Versatile Samsa moves to center of Penguins’ line

By Pete Mollica

The Howland graduate will be manning his third OL position for YSU.

YOUNGSTOWN — Brad Samsa gets around a lot on the Youngstown State football team’s offensive line.

This year, he’ll be playing his third different position for the Penguins.

Samsa (6-foot-3, 280 pounds) came to Youngstown State in 2004 out of Howland High School where he was a first-team All-Ohio selection as a defensive lineman.

After being redshirted in 2004, Samsa saw action at center in six games in 2005 and was named the offensive lineman of the game against Western Kentucky.

As a sophomore, Samsa moved into the Penguins’ starting lineup at right guard. He was named second-team All-Gateway Conference, owning the highest cumulative grade percentage (77 percent) of all the linemen during the regular season. Three more times, he was named the offensive lineman of the game.

Last season, Samsa started the first three games at guard. Then because of injuries, he moved to left tackle for the final eight games. He again was named first-team All-Gateway Conference and was second-team All-American.

This spring, the YSU coaches decided to move Samsa back to center. The standout has made the move with ease as he gets ready for his third season as a regular.

Just what does it take to for a player who was an All-American at one position to move to another and still be successful?

“Well, first of all you have to be a very unselfish player,” YSU coach Jon Heacock said. “Second, you have to be very good at what you do and third you have to be very smart and Brad Samsa is all of those.”

Samsa, who is an industrial and systems engineering major, is a whiz in the classroom as well as on the field. He has twice been named to the Gateway Conference All-Academic team.

He also had no real problems with being moved around on the offensive line.

“Basically the main difference is any of the three positions is the responsibilities at each one,” Samsa said. “At guard and tackle, you really have to think about blocking and maybe pulling out at guard. But at center, you also have to be concerned about snapping the football as well as blocking.

“Mentally, center is probably the most difficult because of the responsibilities there, but basically there is not a lot of difference at any of the three,” Samsa said.

He’s excited about the offensive line this season.

“We probably have more experience and more depth than we’ve had in a long time there,” Samsa said. “With Tyler Booth coming back and Eric Rodemoyer transferring in from West Virginia, we got a lot stronger from last year.”

A year ago, Samsa was on the field most of the time with the offense as he took part in 688 snaps and allowed just one sack in 11 games. He had five performances that graded out above 80 percent, including a high of 89 against Indiana State.

Today, the Penguins are scheduled to hold their first double practice sessions at 8:30 a.m. and 3 p.m. at Stambaugh Stadium.

mollica@vindy.com