Penguins making progress
The first two weeks of spring football practice at Youngstown State have come and gone. If there has been one thing determined thus far, it’s that the Penguins can’t afford to lose senior quarterback Brandon Summers.
It also has been determined that head coach Jon Heacock’s decision to take over as the Penguins’ defensive coordinator was a good one.
If the Penguins are to be successful this fall, then players like defensive tackle Mychal Savage, defensive cornerback Jarvis Richards and offensive wide receiver Donald Jones, who all probably will miss spring drills, must be ready to go by fall.
If this was a NFL team, Summers would wear the franchise tag. He’s that important to the YSU offense.
What makes him so important is that not only is he a very talented football player, but he’s now the team leader. This team really believes in what he says and does.
So if I was Coach Heacock or offensive coordinator Brian Wright, I wouldn’t have Summers wearing a black jersey (meaning hands off), but I’d have him wearing one with neon lights flashing saying don’t come anywhere near him.
The next time that Summers should take a hit should be the first series against the University of Pittsburgh in August.
I know that the offense won back their red practice jerseys a week ago in a spur of the moment scrimmage called by Heacock.
“You have to be ready every time you put on those pads,” Heacock said. “I just thought we’d throw the jerseys up for grabs and the offense won them back.”
But since that scrimmage session, Heacock has impressed on his defense the importance of being ready and that group has really been impressive this past week.
One youngster who is going to make a big impression on the defense is freshman transfer Taylor Hill, a former Cardinal Mooney High standout who transferred from the University of Michigan this winter. Hill, who never played at Michigan, will undoubtedly be a starter at an outside linebacker slot for the Penguins.
One question mark that hopefully will be resolved this spring is in the kicking department.
The Penguins have veteran punter Ben Nowicki back for his senior year, but they lost three-year starter Brian Palmer as the veteran place-kicker.
The Penguins do have veteran Stephen Blose back for his third season, but the Erie native has mainly been used for kickoffs and has done very little in the way of field goals or extra points.
In two seasons, Blose has kicked just one field goal. That one came in 2007, a 41-yard boot against Ohio State in the season opener.
Heacock has four other kickers in camp this spring, All are walk-ons and none appear to be any serious competition for Blose. All four are local products including junior Bob Gratz, who has been around for a couple years, from Boardman. The others are sophomore Joe Miller from Mineral Ridge, sophomore Ronald Fularz from Champion High and junior Jarrod Satmare, from Beaver Local.
It’s more than likely that Blose’s backup kicker probably will be 2009 recruit Nick Liste out of Niles McKinley High who will be here in the fall.
Last week was somewhat like old home week as several former YSU assistant coaches and a few players returned to take in several of the early morning practices.
Veteran assistant coach Ken Conatser, who coached under Jim Tressel at YSU and is on Tressel’s academic advisers staff at Ohio State, dropped in to visit the team.
Just the day before, former defensive line coach Bob Stoops was an early morning visitor. Former Penguin Sean Guerriero, now the head coach at Springfield High School, brought his entire staff down for a day at practice.
Guerriero played from 1998 through 2001 and played both under Tressel and Heacock. He also had two brothers that played football at YSU — Greg played in 1986 and Pat in 1980-82, both under Bill Narduzzi.
Another visitor at Friday’s practice was Lakeview High head coach Tom Pavlansky, who brought along a couple of his players to watch the Penguins.
XPete Mollica covers Youngstown State athletics for The Vindicator. Write him at mollica@vindy.com.