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YSU’s only focus: beat MSU
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YSU silenced its doubters with a win over North Dakota State onSaturday. Now the Penguins must prove they can handle success.
By Joe Scalzo
YOUNGSTOWN
A few things need to happen for the Youngstown State football team to make its first playoff appearance since 2006.
The Penguins only control one of them: beating Missouri State.
“If we don’t beat them, no other scenario matters,” said junior offensive tackle Andrew Radakovich, “I’ve never seen a team more focused or more hyped up about an opponent.”
Coming off their biggest win in years, a 27-24 upset of top-ranked North Dakota State, the Penguins (6-4, 4-3 Missouri Valley) can force a three-way tie for third in the league with a win over the last-place Bears and an Illinois State loss to Northern Iowa.
That would leave YSU tied with the Redbirds and Indiana State and the Penguins are confident their resume would trump the other two.
“The question is, How do we handle success?” said YSU coach Eric Wolford, whose loss to MSU last year began a string of seven straight conference losses. “I go back to last year — we had a big win against Southern Illinois and we didn’t play very well the next week and we kind of struggled throughout the way.
“We were competitive but we didn’t get the job done. That’s part of showing that we’re a different football team.”
Making the playoffs seemed unthinkable in early October when YSU followed up a win over Illinois State with losses to Indiana State and South Dakota State.
“Indiana State, we came out and were flat-out not ready to play,” said Wolford, whose team fell behind 34-14 and eventually lost 37-35. “I’m not going to make excuses for that. After we warmed up, we rolled.
“South Dakota State, we know what really happened in that football game. I have to leave it at that or I’ll get fined [for criticizing the officials]. We didn’t play our best game but anyone who watched the TV copy could see we had some things taken away from us.”
Backs to the wall, YSU responded with wins over Southern Illinois — its first on the road in the Wolford era — Saint Francis and Western Illinois, then fell to UNI in the closing minutes. Then, after two year’s worth of close losses to the league’s best teams, the Penguins put it all together against the Bison.
“It felt good to finally say that Youngstown is starting to come back and we’re not going to be the pushover we have been,” said Radakovich. “We competed a lot last year and it felt good to finally be happy at the end of games, instead of heartbreak.”
YSU had a light practice indoors on Monday and will begin heavy preparation for MSU today. Wolford said his team must battle overconfidence — and the flu bug, which tackle D.J. Main picked up last week.
“The attitude has been great,” Wolford said. “They’re a great group of kids and they play hard. Our team plays hard, you know?
“Now, some of that hard work is paying off.”