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YSU: No talk of playoffs just yet
By Joe Scalzo
YOUNGSTOWN
His press conference had just finished and as YSU sophomore quarterback Kurt Hess walked away from the podium, he spotted a reporter and said, “It’s more fun to talk about the playoffs.”
Hess has done more interviews than any other player over the past two years, patiently answering questions after a lifetime’s worth of close, agonizing losses.
On Tuesday, he finally got to talk about a close win.
“We are a confident bunch,” said Hess, three days after upsetting the nation’s No. 1 team, North Dakota State. “This was a big win for our program and for us players, the hardest thing we have to deal with this week is staying focused and preparing like it’s just another week.
“We’re learning how to win.”
It hasn’t been easy. YSU entered training camp 31/2 months ago with 46 new players, including 29 on defense.
Everyone felt it was a more talented team than the one from 2010, which went 3-8 and lost seven straight games (all by 10 points or fewer) down the stretch.
Everyone also knew it was a young team, with just one senior starter on offense and four on defense. The optimistic scenario seemed to be a 7-4 record and a chance at the playoffs.
“We had a lot of new guys who didn’t understand the way we do things around here,” said YSU coach Eric Wolford. “As coaches, you can make excuses, but then you sound like an excuse guy.
“But the reality of it is, we’re still growing up as a football team.”
YSU won two of its first three, then lost to Indiana State and South Dakota State in back-to-back weeks, dropping Wolford’s record to 2-9 in conference games.
No one knew it at the time, but it would be the turning point of the season.
“It was a very devastating loss,” said quarterback Kurt Hess. “It was emotional. And there was definitely questions in our locker room and Coach even had to tell us to take time and look at yourself as a player and look at yourself as a player.
“It was a trigger for us that we needed as a team and we’ve played well since then.”
YSU, which has won five of six games, enters Saturday’s game against Missouri State with a 6-4 record and a chance to make its first playoff appearance since 2006. A win over the Bears, combined with an Illinois State loss to Northern Iowa, should be enough.
“It’s hard not to think about [the playoffs] but you have to think about the game itself and take it as any other game,” said senior defensive end Daniel Stewart. “We don’t want to get into all the distractions. We need to focus on what we have to do.”
Since he was hired in December 2009, Wolford has been outspoken about his plan to return the program to its past prominence, which starts with making the postseason. But after turning over more than 75 percent of the roster in his first 20 months, Wolford admitted the turnaround has come faster than even he expected.
“I’m not a very patient person, but being realistic, with all the transactions we had and the changes we had to make and the youth in the program ... I’d say we’re probably moving along at a pretty good clip,” he said. “That’s kind of where we’re at.
“It can be all for naught here real soon if we don’t take care of business.”