Wolford sees value in adversity

Eric Wolford

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YSU's new head football coach Eric Wolford addresses the press and public Tuesday afternoon.

By John Bassetti

YOUNGSTOWN — All the jobs, experience and contacts that Eric Wolford possesses will play a key role in the 38-year-old’s new position.

From playing on college football teams that went from downtrodden to successful to joining a school whose coaching staff built a major program from scratch, the varied background will serve Wolford well.

He believes that his career’s trail of trials has prepared him for his newest job and first head coaching position.

“I’ve been in places where you lose football games and I think you can, sometimes, learn more from losing because you have to dissect why you’re losing,” said Wolford, shortly as his introduction Tuesday as Youngstown State University’s sixth head football coach.

“Those who win don’t necessarily have to struggle or pick themselves off the floor and walk into a meeting room to coach kids and make them believe,” YSU’s new football coach said in explaining why adversity is helpful in dealing with all aspects of the job.

He has a five-year contract for $200,000 a year. The assistant coaches’ pool for 10 positions is $550,000 annually.

Wolford, the son of Tim and Beverly Wolford of Brookfield, listed the former head coaches from whom he learned during his evolution as a player, then college assistant.

They are: Dick Angle (Ursuline High), Bob Stoops (who recruited Wolford at Kansas State), Bill Snyder (K-State’s head coach), Jim Leavitt (South Florida), Ron Zook (Illinois), Mike Stoops (Arizona) and Steve Spurrier (South Carolina).

“I’ve taken something from every one of them and I’ve become Eric Wolford, an overachiever who was never supposed to amount to anything,” Wolford said. “Our football program, players and staff are going to be overachievers.”

Wolford considers the YSU opportunity something special because of the Youngstown’s area’s passion for football.

“We’re drawn together for the same reason,” he said at Tuesday’s press conference at the DeBartolo Club. “I can assure you that I can’t do this alone.”

Snyder instilled in Wolford a lot of little things that are needed to make a difference in winning and losing.

“It’s not based on talent,” Wolford said. “It’s those little things that make a difference in championships.”

When Wolford left small-budget Emporia State (Kansas) for South Florida, he was venturing into uncharted territory.

“We went from basically portable trailers [at the I-AA school] and I learned a lot about recruiting in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale area. I watched Leavitt build a program from scratch. The thing he said to me that I see happening at YSU is that ‘we’re not going to do anything around here halfway,’ ” Wolford said of the parallel between South Florida’s football facilities and YSU’s state-of-the-art indoor facility.

Wolford coached at Houston for three years before moving on to North Texas, where he met his wife, Melinda.

“That’s probably the best recruiting job I’d ever done,” Wolford said of his most important acquisition.

Most recently, Wolford was running-game coordinator and offensive line coach for Spurrier at South Carolina of the Southeastern Conference.

The Gamecocks posted a 7-5 record in 2009 and will make an appearance in the PapaJohns.com Bowl on Jan. 2 against UConn.

“During the course of the year, a lot of things were coming to me about this potential opportunity as head coach [at YSU]. I wasn’t contacted, but I had visions of being here.”

The Jim Tressel-era championships were a theme repeated by Wolford.

“Not one person is bigger than this team, program or university,” Wolford said. “If we want to get back to what the expectations are, it’s going to take a community effort. I’m calling on you because I can’t do it alone, but we can do it together.”

Wolford said that, starting today, he’ll be in schools.

“There’s going to be talk and the way you respond to talk is how we get ready to nail this first recruiting class. Youngstown doesn’t know what it has because we’re going to recruit like it hasn’t been done in a long time. We’ll be in every school and we’ll be in kids’ homes.”

The result?

“It’ll either be a positive spin on what’s going on at Youngstown and its commitment to facilities and how we want to get back to the playoffs or it’ll be a negative spin. Those are the choices to be made in the next few weeks. To get back to where we want to be, it’s going to be a team effort.”

bassetti@vindy.com