Final college game was at YSU

By John Bassetti

YOUNGSTOWN — It was the Friday after Thanksgiving, 1994, when Steve McNair stepped on the Dike Beede turf at Stambaugh Stadium.

McNair, who was found dead on Saturday in Nashville, was quarterbacking Alcorn State in a Division I-AA first-round playoff game against Youngstown State. It was his final collegiate game before a 13-year NFL career.

As the afternoon wore on, Alcorn wore out as YSU dispatched his Braves, 63-20. The Penguins went on to win three more playoff games for their third championship in four seasons.

On the first play from scrimmage, Youngstown linebacker Phillipe Jean-Baptiste hit McNair, causing a fumble that was recovered by Andre Jethroe.

Three plays later, Nakia Hendrix scored for an early YSU lead, but Alcorn quickly tied the game. The Penguins didn’t take the lead for good until Shawn Patton scored on a 7-yard run.

For good measure, Leon Jones stepped in front of a McNair pass and returned it 94 yards and YSU never looked back in beating the team from Mississippi in front of 17,795 fans and a national ESPN audience.

McNair was the center of attention as a Heisman Trophy candidate that season, but Youngstown State made a statement to the contrary that day.

A gauge of McNair’s true ability was somewhat compromised by a hamstring injury to the quarterback, but YSU coach Jim Tressel saw it differently.

“I don’t think his hamstring had anything to do with the fumbles and interceptions,” Tressel said following that game. “Our guys had a lot to do with that. He may have been fortunate he had a bad leg. If he’d taken off running, he’d have been tattooed like never before.”

At that time, Jon Heacock, YSU’s current head coach, was the Penguins’ defensive coordinator.

“We knew he was different, individually, than anyone else on the field because of his leadership and NFL potential,” Heacock said of the special attention drawn to McNair.

Because of Alcorn’s high-powered, pass-oriented offense, YSU formulated a plan for its defense.

“We resigned ourselves to the fact that we were going to play defense on half the field,” Heacock said of limiting McNair’s space and making passing more difficult.

“Nobody had ever really shortened the field on them,” Heacock said of the strategy that seemed logical, especially since Alcorn took almost 100 snaps that day. “Once we got them to the red zone, we were able to stop them.

“There’s not as much room and not as much time; the routes get shorter.”

Heacock explained that, in practice that week, the Penguins started defending at the 50-yard line.

“We decided that that’s where we were going to spend time in trying to stop them,” Heacock said. “Our coverages and the things we were doing eliminated what they were doing. It ended up working.”

Thanks to YSU’s prolific offense in that game, Alcorn had no choice, but to pass.

“That allowed us to play the way we planned,” said Heacock, who also acknowledged that YSU’s offense kept the ball out of McNair’s hands.

bassetti@vindy.com