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YSU faces nearly impossible task at Penn State
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Youngstown State football coach Eric Wolford gets his point across during a spring practice at Stambaugh Stadium. Wolford has brought in 36 new players to the program since taking over.
By JOE SCALZO
YOUNGSTOWN
In 2008, as an assistant coach at Illinois, YSU coach Eric Wolford traveled to Penn State to play a “Whiteout” night game at Beaver Stadium.
In front of 110,000 fans — nearly all of them in white — the Illini lost, 38-24.
“It was probably the best atmosphere I was in, next to the Rose Bowl,” said Wolford, who had helped the Illini make the Rose Bowl the year before. “It was electric.”
This is no small thing. Over his 16-year coaching career, Wolford has been at Michigan’s Big House, Ohio State’s Horseshoe, Alabama’s Bryant-Denny Stadium (during last year’s national championship season, no less) and dozens of other top stadiums.
“It was a unique experience and that’s something to be proud of,” Wolford said of the 2008 game. “Their fans are into the game.”
Saturday’s opener, Wolford’s first as a head coach, probably won’t be quite as noteworthy. YSU lost 37-3 to Penn State in the teams’ only other meeting, in 2006. And while the Penguins are seeking a program-defining upset, the Nittany Lions are likely more focused on their Week 2 game against Alabama not a Football Championship Division team coming off a 6-5 season.
“I’m worried about Youngstown because it’s been very difficult — new coach, new coordinators — to know exactly what to expect,” said Penn State coach Joe Paterno.
Wolford, who has spent most of his career coaching at the Football Bowl Subdivision level, called games against FCS teams “the scariest of my career.”
“These were the games we were most concerned about because no matter what you preach to your players, it just seemed like you could never get them to come out and play well early,” Wolford said.
Over the past six years at South Carolina (2009), Illinois (2007-08) and Arizona (2004-06), Wolford’s teams have gone 6-0 against FCS teams.
The closest games were at Arizona, when the Wildcats earned 18-point wins over Northern Arizona (2004) and Stephen F. Austin (2006). The biggest margin of victory came in 2008, when Illinois beat Eastern Illinois 47-21.
But every coach in the country — particularly one coaching in the Big Ten three years ago — remembers Appalachian State’s upset at Michigan in 2007. In fact, since 2006, three other FCS teams have scored road victories over Big Ten teams: North Dakota State beating Minnesota in 2007, New Hampshire beating Northwestern 34-17 in 2006 and Southern Illinois defeating Indiana 35-28 in 2006.
“On any Saturday, anybody can beat anybody,” said Wolford.
The Penguins are 19-23-1 against FBS schools, but have gone 0-5 over the past five years against BCS teams, losing by a combined 197-12 to Pitt, Penn State and Ohio State. They have yet to score a touchdown in those games.
“The first goal is to win, of course, but yeah, we want to score,” said YSU senior receiver Dominique Barnes, who is playing a BCS school for the fourth straight year.
Barnes admitted he gets excited for these games but said that feeling goes away after the first play.
“Then the butterflies go away and it’s just another game,” he said. “After playing Ohio State, you get used to it.”
Cornerback Brandian Ross, a three-year letterwinner, agreed.
“After doing it for two or three years now, it’s just football,” Ross said. “You’ve got to play hard, be focused and prepare like it’s any other game.”