Another Wicks on campus

Saturday morning as I was sitting up in the stands at Stambaugh Stadium watching the Youngstown State football team’s jersey scrimmage, I couldn’t help but notice the play of a little redshirt freshman tailback by the name of Wicks.

Yes, Paris Wicks Jr., has been around the YSU football camp for more than a year now, but Saturday was the first chance that we really had an opportunity to see him work in the backfield.

In case that name sounds familiar and you haven’t been around Penguin football quite as long as I have, young Wicks’ father was a two-time All-American for the Penguins in 1981 and 1982 under Coach Bill Narduzzi.

The elder Wicks was an outstanding football player, who ranks as the Penguins No. 5 all-time career rusher with 34,101 yards on 595 carries and nearly 30 touchdowns.

Wicks, who was inducted into the YSU Athletic Hall of Fame in 1992, was one of the premier running backs in Penguins history.

He had 13 games with more than 100 yards rushing and three with more than 200 yards.

And who could ever forget the performance he put on back on Nov. 21, 1981 at the UNI-Dome at Northern Iowa University with he set a YSU record by scoring five touchdowns and 32 points against the Panthers and was just stopped shot of the goal line for a sixth TD in a 45-43 loss to Northern Iowa.

Wicks had 215 yards on 36 attempts in that game which will always be one of the all-time single game performances in the school’s history.

Now the big question everyone is asking is just how good is his son?

While Wicks Jr., walked on to the football team last fall. He’s 5-foot-9, 190 pounds and showed some real quickness and speed Saturday in the Penguins jersey scrimmage.

Probably one of the reasons that a lot of schools shied away from the youngster is the fact that he was hurt most of his junior and senior seasons at Ellet High School in Akron.

On the other hand, he did rush for 632 yards in just the three games he played as a senior before an ankle injury ended his season.

His junior year, he played in five games and rushed for 750 yards before again going down with an ankle injury and missing the rest of the season.

He survived last season on the Penguins’ scout squad and has been healthy this spring. He was the team’s leading rusher in the scrimmage on Saturday with 69 yards in 17 carries. And, he even provoked a couple of comments from head coach Jon Heacock after the session.

“He looked pretty good out there today,” Heacock said. “I know that he’s got some outstanding genes in him.”

Still don’t look to see too much of Wicks this fall since the Penguins have more tailbacks than they need, including three seniors (Kevin Smith, Jabari Scott and Dana Brown). Then there is sophomore Kamryn Keys, who led the Penguins in rushing last season.

If you saw Saturday’s scrimmage then you saw that the Penguins have some talent returning this year. And that’s without six or seven of their veteran players who haven’t really taken a hit this spring.

Senior quarterback Brandon Summers is definitely to the key to the Penguins offense and he’s only going to keep getting better.

The offensive line is growing by leaps and bounds and they are also building depth. In fact, there seems to be depth just about everywhere you look this spring and on both sides of the football.

Saturday’s scrimmage could have probably gone either way. The two units are that evenly matched although the defense is still missing the most with three key starters still sidelined recuperating from injuries.

Put senior tackle Mychal Savage, senior cornerback Jarvis Richards and senior linebacker Rashon Simons on the field and those red jerseys could be heading back to the defense real soon.

Of course, the offense is without senior wide receiver Donald Jones, who just might be the best receiver the Penguins have coming back. However, seniors Ty Campana and Aaron Pitts and junior Dominique Barnes all played well on Saturday.

The spring practice all wraps up this week with the Red and White spring game on Friday at 7:30 p.m.

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