbus, where he played his freshman season for Tressel.

The Penguins got a taste of big-time football last year when they played before over 100,000 fans at Penn State. They’ll at least know what to expect Saturday, but that probably won’t make much difference.

Money game
helps the Penguins

This is a money game for the university and that’s why it was scheduled. The same for last year’s Penn State game and the 2005 meeting with Pitt.

The Penguins can keep their athletic budget in the black with these games, and since they’ll play the Buckeyes again in 2008 and already have Penn State scheduled again in 2010, the money will keep rolling in.

The games are great for recruiting purposes and if they’re close enough like Ohio State, Penn State and Pitt, they are great for fan appeal.

YSU athletic director Ron Strollo has always said that he’ll always put a portion of the money from these games back into the football program.

With the $250,000 the Penguins got from Pitt, he redid the lobby in the football office; and with some of the $350,000 from Penn State, he bought a new video digital editing system for the coaches.

Ohio State will be paying the Penguins $650,000 this year and next, and the Penguins just recently purchased new state-of-the-art coaching headphones that they use for the first time on Saturday.

The big difference in the pay-outs between Ohio State and that of Pitt and Penn State, was because the first two games were before the NCAA went to 12 games for Division I teams.

Winning is not the important thing in these games, staying healthy is.

Last year against Penn State, the Penguins lost senior co-captain and starting linebacker Jeremiah Wright with a season-ending knee injury.

Wright was able to get a medical redshirt and returned this year for a fifth season. But when you are going up against athletes that are so much bigger and stronger, the possibility of injuries increases.

If the Penguins can keep the final margin under 25 points and not get anybody seriously hurt, then it is definitely a winning situation.

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