Coaching change needed

This might just be the most difficult column that I’ve ever had to write since I’ve been covering Youngstown State athletics over the past 30-some years.

It might be time for a change in the Penguins head football coaching position.

Nine years ago when the Penguins named Jon Heacock the new football coach to replace Jim Tressel, I was 100 percent in favor of the decision.

If I had a son of college age, I’d still want him to play for Jon Heacock. I still firmly believe he’s a very good head coach. He’s a players’ coach, a university’s coach. He lives and dies for Youngstown State football. But for some reason, and there appear to be many, he’s just not getting the job done.

After Saturday’s 28-7 loss at Northern Iowa, the Penguins are 4-5 on the season and 2-4 in the Missouri Valley Football Conference.

This is a team that many, including Heacock and his staff, felt was a team that would contend for the conference championship and possibly even a national championship.

The Penguins are now in a position where they must win their final two games of the year just to avoid another losing season.

Heacock is now 58-44 in his nine seasons as YSU head coach with three losing seasons. A lot of schools would be happy with that mark, but the fact that the Penguins have been in the postseason just once in those nine seasons is something that is just not acceptable to YSU fans.

Heacock’s biggest problem is that he has no luck. His best season was in 2006 when the Penguins won the conference title and reached the Football Championship Subdivison postseason semifinal round. He’s had two other teams that could have qualified for the postseason, but were overlooked by the selection committee in 2001 and 2005 when they posted 8-3 records.

Sharing the conference title in 2005 and winning it outright in 2006 is something that even Tressel never accomplished at YSU.

A year ago, the team was decimated by injuries and players leaving the team, and many felt that this year would be the one that turned the program back on its feet. But it didn’t happen.

College football is a business. It’s the sport that pays all the bills for the majority of the school’s athletic program, and currently the Penguins’ attendance is dropping rapidly to the point where it may not be handling all the bills.

I’ve heard rumors that when the Penguins play their final home game this Saturday they don’t plan to even open all of Stambaugh Stadium’s concession stands because the crowd may be that small.

YSU athletic director Ron Strollo, the man who hired Heacock and who considers him a close friend, is fully aware of what’s going on.

Strollo has said that he will wait until the season is over before evaluating the program and making any decisions, but he may have only one way to proceed.

Heacock is certainly not going to quit. He’s not a quitter and he still firmly believes in his football team.

His present contract runs through the 2010 season, but there is a buyout clause in the contract.

Saturday’s season home final will be against Illinois State (5-4, 4-2) and it will be Senior Day for the Penguins with 12 seniors playing their final home contest at Stambaugh Stadium. Kickoff is set for 1 p.m.

Nobody is more dedicated to the senior players on the team than Heacock. He knows all the time and effort these players have put into the program, some of them as many as five years.

Jon Heacock is a defensive genius and if he is let go by the Penguins at the end of this season it won’t take long for somebody to grab him up to head up their defense. It would probably be a major Division I program where he’ll more than likely make a lot more money than he’s making at YSU.

But money isn’t an issue with Heacock. He’s probably the lowest-paid head coach in the Missouri Valley Football Conference, but if the opportunity to stay was there, he’d grab it in a minute.

Right now, Heacock’s only concern is getting his team ready for the final two games. Losing the last three games in a row certainly isn’t going to make his job any easier, especially since the losses were against the top three teams in the conference.

A record of 0-9 and 1-6 recently against the two top programs in the conference doesn’t help, but two wins here at the end would mean a whole lot more to the veteran head coach.

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