An opener of major proportions The Heacock brothers — Jon and Jim — will be coaching on opposite sides, again.

By PETE MOLLICA

VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF

YOUNGSTOWN — Youngstown State coach Jon Heacock doesn’t expect to sense the emotion of playing Ohio State until he walks out on the field Saturday.

Emotion always plays a part of any contest, but Saturday, when the Penguins invade Ohio Stadium to meet the Ohio State Buckeyes, emotion could be at an all-time high.

Heacock, who enters his seventh season as the Penguins’ coach with a 43-27 record, spent seven seasons as an assistant coach to Jim Tressel, who is now the coach at Ohio State.

And there’s Heacock’s older brother, Jim, who is in his 12th season as an assistant coach with the Buckeyes.

Coming into focus

“For the past four weeks we’ve been focusing on the preparations, first for camp and then for the season and the opener, so you don’t have a lot of time to let the emotions set in,” Heacock said.

“Hopefully once the game gets underway we’ll all be caught up in the game and then it will be the emotions of the game,” he added.

“But I expect that when I first walk out on that field Saturday it will really hit me,” Heacock said.

This won’t be the first time the brothers have been on opposing sidelines during their college coaching career.

Jim Heacock, like his brother Jon and their younger brother Jeff, all graduated from Muskingum College.

Jim Heacock was head coach at Illinois State from 1988-95 and faced the Penguins four times. Jon Heacock was a YSU assistant those years.

“Jim and I talk regularly throughout the season, but I expect our conversations to be considerably shorter this week,” said Jon Heacock.

“He’s much older than I am,” he added, smiling. “I grew up watching him play football and I’ve learned so much from him throughout the years.”

Previous biggies

This will be the third straight season that the Penguins have played a BCS opponent.

In 2005 the Penguins lost to Pittsburgh 41-0 and last season they were defeated by Penn State, 37-3.

“We did not play well or compete well at Pitt and I was disappointed, but last year we competed much better at Penn State and I was impressed at how we handled ourselves before over 100,000 fans,” said Jon Heacock.

“Saturday I expect our guys to go out and play the game and play as hard as they can and as good as they can,” he added.

The Penguins have won 10 straight season openers, but all of them were at Stambaugh Stadium and most came against Division II schools Slippery Rock, Lock Haven and Clarion. YSU defeated Wofford in the 1996 opener.

“This is a whole new venture for us because we usually play our season opener on a Thursday,” said the YSU coach.

Heacock said it’s exciting to be playing at the Horseshoe, but he’s more excited for his players.

“I’m so concerned about my guys,” he said. “I want them so bad to have success. I’m excited for our players and coaches and for our whole team.

Penn State-plus

“Playing a Penn State last year was awesome, this one will be another step above that.”

Senior safety Bob Perez said the players are treating it as just another game.

“It’s game week and we’re going to go out there together as a group and play our best,” Perez said. “We’ve only been banging heads with ourselves these past weeks and now we’ll see what we can do against a team like the Buckeyes.”

Senior quarterback Tom Zetts, like his other senior teammates, have been through the big games before.

“Once the ball is snapped it’s just another football game,” Zetts said.

Senior linebacker James Terry said this will be a great experience for the entire team. “This is game week and it’s the best week of the year.”

mollica@vindy.com