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On The Road Again: After a 3-8 season, YSU focuses on recruiting
The Vindicator (Youngstown)
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Harding's Demond Hymes gets past Howland's Tony Osborne and Dan Russell during first quarter action Friday at Howland.
Special to the Vindicator
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Eric Ahmer (5) makes a one handed tackle of Landon Smith Friday night in Struthers.
Special to the Vindicator
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Youngstown East receiver Michael Thomas is about to catch the ball and run up the side line.
By Joe Scalzo
YOUNGSTOWN
At 1:35 p.m. on Nov. 22, YSU head football coach Eric Wolford was driving past Cleveland Browns Stadium on his way to another northeast Ohio high school.
He and assistant coach Frank Buffano had left Youngstown at 6:45 a.m. Over the next seven hours, Wolford ate an Egg McMuffin from McDonald’s, a chicken sandwich from Burger King, a couple beef sticks and a Diet Mountain Dew. Considering he had a few more hours to go, it’s a safe bet his dinner menu was going to be equally high on grease.
“Recruiting’s bad for you, health-wise,” he said. “And it’s hard on your family. You’re not home.
“That’s the biggest drawback. It’s a lot of time.”
But after a 3-8 season — YSU’s worst since 1995 — Wolford knows he needs to spend as much time on the road as possible over the next two months.
YSU has already secured seven verbal commitments, a list that includes five local players: Warren Harding RB Demond Hymes, Girard WR Landon Smith, Fitch DL Steve Zaborsky, West Branch OL Brandon Ferguson and East CB Mike Thomas.
The team has made scholarship offers to at least four other Valley players: Hubbard LB Blake Novotny, Warren Harding RB Demond Hymes, Ursuline RB Akise Teague and Poland WR Darius Patton.
Both Teague and Patton have Big Ten offers, but Wolford has shown a willingness to go after the Valley’s top-rated recruits, often referencing the need to put a fence around the city. If he fails to sign them, it won’t be from a lack of trying.
NCAA regulations forbid Wolford from talking about specific players, but he’s made it clear he’s not going to be scared off just because a player has an offer from, say, Wisconsin.
“We’re recruiting good players,” he said. “We’re trying to hang in there and beat some people.”
This is a quiet period for recruiting, a stretch that runs from Aug. 1 through Nov. 27. Coaches can’t contact players and are only allowed to visit schools once during a 42-day “evaluation period” set by the schools. Teams can send letters and call high school coaches, but YSU’s main emphasis is on watching film, gathering academic information and staying in the conversation.
Things heat up during the contact period, which runs from Nov. 28 through Jan. 29.
Wolford is hoping to sign 30 players from either the high school, junior college or NCAA Division I ranks (via transfer) this offseason and expects to get most of his commitments in mid- to late-January. That’s when players stop hoping for the Ohio State offer that will never come and get serious about sorting through the offers they do have.
While Wolford knows he isn’t going to get the Maurice Clarett-level recruits to come to YSU, he said the staff is targeting players they believe are Division I-level.
“We’re not going to compromise,” he said. “If we have to compromise, it’s going to be on a kid who’s a long-range project, maybe someone who’s 6-6, 230 pounds and might be an offensive tackle some day.
“If a guy is 6-1 and can really fly and make people miss, we’re not going to be in the game. But if he’s 5-8 and can fly and make people miss, we’ve got a better chance there.”
On Monday, Wolford and Buffano focused their efforts on northeast Ohio. (“Normally the head coach lets his assistant drive, but Buffano is such a bad driver that I’m driving,” Wolford said. “I want to see my kids again.”) Offensive line coach Carmen Bricillo was in Pennsylvania, special teams/running backs coach Louie Matsakis was in Columbus and offensive coordinator Shane Montgomery was in Cincinnati.
Defensive coordinator Rick Kravitz got the best deal — he was in Florida.
Wolford got five Division I transfers last offseason and a handful of junior college players, but he’s learned through the years not to expect too much from transfers.
“You can’t expect those guys to be saviors,” he said. “Just like [Purdue QB transfer] Najee Tyler. We didn’t name him a starter or a savior. But we knew he was going to create competition and that’s what he did.”
Ultimately, redshirt freshman QB Kurt Hess (who was recruited by Jon Heacock) won the job last summer and played well. Even better, he has three seasons left, which underlines a critical point: The backbone of a good recruiting class is in its freshmen.
And to get them, you have to get acquainted with a lot of drive-thrus.
“Football is my passion and recruiting is part of the job,” he said. “Some like it, some don’t. I’ve always enjoyed it.”