Defense coming together

By Pete Mollica

Defense coming together

De’Angelo Wilson is one of the veterans returning in the secondary.

YOUNGSTOWN — Youngstown State’s defensive unit was proudly wearing the red practice jerseys it secured for another season in last Saturday’s jersey scrimmage.

Senior cornerback De’Angelo Wilson, though, was quick to caution that the scrimmage victory doesn’t mean the Penguins’ defense can take it easy for the remainder of fall camp.

“We did a pretty good job on Saturday, but there is still some work to do,” Wilson said. “There were a couple of missed assignments that have to be corrected and we just have to continue to work hard through the remaining practices that we have.”

Wilson, a 5-foot-10, 195-pound senior from Sacramento, Calif., came to the Penguins a year ago after transferring from the University of Nevada, where he played in 13 games and started four.

Last season he moved right into the Penguins’ secondary, playing in all 11 games and starting nine at cornerback.

He not only finished with 39 tackles, 21 solo stops, but had five pass breakups and two interceptions. He also was a tremendous threat on special teams, returning 27 punts for 284 yards and 11 kickoffs for 266 yards.

After the season he was named to the Gateway Conference — now the Missouri Valley Football Conference — all-newcomer team.

“This defense lost some outstanding players through graduation, but we have really come together over these past four months since spring practice,” Wilson said.

“Most of us stayed together here all summer and we spent time both off and on the field together and it has really helped us to get to know each other better,” he added. “This is a young defense, we’ve got some good young dudes this year and we’re just getting better and better every day.”

Wilson teams up with senior Jarvis Richards and junior Lenny Wicks to give the Penguins three experienced cornerbacks, while senior Tyler Griffin, redshirt freshman Randy Louis and freshman Bryan Gaiters will also be in the mix.

“Last year we were the inexperienced position in the secondary, this year we’re the most experienced and we have to take advantage of that,” he added.

YSU coach Jon Heacock, who was still distraught over the unexpected death of the Penguins’ video coordinator, Shawn Coin, Monday, had a memorial tribute set up at the practice field.

On one of the photographers’ scaffolds behind the end zone, a lone camera, along with flowers and a YSU helmet were set on the platform.

“We aren’t filming today’s practice in Shawn’s memory and we just wanted to do something to show that we are thinking about him,” said Heacock.

Heacock said even though the last 24 hours were difficult he took time to evaluate the films of Saturday’s jersey scrimmage.

“I thought that there were a lot of good things done by our defense and the overall hitting in the scrimmage was very good,” he said.

“We were able to evaluate some of our talent and enable us to put the emphasis where it needs to be put in these final days of practice,” he said.

The Penguins’ injury list has been holding about the same, with a few old faces getting back to action, while a few new ones join the sideline workouts.

The latest one Monday was senior place kicker Brian Palmer, who has been bothered by a bad back and did not kick at all.

Palmer said he originally hurt his back last week and tried to kick through it in the scrimmage, but was in a lot of pain. He still kicked field goals of 42 and 46 yards in the session. Palmer’s backup is sophomore Stephen Blose, who has kicked only one field goal in his college career, which came last year at Ohio State, a 41-yarder.

The Penguins will work out twice today at 8:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. at Stambaugh Stadium.

mollica@vindy.com