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YSU football gets down to business
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Youngstown State football coach Eric Wolford, left, talks with wide receiver Jelani Berassa during 2010 spring practice. The Penguins begin practice today for the 2011 season opener at Michigan State on Sept. 2.
By Joe Scalzo
YOUNGSTOWN
On Thursday afternoon, YSU football coach Eric Wolford saw sophomore wide receiver Jelani Berassa in the hallway, who told him, “Coach, I can’t wait to come to camp tomorrow.”
“You know you have to turn your cellphone in tomorrow, right?” Wolford said.
“I’m not worried about turning my cellphone,” Berassa replied. “It’s time to get down to business.”
Wolford smiled when retelling the story. Following a disappointing 3-8 season that featured several years’ worth of last-minute losses, Wolford will hold his first training camp practice today with a retooled roster and some pretty high expectations.
“There’s a standard around here,” Wolford said. “You guys know what the standard is. I don’t shy away from it. I know what it is. I think about it every day.
“My wife will tell you — at 1:49 a.m. this morning, I was thinking about it. It’s just the way it is. I embrace it. We’re going to get back to the standard that’s acceptable around here.”
The Penguins return seven starters on each side of the ball and open camp with 46 new players since last season. Only five of those new players were with the team during spring camp. Most, however, have been practicing with the team during voluntary workouts this summer, Wolford said.
“Our players have their own 7-on-7s, they have their own inside runs, they do their own drills,” he said. “They’re not completely walking in here with no idea.”
Wolford praised several players for taking leadership positions this summer, a list that includes sophomore QB Kurt Hess, junior RB Jamaine Cook and junior tackle Andrew Radakovich on offense and senior DT Andrew Johnson, senior DE Obinna Ekweremuba, senior LB John Sasson and senior SS Josh Lee on defense.
“Just a handful of guys have taken complete ownership of the team,” Wolford said.
That leadership coincides with an influx of talent that includes transfers from Miami, Fla., (LB Travis Williams and CB Devont’a Davis, both redshirt freshmen) and Michigan (redshirt freshman LB Davion Rogers) as well as a massive recruiting class of 24 freshmen and 10 junior college players.
They’ve already made an impression, Wolford said.
“When a bunch of young players in the program and the upperclassmen tell you, ‘Wow, coach. Wow. So-and-so and so-and-so can play.’ And the team doctor tells you after he gives them physicals, ‘Wow, we haven’t seen a guy like this around here, ever.’ And when someone else tells you some of these guys don’t belong here [because they’re too talented], those are all good signs,” Wolford said. “When a whole bunch of people are giving you feedback like that, it makes you feel good.
“And obviously it makes you feel good that 29 of them are on defense.”
YSU’s defense surrendered 34 points per game and 438.9 yards per game in conference action last fall — both second-worst in the league.
Offensively, the team was second-best with 422.2 yards per game and tied for third with 29.5 points per game. The biggest question mark offensively is at receiver, where someone (possibly Berassa) will need to replace Dominique Barnes’ production.
Wolford has 29 practices to figure it out. He’s excited to start.
“There hasn’t been a lot of sleep in the Wolford house, I can assure you of that,” he said. “But that’s a good thing because of the excitement.
“I’m excited to get around our players again.”