TIME TO MOVE ON

By Pete Mollica

YSU turns focus to South Dakota

YOUNGSTOWN — During Tuesday’s Youngstown State football practice, the YSU ROTC members were testing a cannon for the home football opener, but they didn’t tell anybody.

When the cannon went off midway through practice most every one on the field jumped a little.

YSU senior tackle Tyler Booth smiled.

“I know we played pretty bad on Saturday, but I didn’t think they would shoot at us,” Booth said.

The Penguins were pretty disappointed with their season opening performance, a 43-0 loss to No. 2-ranked Ohio State. The Penguins managed 74 total yards of offense and minus-11 yards rushing.

But the Penguins are putting that game behind them. They have to, because Saturday they begin play in the Missouri Valley Football Conference (formerly the Gateway Football Conference) when they meet SouthDakota State in a 7 p.m. kickoff in Brookings, S.D.

For the first time since 1993, the Penguins will open the season with two straight road games. Saturday’s game will mark the earliest the Penguins have opened conference play since joining the league in 1997.

“We watched the film of Saturday’s game and there were some good things that came out of the game,” YSU coach Jon Heacock said.

“The kids played hard, but we had a lot of kids who had never played in a college game before.

“We obviously have a lot of work to do, but I’m not in the bag about it,” Heacock said.

And was there anything positive?

“Our quarterbacks had never been in that situation before,” Heacock said. “Just the fact that they got things lined up and got the count off was a plus. They didn’t have a whole lot of time back there, but they will get better. You can never really simulate what it was going to be like down there.”

South Dakota State lost to Iowa State, 44-17, committing six turnovers. That doesn’t mean the Jackrabbits will be a pushover in their home opener.

“This is the next game, a conference game and it’s on the road,” Heacock said. “This will be an extremely difficult challenge, our guys know it, our coaches know it.

“We are playing them at their place, it is their first-ever game in the Missouri Valley Football Conference. It’s going to be exciting, but it’s going to be a tough game.”

And the Penguins will probably have to do it without their top defensive player, senior tackle Mychal Savage, who suffered a shoulder injury against Ohio State.

“Mychal is questionable and he’ll make the trip with us and we probably won’t know up to game time whether he’ll play or not,” Heacock said. “This injury is not a seasonal thing and if he doesn’t play this week he should be ready next week.”

Senior placekicker Brian Palmer has been cleared to play. The Mineral Ridge native suffered a herniated disc in his back the final week of camp.

Palmer dressed for the Ohio State game and Heacock said he could have kicked if needed. Obviously he wasn’t since the Penguins never got closer to the goal line than the Buckeyes’ 49.

Offensively, the Penguins must get better quickly, but the fact that they won’t have to face a defense like the Buckeyes again this year should help.

The Penguins still won’t have senior tailback Kevin Smith, so it will still be juniors Jabari Scott and Dana Brown and redshirt freshman Kamryn Keys doing most of the carrying Saturday.

“The key is that you can’t let one loss make two losses,” Heacock said. “It’s a very important conference game, but we are still going to play 10 more games after it.”

mollica@vindy.com