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There’s lots of familiar faces tonight
By Joe Scalzo
YOUNGSTOWN
Chuck Perazich would have enjoyed this one.
The late Vindicator sports editor was famous for saying, “There’s always a Youngstown connection,” and he would have found a lot of them in tonight’s matchup between Youngstown State and Michigan State.
The Spartans’ head coach, Mark Dantonio, was the defensive secondary coach and defensive coordinator for the first five years of Jim Tressel’s tenure at Youngstown State. Tressel replaced Bill Narduzzi, whose son Pat played for his father in 1985 and is now the defensive coordinator for the Spartans.
Add in Michigan State linebackers/special teams coach Mike Tressel (Jim’s nephew) and Spartan freshman safety Kurtis Drummond (a Hubbard High graduate) and it’s easy to see why tonight’s game carries some special meaning.
SDLqThis is a little bit of a homecoming, I guess, even though they’re coming up here, for not only myself but Coach Narduzzi, as well, because he has a past there,” Dantonio said. “I spent a lot of time there and a lot of things were built there in the time that I was there and then a lot of things came later with Coach Tressel. It’ll be exciting.
“I know a lot of people that are still there administratively. Ron Strollo is their athletic director; he was a tight end on our team when we were there, so it’ll be good to see him.”
This is YSU’s first meeting with Michigan State but Dantonio said the Youngstown connection played no part in scheduling the game.
“I don’t think we said, ‘Hey, because I used to be at Youngstown we’re playing them,’” he said. “I think it’s an opportunity to play a football team from the Missouri Valley Conference and a football team with tradition.”
YSU coach Eric Wolford said he exchanged texts with Dantonio earlier this week as both were dealing with deaths in the family. Dantonio’s father, Justin, passed away on Sunday, as did Wolford’s grandmother.
“There is a Youngstown connection here, and we embrace it,” said Wolford.
Wolford was an assistant for two years at Illinois and said he crossed paths several times with Narduzzi when they were out recruiting. Both are Ursuline graduates.
“[Michigan State] was one of my teams in my two years at Illinois that we didn’t get to play, and it was a team that I always wanted to play,” Wolford said. “When I was a young kid or an entry-level coach, I always said when [Nick] Saban was [at MSU], ‘That’s a really good job. That’s a place that you can win at because there’s a blue-collar toughness to that school that we all know about.’
“So I see some similarities between that program and the perception of it and Youngstown.”