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Wolford’s spring cleaning
By JOE SCALZO
YOUNGSTOWN
Photo
Youngstown State football coach Eric Wolford gets his point across during a spring practice at Stambaugh Stadium. Wolford has brought in 36 new players to the program since taking over.
On Jan. 8, just a few weeks after he was hired, YSU football coach Eric Wolford said he would make no distinction between the players he inherited from Jon Heacock and the ones he recruits.
“The big thing I want to make sure I get across to these young men is, ‘We’re in this thing together,’” he said at the time. “They’re our guys. I don’t care if you were recruited by so-and-so. You’re going to be a part of our team. Eric Wolford’s guy.”
Not all of his messages were so welcoming. Over the next few weeks, Wolford completely overhauled the coaching staff and spent the ensuing months questioning his team’s talent, work ethic and toughness.
It was, as Wolford said, a “culture change.” But after one YSU playoff berth in nine years — and a 10-13 record over the past two seasons — Wolford felt he needed to shake the program at its foundations.
“There were some days in spring ball where we had to push them over the edge,” Wolford said. “Our job as coaches is to take players where they can’t take themselves. Your job is to let us push you.
“We have coachable kids now. We can handle being yelled at. We can handle being corrected without talking back. We can be instructed. And those are the kind of things we haven’t always had.”
Not surprisingly, the new approach brought some big roster changes. The Penguins lost 19 players since the end of spring practice and added 36. That latter group includes six Division I transfers and eight from junior colleges and prep schools. The other 22 are incoming freshman.
“We’re going to be young, we’re going to be inexperienced, but we’re going to want to be here,” said Wolford, who opened fall camp on Wednesday. “We’re going to be on time. We’re going to want to do things right. When we say tuck your shirt in, you’re gonna tuck your shirt in. And those are the kind of guys we want here. You want to work out. When you have voluntary workouts, you want to work out. You come in and ask your coach to do extra in the weight room.
“That’s how we’ll get back to doing what’s been done in the past. It’s getting guys to overachieve and work hard and have some pride to them.”
Wolford said the staff’s biggest challenge over the next few weeks will be turning a group of strangers into a team.
“I felt like there were way too many individual cliques in the past. Those need to be put aside,” he said. “We have got to become a team. No more texting, no more computers, laptops. Real men talk to each other and get to know their families and become a team.
“We’ve got so many new guys, but if they all buy in, we’ll be like a fist. And the only way to break a fist is from the inside out.”
The returning players will benefit from having gone through spring practice. They know what Wolford’s staff expects of them and will be better prepared for the 29 practices before the opener at Penn State on Sept. 4.
At the same time, the 36 newcomers didn’t come to Youngstown to sit on the bench.
“They’ve got to do their job and make sure they’re prepared for practice every day, because these young guys are coming here to play,” Wolford said of the returning players. “Our kids are excited. They’ve bought in. They’re past the transition of, ‘Do these coaches really care about me? Do they genuinely care?’ They finally figured out that we do.
“Sometimes it’s not always going to be rosy. Some days are going to be tough love. We’ve had that but we’re past that. Now it’s time for us to come together.”