Penguins looking to Summers

pete mollica

Youngstown State football coach Jon Heacock got his first good look at his 2009 football team on Saturday when the Penguins engaged in their first real contact scrimmage of the spring.

There were some bright spots on both sides of the football. But there also were a lot of players who for some reason or another did not even take part in the scrimmage and many of those are believed to be starters for the upcoming season.

What Heacock knows for sure after one week of spring practice is that senior quarterback Brandon Summers is his main man and that he definitely needs to stay healthy.

Backing up Summers at quarterback right now are two sophomores — Dailyn Campbell of Kenton who actually made a start last season as a true freshman, and former Hubbard standout Marc Kanetsky, who is also the team’s main holder for field goals and extra points.

Campbell hasn’t been around the last couple of practices — including Saturday’s scrimmage — as he has been ill with flu-like symptoms.

It’s really amazing that half of the team hasn’t come down with colds or the flu after the weather they’ve had to work out in this past week. (Boy, it sure would be nice if the Penguins had that indoor facility to work out in during weather like they’ve had this week.)

Mother Nature hasn’t been nice. She forced cancellation of the opening session last Monday with snow. It was moved to Tuesday, where there wasn’t snow but the temperature never got out of the 20s and frost covered the field. When it warmed up on Wednesday and Friday, the rains came and. Then Saturday, the temperature was back in the low 30s and wind chills in the teens.

Anybody who has watched Summers this past week has to be impressed. He’s obviously more confident after a year under center. His arm seems to be stronger and he’s running better and quicker than ever.

Plus he’s not alone in the backfield either.

The Penguins are deep at tailback, led by three seniors and last year’s leading rusher, sophomore Kamryn Keys.

Keys is still working off a minor injury this spring and hasn’t practiced.

But seniors Jabari Scott, Kevin Smith and Dana Brown are all healthy and ready to go. If Saturday’s scrimmage was any indication, you can possibly look for the Penguins to use two of them at a time back there.

Fullback is a question mark since the Penguins graduated their top two. The next most experienced, Kyle Banna of Canfield, is still recuperating from hamstring problems that kept him sidelined most of last year and will keep him out all spring.

But it’s given an opportunity to former East High standout Gary Thornton, who has bulked up to 225 yards and has looked good catching passes out of the backfield. Junior Jim Bowersock, a former Beaver Local High product, is another fullback prospect and at 265 pounds has been impressive.

Summers will have some good targets to throw to at wide receiver led by returnees Dominique Barnes, a junior, along with seniors Donald Jones and Aaron Pitts. Tight end might be another question mark since standout Derrick Bush has graduated.

Andy Colegrove, a 6-foot-4, 290 pounder, who was recruited as a tight end out of Ironton and then moved to center last year, appears to be back at tight end along with sophomore David Rogers, who came to the Penguins as a quarterback prospect two years ago.

The offensive line has some experience and a lot of good, young players coming up. The veterans include center Justin Rechichar, guards Eric Rodemoyer and Brian Mellott, and tackles Chis Gammon and Greg Sazdanoff. They also have transfer Marcus O’Hara, a Hubbard native from Ohio University and freshmen redshirts Bill Dugan of Poland, Andy Kowicki and D.J. Main.

Defensively, the Penguins used a lot of players last year because of injuries and that experience should play some big dividends this fall.

With senior tackle Mychal Savage and junior end Luke Matelan sitting out the spring, the younger players will get even more reps including sophomore Joe Marshall, sophomore Stephen Meadows, sophomore Joel Younkins along with veteran holdovers Crispin Fernandez, Torrance Nicholson, Roger Gillum and Jamie Frasure.

The linebackers and the secondary have some holes to fill and the Penguins still have some questions in the kicking game, but they’ve still got three more weeks of spring practice to work things out.

Now if only Mother Nature will help out a little.

XPete Mollica covers YSU sports for The Vindicator. Write to him at mollica@vindy.com.