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Penguins’ Wolford wants more intensity at practice
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Youngstown State’s Jaimie Frasure (57) and Andy Colegrove (89) mix it up during football practice Tuesday at YSU’s Stambaugh Stadium. Head coach Eric Wolford is making his point to his team very clear during workouts: get physical or get lost.
By Jon Moffett
jmoffett @vindy.com
YOUNGSTOWN
Head coach Eric Wolford is making his point to the Youngstown State football team very clear during its offseason practices: get physical, or get lost.
“They understand that we’re going to be in your face coaching, that’s just the way it’s going to be,” Wolford said following practice Tuesday. “It’s not personal, we love you. But we’re not going to accept half effort.”
Wolford said it’s a good sign to hear “pads popping” during sessions. No noise means not enough intensity.
There was plenty of noise at Tuesday’s practice, but still not enough intensity for Wolford.
“I want people who are passionate about the game of football, it’s got to be important to you,” he said.
And when it comes to those who don’t have display the type of passion needed, Wolford has a very cut-and-dry message for them.
“You’ve heard me say this before, but football is not for everybody,” he said bluntly. “Not everybody is cut out to do this.”
Practices under the Wolford regime are, in a word, intense.
So what has been the biggest change?
“Physicality,” said junior tight end Andy Colegrove. “We’ve been doing the Oklahoma drill [a one-on-one test of strength] with the offensive line and defensive line, or tight ends and linebackers, pretty much every day.”
Colegrove said the biggest difference between this year’s spring workouts and last year’s is the physicality.
“The biggest weakness was definitely physicality last year,” Colegrove said. “If we ain’t physical, we ain’t gonna play is pretty much what they’re saying.”
Colgrove said Tuesday’s practice began with pads “thudding” instead of popping. Such a thing is not acceptable to Wolford.
“We came out and we were running around in first gear a little bit, so we had to get after them and crank it up a little bit,” Wolford said. “But we got our point across, and we’re going to be out here practicing as long as we need to be until we understand the tempo we want.”
Senior linebacker Na’Eem Outler said the defensive scheme has remained virtually the same. But the system will be more aggressive and attacking, and will feature more blitzes, which is fine with Outler.
But picking up a brand new system with so little time left has proven difficult.
“It’s been hard,” he said. “Being a senior, going through a whole other system and then your senior year everything switches over. It’s hard, but we adjust and it’s panning out right.”
Wolford said the biggest things to work and improve on from this past weekend’s scrimmage is the amount of penalties and third-down offense.
The defense, however, was a bright spot.
“It’ll come, we just have to continue to gain experience,” Wolford said.