Wolford confident of YSU future

YOUNGSTOWN — New Youngstown State football coach Eric Wolford took a seat near the back of a Stambaugh Stadium classroom on Wednesday afternoon as a 12-minute highlight film of his first recruiting class played on the front wall.

When it was over, he said, “The film speaks for itself.”

Wolford then proceeded to speak for 36 minutes, demonstrating the passion, honesty and (to put it mildly) self-assuredness he’s already well known for in the coaching community.

“You’ve heard this from me before and this is the simplest way to say it: You’re not going to go out there and win the Daytona 500 driving a tractor,” said Wolford, an Ursuline High graduate. “You can have the best driver, but if you don’t have the equipment for him to drive the car, you’re not going to win.”

Wolford signed 15 players — so far — to cap an extremely busy two months that saw him go from a South Carolina assistant coach to Jon Heacock’s successor, assembling his first staff and his first recruiting class in just weeks before National Signing Day.

He didn’t get every player he targeted, but he got more than he expected.

“I didn’t think we’d get this quality of player,” Wolford said. “I didn’t know how good of a player we’d be able to sign because of how late it was in the game.

“Some guys, we weren’t able to change [their minds]. You’re not going to win all those battles. But we made an impression.”

Among the highlights:

U Five area players — three from Mooney (CB Donald D’Alesio and offensive linemen Zach Larson and Eric Franklin), one from Ursuline (RB Allen Jones) and one from Newton Falls (OL Stephen Page).

UThirteen Ohioans.

UTwo others from Florida, with one each came from Illinois, Pennsylvania, Georgia and New Jersey.

UThirteen offensive players, including seven linemen.

UTwo transfers: DB Grant Mayes (Syracuse) and center Marc Stevens (Bowling Green)

Wolford expects more transfers in the next few months, but again emphasized he only wants the right transfer.

“I’m not going to take just any transfer,” he said. “I’m not going to let someone come in here and disrupt our football team.”

Immediately after being hired, Wolford began blanketing as many area schools as he could visit. His staff had the same directive as they set out to change the perception Youngstown had statewide.

For all the success the Penguins have enjoyed in football over the past few decades, the city’s reputation can often be a hindrance, particularly to parents of players in cities such as Columbus, Cincinnati and Dayton, Wolford said.

“People view Youngstown as a tough town,” Wolford said. “Those are the things I think parents sometimes have a concern about.

“I think the thing we gotta make people realize here, and I don’t know how to say this without telling you the way it is: We’ve got to change the perception of Youngstown. And we’ve got to change the perception of this university. We have the right people committed to it.”

The school’s facilities — which are better than some Big Ten schools, Wolford said — are an obvious selling point. But he said many players (and their families) don’t know enough about YSU’s educational opportunities, which include small class sizes and a large variety of majors.

“We need to make these people realize that you can get a quality education here at Youngstown,” Wolford said. “It’s a great school.”

Wolford has made no secret of his plan to go head-to-head in recruiting with Mid-American Conference schools such as Akron and Kent State. To do so, Wolford knows he needs to develop relationships with coaches statewide and, well, win a lot of games.

“You’re not going to just walk in here and get whoever you want,” he said. “In time, as word spreads and high school coaches start to have better relationships with us and our university, we’re going to become that much stronger.

“This is as weak as we’ll ever be.”

Although this year’s class isn’t huge, Wolford said he wants every player to come in with the attitude that he can earn playing time.

“I’ll always play the best player,” he said. “If it’s even between a young kid and an older kid, I’m going to play the younger kid because he’s going to be around here a lot longer. And that’s your fault as an upperclassman.

“If you let some rookie come in here and be even with you, then you’ve dropped the ball.”

Wolford’s message is certainly different than that of Heacock and Jim Tressel, who rarely made waves in press conferences.

But the Penguins are betting Wolford’s direct approach is the right approach.

“You put classes like this together in this short of time, I think it tells you the future looks bright,” Wolford said.

scalzo@vindy.com