Penguin coaches want to bring back tradition

New coach Eric Wolford has been recruiting tirelessly in preparation for National Signing Day.

YOUNGSTOWN — When Louie Matsakis told his parents he was headed to Youngstown State to coach special teams and running backs, they laughed and e-mailed him his eighth grade class picture.

“I have on a Youngstown State national championship sweatshirt from the 1991 team,” said Matsakis, a Shadyside High graduate. “I said, ‘Well, I guess that was an omen. I guess I was born to be here.’ ”

After high school, Matsakis was a kicker at Emporia State from 1995-98. His first season, the school had an offensive line coach named Eric Wolford. The two stayed in touch through the years and when Wolford was hired as YSU’s head coach last month, he plucked Matsakis from Kansas.

“I walked into that door for the first time and I was honestly shocked,” said Matsakis of his first impression of YSU. “I didn’t know a lot about Youngstown State University and the first thing I saw was four national championship trophies. Then I walked to the left and saw a picture of Ron Jaworski. I didn’t even know he went here.

“I’m like, ‘Wow, there’s a lot of history, a lot of tradition.’ We just want to try to bring that back.”

Because they were hired late in the process, Wolford and his assistants have been putting in long hours recruiting in hopes of snagging the few remaining undecided players from around Ohio. Matsakis spoke at Wednesday’s Mahoning Valley Coaches Association banquet in place of Wolford, who had to cancel because he was recruiting a running back in Cincinnati.

When former Campbell coach Jeff Bayuk got the message, he told Wolford, “Don’t come back here without him.”

Wolford is known as an aggressive recruiter and he’s already snagged commitments from three local players: Ursuline running back Allen Jones, Mooney defensive back Donald D’Alesio and Newton Falls offensive lineman Stephen Page.

National Signing Day is Feb. 3.

“He told all of us in our first-ever staff meeting, ‘You’re not going to win an Indy 500 in a Chevy Cavalier,’ ” Matsakis said. “So recruiting-wise, that’s why he’s been out since the day he got hired trying to get guys from the whole state of Ohio to come up here and end up competing for us.”

Three assistant coaches joined Matsakis at Wednesday’s banquet: Secondary coach Ron Stoops, who is also director of high school relations; secondary coach Frank Buffano; and offensive line coach Carmen Bricillo. Wolford’s assistants come from a variety of backgrounds, so the challenge will be to mold those different philosophies into a unified system.

Matsakis said the team will be multiple on offense, running everything from an empty backfield shotgun attack to a traditional two-back approach. Defensively, Wolford plans to be aggressive, bringing different blitzes from different angles to take the action to the offense.

Wolford also plans to reach out to local coaches, hosting clinics and the school’s first-ever “Chalk Talk” on Feb. 16, giving area high school coaches a chance to listen to different YSU coaches talk about their specialties, then break up into groups afterward to talk about specific positions.

The key is developing relationships with area coaches, who can help them compete with Mid-American Conference schools such as Kent State and Akron for top talent.

“We want to beat those MAC schools so we can ultimately compete and win at that highest level,” said Matsakis. “Hopefully this fall we can get into the playoffs and make a run at it, if not win the whole shooting match.”

scalzo@vindy.com