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Shaw leads YSU parade of transfers
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Youngstown State tight end Will Shaw (8) goes for the ball while safety Jeremey Edwards defends during a recent scrimmage. Both are junior college transfers who have found success with the Penguins.
By Joe Scalzo
YOUNGSTOWN
In May 2010, Youngstown State coach Eric Wolford brought in his first four transfers.
Three were highly-touted: wide receiver Juilian Harrell, a transfer from Miami (Ohio); cornerback Grant Mayes, a transfer from Syracuse; and running back Adaris Bellamy, a former four-star recruit who originally committed to South Florida before going to prep school.
The fourth was a junior college safety named Will Shaw.
Harrell lost his starting job after one year, Mayes rarely saw the field in his two seasons and Bellamy is battling a knee injury after two solid-but-unspectacular years as a backup.
Shaw, meanwhile, has emerged as one of the team’s best players, a game-breaking tight end who could draw NFL interest next spring. He’s one of 10 junior college transfers who start for the Penguins, a list that includes all four defensive linemen and three of the four defensive backs. That number goes to 11 if you count senior kicker David Brown.
“I think it [getting junior college transfers] has helped us tremendously, especially defensively” said senior RB Jamaine Cook, who signed with the Penguins out of Midpark High School near Cleveland. “It brings in some experience. It’s not a guy that’s fresh out of high school. They have some college experience against a good level of competition.
“So those guys like Jeremey Edwards, Julius Childs — those guys have come in and done a great job.”
While YSU’s best player on defense last season was a Division I transfer (DT Andrew Johnson from Bowling Green), the Penguins have just one Division I transfer in this year’s starting lineup — senior Andrew Radakovich (Penn State).
In fact, of the 86 players on YSU’s roster, just four are FBS transfers, a surprisingly small number considering those players must sit out a year if they transfer to another FBS school but can play immediately at FCS schools.
“I think that’s been part of my learning process,” Wolford said. “It’s so tempting sometimes to take a Division I transfer. It’s a tease, it really is, and I catch myself falling into that trap often.
“But you have to reflect back to when you were there [as a Division I assistant]. Unless they had a serious infraction with the law or blew up their dorm room or something, we didn’t let the good ones go unless it was a unique circumstance like a coaching change or something like that. I should have learned my lesson from that.”
Saturday’s 31-17 victory over Pittsburgh has boosted YSU ticket sales for Saturday’s home opener against Valparaiso. Approximately 11,000 tickets have been sold through Wednesday. Last year, the Penguins averaged 13,811.
Wolford said YSU gets a decent amount of interest from FBS players looking to transfer each summer.
“More times than not, after I watch them on film, I realize that they can’t play here,” Wolford said. “We have a lot of guys on our football team that could be playing for a lot of teams around the country.”
While FBS schools also use junior colleges to find talent — Auburn’s Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Cam Newton, for instance, came out of the junior college ranks, albeit after leaving Florida — those schools typically try to add those players in January so they’re available for spring practice.
Wolford also prefers to add players early — starters Mark Pratt (center), Lamar Mady (guard) and Josh Fenderson (DE) all started classes in January 2011 — but he’s willing to wait until late spring or summer if a really good player needs extra time to finish his classwork.
“A lot of times, those big boys [major programs] won’t wait,” Wolford said. “They’ll just move on.”
Regardless of when they come, or where they come from, it’s up to the individual player to earn his spot. And in the case of Shaw, who began his career at safety before moving to linebacker, defensive line and, finally, tight end, that might take some time.
“It just comes down to the person,” Shaw said. “A lot of us have just really dedicated ourselves to our program and put forth the effort to get better and buy into Youngstown State.”