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Points piling up in MVFC games
By Joe Scalzo
YOUNGSTOWN
As everyone knows, the Missouri Valley Football Conference is a bruising, blue-collar, defense-oriented league.
Except that it isn’t.
Through the first three weeks of conference play, seven of the league’s nine teams are averaging at least 26 points per game. Only one — Western Illinois — is holding opponents to fewer than 22 points per game.
Surprised?
“Coming into the season, I probably thought it was going to be more of a defensive grind,” said YSU coach Eric Wolford, whose team is averaging 28.3 points in conference games and 32.2 overall. “The offenses have performed pretty well.”
The Leathernecks, who play host to the Penguins this weekend, have been particularly good on offense, averaging 448 yards in conference games alone. (That number balloons to 477 for all games.)
WIU coach Mark Hendrickson said it’s the consequence of high schools producing so many talented skill position players in recent years.
“They cannot all attend a Big Ten school or whatever major conference you want to name,” he said. “There are a lot of skill players left over, so to speak, for this conference.”
Wolford agreed but said the conference’s offensive minds also deserve a lot of credit for coming up with a variety of schemes.
“There’s a lot of good coaches in this league and I think the thing that stands out is there’s a lot of creativity on offense,” he said. “Teams can go to two backs and run lead zone, power I [and] isos and at the same time they have the ability to get out and play spread and run the zone read, zone read option, bubble screens and also throw the ball downfield.
“When you have the personnel to do all those types of things, [it] makes you defend the whole field.”
Although Youngstown State overhauled its coaching staff in the offseason, the basic offensive system (spread) is the same. But the results are different.
Last year’s team boasted a senior, two-year starter at quarterback (Brandon Summers), two senior running backs (Kevin Smith and Dana Brown) and a future NFL receiver (Donald Jones), yet the Penguins averaged just 336 yards and 21.1 points per game.
This year, with a redshirt freshman quarterback (Kurt Hess), only one non-freshman running back (Jamaine Cook) and just one returning receiver of note (Dominique Barnes), the Penguins are averaging 381 yards per game and 32 points.
To be fair, only one team has played more than three conference games — and Indiana State has played just two — so it’s a small sample size. And points could get tougher as the weather gets worse.
But, for now, offense is king.
“It is fun knowing we can go out every week in this conference and score a lot of points and light up the scoreboard,” Hess said. “But I think as an offense, we can do that in any conference in the nation.”