YSU limping after Liberty

By Pete Mollica

The already banged-up Penguins must now travel to play So. Utah with a depth chart that changes dramatically each week.

YOUNGSTOWN — Even Youngstown State football coach Jon Heacock isn’t sure what his team’s depth chart will look like from week to week.

The Penguins have had so many injuries this year that every week the team’s two-deep lineup keeps changing.

YSU (2-3) will head back out on the road Saturday after playing three straight home games. The Penguins will visit Cedar City, Utah, to take on Southern Utah in a 3 p.m. kickoff at Eccles Coliseum.

The Penguins are coming off a 31-28 loss to Liberty University on a game-ending field goal after they had rallied from a 14-point deficit to tie the game with 1:29 remaining.

YSU went into the contest minus four starters on defense and a half dozen other players banged up and unable to play.

The Penguins lost a couple more before the night was over, including starting fullback sophomore Kyle Banna, who might be out for the season with a knee injury.

Junior tailback Jabari Scott (ribs), senior linebacker Nate Ward and junior linebacker Rashon Simons may not be able to go Saturday.

“This game is all about people,” Heacock said. “We lost our captain and an All-American [Mychal Savage] in the first game, but you still got to keep on playing. When somebody goes down, somebody else has to step up. There are no excuses; you just have to go out and play on Saturday.”

The Penguins had trouble stopping Liberty’s running game, which gained 252 yards. Senior tailback Rashad Jennings had 220 of them.

“Just how much of that was our poor tackling and his ability to run the football, I’m not certain,” Heacock said.

The Penguins finished with 427 total yards in the game, but 334 came through the air.

“They stacked up the middle pretty good on us, plus they had a whole extra week to prepare for us and we saw some things Saturday that we hadn’t seen before on film,” Heacock said.

Junior quarterback Brandon Summers, making just his third start for the Penguins, had a record-breaking performance. He completed 32-of-39 passes, including the first 12 in a row, and all 334 yards along with three touchdowns, while tossing one interception.

“Brandon’s improving every game,” Heacock said. “He’s very good either in or out of the pocket, although he probably makes some bigger plays when he’s out of it.”

With Scott questionable for Saturday, most of the rushing load will fall on redshirt freshman Kamryn Keys. Junior transfer Dana Brown is healthy again and will undoubtedly see action.

Defensively, it is almost a question of who’s healthy, especially when it comes to backups.

The Penguins have six freshmen in backup roles on this week’s depth chart.

Heacock also said that with all the new faces it means more time in practice, trying to find players to fill the holes created by injuries.

“We have to find ways to compensate for these losses,” Heacock said. “We have to play better and play smarter.”

Heacock said this year’s Southern Utah team is much different from the one the Penguins played last year.

“They have a whole new coaching staff, they like the short passing game and they have an outstanding punter, who kicked one 91 yards in their season opener,” Heacock said.

“Actually our two teams are very similar,” he said. “They hadn’t been running the ball very well, but last week against Texas State they ran very well; almost 200 yards on the ground.

“We have to play out there, so we know it’s going to be a battle. It’s a non-league game, but it’s our next game and it’s important and we need to win.”

mollica@vindy.com