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Savage, Samsa team's choices
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FIRST-TEAM HONOREE: Defensive lineman Mychal Savage was first team all-Gateway Conference during the 2007 season.
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YSU's Brad Samsa
By Pete Mollica
The Penguins voted after practice Thursday.
YOUNGS-TOWN — Seniors Brad Samsa and Mychal Savage have been starters on the Youngstown State football team since their freshmen season.
So it was no surprise Friday morning when coach Jon Heacock announced that Samsa and Savage were selected as captains for the 2008 season.
“The team voted Thursday night after practice and it was a unanimous decision on both players,” said Heacock.
For Savage the day meant double honors.
Earlier Friday the 6-foot-2, 305-pound defensive tackle was named to the SportsNetwork preseason All-American team.
Savage was a third-team selection to the team following in 2007.
“They are both leaders on and off the field,” said Heacock.
“They both lead by example and there aren’t two players who work any harder every day than those two.
Samsa, a 6-3, 275 center from Howland High School, has been a versatile player for the Penguins on the offensive line over the last three years.
He made his first start as a freshman at center, then earned All-Gateway Conference honors as a sophomore at guard.
Last year he started the first three games at guard, then moved to tackle because of injuries to other players and still earned his second straight All-Gateway selection.
This spring Samsa was moved back to center to help anchor a veteran offensive line.
“It takes a special kind of player to do what Brad Samsa has done for us over the years,” Heacock said. “He has to be unselfish, gifted and very smart and he is all of those.”
Savage, a Hartsdale, N.Y. native, has been touted as the best defensive lineman at YSU since Harry Deligianis, who earned All-American honors in 1997.
“Mychal had a great summer and he’s in the best physical shape of his life and we are expecting him to be the leader of this defense,” said defensive coordinator Jeff Mills.
The Penguins finished up fall camp workouts Friday morning and will have the next 48 hours off before beginning preparations for the season opener Aug. 30 at Ohio State.
Senior place kicker Brian Palmer has been told that he has a herniated disc in his lower back that has been causing him problems this fall.
Palmer, who has been the Penguins’ place kicker for the past three seasons, will have treatment and medication for his back over the next week. If it doesn’t help, he may have to have surgery which would put him out for the season, with a possible medical redshirt for 2009.
If Palmer can’t kick, then the load will fall on sophomore Stephen Blose, an Erie, Pa., native.
Blose has handled most of the kickoff duties last season, kicking off 47 times.
He’s kicked only one field goal and that came in last year’s opener at Ohio State, a 41-yarder.