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Tackling to be tested at scrimmage
By JOE SCALZO
YOUNGSTOWN
After watching his defense display its air-tackling skills on the YSU running backs at Monday’s practice, Penguins coach Eric Wolford spent this week emphasizing open-field tackling.
Today, he’ll get to see if it helped.
“I want to see us tackle better,” said Wolford, whose team will hold its first scrimmage of the summer today at 10 a.m. at Stambaugh Stadium. “You guys saw on Monday night that we’ve got some guys that have got some wiggle.
“When we get the ball out there in space, I want to see us come up and leverage the ballcarrier.”
With 36 new players on the roster since camp, the Penguins have spent a lot of time this summer working on fundamentals and learning the offensive and defensive plays.
Today’s scrimmage, the first of three in training camp, will give the coaches an idea of how much has sunk in.
In addition to better tackling, Wolford wants his defense to create more pressure. Monday’s practice featured a lot of vanilla defenses so the coaches could get a better look at their secondary’s coverage skills.
But defensive coordinator Rich Kravitz will have a little more freedom to call blitzes today.
“We’re going to open it back up again,” Wolford said. “But at the same time, if we’re not getting home, we’ve got to be able to cover.”
Offensively, Wolford wants to see the team take care of the ball (no fumbles, no interceptions), sustain drives and score touchdowns in the red zone, not field goals.
“I’m not big into field goals,” he said. “Field goals can win you a couple games but touchdowns win you a lot of games.”
Although there’s competition at almost every position, all eyes will be under center as redshirt freshman Kurt Hess tries to cement his hold on the starting spot as junior Marc Kanetsky and redshirt freshman Najee Tyler (a transfer from Purdue).
Much of their success will hinge on the players around them. Senior guard Eric Rodemoyer wants to see the team improve its toughness.
After all, the opener at Penn State is just three weeks away.
“I think we need to keep working on our physicality and our mental attitude and just being a physical team,” Rodemoyer said. “Especially as an offensive line.
“We’re all competing and working hard and I see a lot of good things. And the things that we see that are bad are all correctable and that’s really exciting.”