Young (but experienced) YSU gets ready for Week One test

By Pete Mollica

The Penguins, who are 0-4 against Bowl Subdivision teams, will face the Pitt Panthers on Saturday at Heinz Field.

By PETE MOLLICA

VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF

YOUNGSTOWN — Today officially begins Pitt week for the Youngstown State football team.

The Penguins will open their 2009 season on Saturday when they travel to meet the Panthers in a 1 p.m. contest at Heinz Field.

YSU is coming off a disappointing 4-8 season and the Penguins haven’t had much success in their four previous encounters against Bowl Subdivision opponents. Not unexpectedly, they are 0-4 in those four contest, but the Penguins also have not scored a touchdown in those games.

It began in 2005 with a 41-0 loss at Pitt, followed by a 37-3 loss to Penn State in 2006, while the past two seasons the Penguins fell to Ohio State 38-6 in 2007 and 43-0 last year.

Many believe this year’s squad might just be the best of the teams that will take on the Panthers on Saturday. Although preseason predictions have placed the Penguins No. 6 in their own conference, the Missouri Valley Football Conference, and in the early preseason national Football Championship Subdivision polls the Penguins weren’t even ranked among the Top 25.

The 2009 Penguins are a very young team, but they are experienced.

Head coach Jon Heacock, now in his ninth season, has only 12 seniors, but most of them will man key positions both offensively and defensively.

“Because of all our injuries last year we were forced to play a lot of young kids, but hopefully that experience will pay off in the long run this year,” said Heacock. “We are still a very young team that will include a lot of sophomores and redshirt freshmen. But the key to our success will be the leadership provided by our seniors.”

The Penguins will have key senior players on both sides of the football. Senior quarterback Brandon Summers will lead the offense, while he will have senior co-captain Donald Jones at one wide receiver spot and he’ll have a trio of seniors at the tailback position in Kevin Smith, Jabari Scott and Dana Brown.

The offensive line, which probably has more depth than it has had in several years, has only one senior starter in guard Brian Mellott of Austintown.

The defense will be led by a couple of senior linemen in All-America candidate Mychal Savage and All-League standout Crispin Fernandez, but the rest of the defense will be all underclassmen, at least until senior cornerback Lenny Wicks gets back into action.

“All of our seniors have worked so hard and they haven’t let up since last December when we began our winter program,” Heacock added.

While the seniors will handle most of the skilled positions on offense, the offensive line will be made up mostly of juniors, sophomores and redshirt freshmen. Two-year lettermen Justin Rechichar and Bobby Coates are back along with one-year letterwinners Eric Rodemoyer, Greg Sazdanoff and Chris Gammons.

Fullback could be a question mark since injuries have taken the two top prospects: junior Kyle Banna and redshirt freshman Gary Thornton, both local products. True freshmen Dan Banna (Kyle’s brother) and Rob Stuper have been working the spot, but Heacock said it’s possible you’ll see two of the senior tailbacks in the backfield at the same time also.

Defensively the linebackers are young, but talented. They aren’t big, but they are quick and like to hit. Freshman Taylor Hill, a Cardinal Mooney grad, will step into one spot, while sophomore Deonta Tate and junior Na’eem Outler appear set at the others.

Sophomores Stephen Meadows and John Sasson will also see action, while in the secondary juniors Brandian Ross, Andre Elliott and Nick Gooden along with sophomore Randy Louis, redshirt freshman David Fleming and freshman Averick Walker are all expected to see action.

The kicking game will be led by senior punter Ben Nowicki, who averaged more than 40 yards a kick a year ago, while junior Stephen Blose is set to handle the kickoff and placement duties, although Blose has been used mostly for kickoffs the past two seasons and has had only one field goal attempt in two years in actual game conditions.

Junior Dominique Barnes returns as the team’s punt returner and will be joined by Jones

“Our seniors have to be the leaders and our young kids will have to grow up in a hurry if we’re going to be battling for a conference title and a berth in the playoffs,” Heacock added.