Different backgrounds, same spring approach

By Joe scalzo

scalzo@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

Youngstown State senior cornerback Brandian Ross is a three-year letterman with 22 career starts and a reputation as one of the team’s best players.

Junior receiver Dionte Snow is a two-year letterman who has spent a lot more time on the sidelines than the field in his YSU career.

Snow entered this spring with nothing to lose, while Ross had everything to lose under a coaching staff that vowed no position is safe.

Both embraced that approach.

“That’s the way every practice should be,” Ross said. “Every practice, someone’s job should be on the line.

“You played last year, you played this year — it really shouldn’t matter. You’ve got to come out and compete for your job every day. To me, that’s making me a better player, so I like it.”

Ross hasn’t shied away from challenges in his college career, switching from safety to cornerback last offseason even though he earned honorable mention all-conference at safety in 2008.

The YSU coaches have worked with him on his footwork, adjusting his stance to give him a wider base and more power coming out of his breaks.

“He was very receptive to it,” said secondary coach Frank Buffano, a Mooney High graduate. “That tells me a lot about an individual.”

YSU coaches expect more from Ross than just strong play; they want him to show leadership on and off the field.

“He’s a veteran, he’s been around the program and I think he helps out with the younger guys,” Buffano said. “As far as his play, I think it speaks for itself. He’s got unlimited potential; he just needs to work at it.”

Ross was sick at the beginning of spring practice and missed a few sessions but said he’s 100 percent now. He said the main difference between this spring and last spring is practice intensity.

“It’s full-go all the time,” said Ross, a Richmond, Va., native. “We never stop working with this coaching staff. They put something new in every day and we go at it hard, 21‚Ñ2 hours, three hours, however long we’re out here.”

At 6-foot, 200 pounds, Ross has good size for a corner, which allows him to jam receivers at the line and get physical in the run game.

“He can make plays and he has experience,” YSU head coach Eric Wolford said. “He’s done some good things.”

Snow, meanwhile, has been one of this spring’s biggest surprises. He has just one career catch and has played mostly special teams so far in his career.

The new coaching staff has energized him and he’s impressed them with his play and his work ethic.

“Dionte has done a great job,” Wolford said. “He’s a guy who’s kind of been a bit of a surprise this spring and hopefully he continues to progress the next 10 days the way he has the first five.

“I think he can be an impact player for us.”

When asked about seizing the opportunity this spring, Snow said, “I looked at it as, It’s time to go. It’s time to get a position.

“Three years and I ain’t been playing, so it’s time to go.”

Snow (6-2, 195) has just one career reception, an 11-yarder against Pitt last fall, after a standout career at Toledo Scott that saw him catch 60 passes for more than 1,000 yards in his final two years.

“I think [I’ve] been more of a surprise because I didn’t play before the [new] coaches came,” Snow said. “So the coaches are a little surprised, but once they seen my work ethic, I think they kind of leaned toward my way.”

Snow has been working on getting good height at the top of his routes and coming out of his breaks with burst.

“Coach [Phil] Longo always stresses that fourth and fifth gear and that’s what I need to work on,” he said. “It’s way more intense [this spring] and they expect a lot more out of us, so we’ve got to come out every day with the same intensity.”