Milestone game for Jon Heacock

Photo

YSU head coach Jon Heacock

Photo

YSU head coach Jon Heacock

Saturday’s game at Southern Illinois will be his 100th as YSU’s coach.

By PETE MOLLICA

VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF

YOUNGSTOWN — When the Youngstown State football team takes the field Saturday to meet Southern Illinois, it will mark the 100th game for Jon Heacock as the Penguins’ coach.

Heacock, who has compiled a 58-41 record in eight-plus seasons, will lead the Penguins (4-2, 2-1 Missouri Valley Football Conference) against the Salukis in a 4 p.m. game at McAndrew Stadium in Carbondale, Ill.

“This is the 100th game, never really thought much about it,” he said. “I know this game means a lot more to these kids than it does to me. They’re the ones who have been working so hard to get to where they are today.

“I guess it’s pretty neat to have been coaching 100 games here,” he added. “I know it’s been fun for me especially working with all these great kids.

Longevity has long been a strong suit for YSU coaches. Heacock is the fourth — out of five coaches in YSU history — to last at least 100 games with the program.

It started with the Penguins’ first coach, Dwight “Dike” Beede, who guided the team for 32 years and 279 games from 1938 through 1972. His record in that time was 147-118-14.

Rey Dempsey, the only YSU coach who did not stay for at least 100 games, followed Beede and stayed just two seasons, posting a 12-8 record.

Bill Narduzzi followed Dempsey and coached the Penguins for 11 seasons and 120 games, finishing with a 68-51-1 record that also included YSU’s first trip to a national championship game. In 1979 the Penguins played in the NCAA Division II championship game, the Zia Bowl.

Narduzzi led the Penguins to an 11-2 record that season, which set a school record at that time.

Then came Jim Tressel, who in 15 seasons turned the Penguins into a Division I-AA powerhouse. He took the Penguins to six Division I-AA national championship games, winning four titles.

Tressel coached in 194 games during his career, which ranks second to only Beede, and his career record of 135-57-2 is the best winning percentage of any YSU coach.

During the 1990s Tressel’s teams posted a record of 103-30-2, a .770 win percentage.

While Heacock has had success at YSU with five winning seasons in eight years, he has taken the Penguins to the postseason only once. That was in 2006 when the Penguins won the outright Gateway Conference championship, posted an 11-3 mark and reached the semifinals of the FCS playoffs.

Heacock has had two other teams that qualified for postseason honors but were bypassed by the NCAA selection committee.

The 2005 team shared the Gateway Conference championship with an 8-3 record, tying Northern Iowa and Southern Illinois. But both of those teams defeated YSU in the regular season. The Panthers and Salukis both made the playoffs while the Penguins were left home.

Heacock’s 2001 team, his first at YSU, also finished at 8-3, but did not get selected for postseason play, although the Penguins made a final stab in their season finale against Marshall, falling short in the final minutes, 38-24.

mollica@vindy.com