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Uncertainty reigns in league
By Joe Scalzo
YOUNGSTOWN
During the offseason, Youngstown State football coach Eric Wolford and his staff watched film of every team in the Missouri Valley Football Conference, both to get a feel for the opponents’ style of play and their talent level.
“I kind of circled about three or four teams that I thought were far superior in talent,” said Wolford.
When asked if he’d like to reveal them, he said, “I’d probably prefer not to. That would put some other people down and then they could say, ‘Coach doesn’t think you guys are nothing.’ I don’t like to give them any more bulletin board material than they’ve already got.
“But you guys are smart enough. You’ll be able to stand out there on a weekly basis and figure out who looks good and who doesn’t, who looks like the Steelers and who looks like the Browns.”
Through two weeks of conference play, only two teams in the nine-team league are still undefeated: Western Illinois (which lost its last 10 games last fall) and Northern Iowa (which is just 2-2 overall). YSU plays at Western Illinois next week and plays host to UNI on Oct. 30, so the Penguins control their own destiny.
“Any team can win it this year,” said senior cornerback Brandian Ross. “There’s a lot of good teams. A lot of really good teams.
“The league is wide open. It’s anybody’s league right now.”
Youngstown State opened conference play by beating Southern Illinois 31-28 and snapping the Salukis’ 14-game conference winning streak. Then the Penguins blew a 17-0 lead in a loss to Missouri State last weekend, making them one of four teams with one loss in the conference.
“[Junior LB] David Rach said he learned last week that it doesn’t matter if you’re first or last in the league; every team is just as good as anyone else,” said freshman safety Donald D’Alesio. “Our goal was to win every conference game and we lost one. We got off track.
“But we feel like we have a shot like everybody else.”
YSU’s opponent this week, North Dakota State, lost to UNI and Western Illinois and can’t afford another loss if it wants to stay in the conference race. The Bison’s record is surprising, considering they defeated Big 12 member Kansas in the opener and are 3-0 outside the league.
“Everybody is kind of just playing right now and I think the month of October is going to be a defining moment for a lot of teams in the conference, Youngstown being one of them,” said Wolford, who admitted he’s been surprised by the parity. “We’re going to take it one game at a time but I think there’s a lot of big games coming up here for a lot of teams in this conference that’ll make or break their season.”