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Most YSU candidates have Tressel connection
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Strollo
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Tressel
Source: Penguins encouraged by interest;
football job more attractive than in 2010
By Joe Scalzo
YOUNGSTOWN
No, Youngstown State is not going to hire former Nebraska coach Bo Pelini or Michigan State defensive coordinator Pat Narduzzi as its next football coach.
But despite making the playoffs just once in the last 14 seasons, it’s still an attractive job, according to FootballScoop.com’s Scott Roussel.
“It’s not like [Eagles coach] Chip Kelly is going to come there, but for the guys who want to be there, it’s a very, very, very good job,” said Roussel, whose national site covers the coaching industry. “It’s a very attractive job for the fit.”
Youngstown State fired head coach Eric Wolford last week after he went 31-26 and missed the playoffs in all five seasons. On Tuesday night, Roussel reported a list of seven candidates that have received interest from YSU, adding that several coaches have told him, “That’s not a stepping-stone job for a guy like me. That’s where I want to go, win and stay.”
The names all have ties to YSU President Jim Tressel, who led the Penguins to four national championships and played for two others from 1991-99. They include:
Don Treadwell (who was Tressel’s offensive coordinator at YSU from 1986-91).
Brian Wright (a former YSU offensive coordinator under Jon Heacock who is the associate head coach/offensive coordinator with Florida Atlantic).
Dave Warner (who is co-offensive coordinator at Michigan State under former Tressel assistant Mark Dantonio and who was a graduate assistant at Syracuse in 1982 when Tressel was the quarterbacks coach there).
Mark Snyder (who coached with Tressel at YSU from 1991-96 and at Ohio State from 2001-04).
Vince Marrow (a Cardinal Mooney graduate who is Mark Stoops’ recruiting coordinator at Kentucky).
Trent Boykin (who played for Tressel at YSU from 1991-94 and coached at YSU from 2000-02).
John Peterson (Akron’s offensive line coach who spent eight years as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator for Tressel at Ohio State).
Rick Shepas (a Mooney graduate who played at YSU and has been the head coach at Poland High and Massillon High and is now the head coach at Division III Waynesburg).
YSU athletic director Ron Strollo, who is the point man for the search but has consulted with Tressel, has been tight-lipped throughout the process. He declined to comment for this article but a source familiar with the search confirmed that Wright, Boykin and Shepas either have been interviewed or will be.
The source added a few other names of interest: Ohio State running backs coach Stan Drayton and Purdue defensive backs coach Taver Johnson, who both coached with Tressel at OSU, and Tressel’s nephew, Mike Tressel, who coaches linebackers and special teams at Michigan State. Mike Tressel has earned strong reviews from coaches across the country, the source said, but probably isn’t a realistic candidate here since it would look too much like nepotism.
In addition to Pelini and Narduzzi, YSU did reach out to several other big-name candidates such as Florida defensive coordinator D.J. Durkin (a Boardman High graduate), former Tampa Bay Buccaneers offensive coordinator Mike Sullivan (who coached with Tressel at YSU) and former Mount Union coach Larry Kehres, but they were not interested. Ohio State co-defensive coordinator Luke Fickell, who filled in as head coach between Tressel and Urban Meyer, is not a candidate at this time.
YSU is also pursuing several other candidates and while the university would like to move quickly, the shifting coaching landscape could open up some other opportunities. The source said YSU has been encouraged by the response and believes the job is more attractive than it was five years ago.
That said, YSU’s playoff drought hasn’t gone unnnoticed.
When asked if the job is less attractive than it was in 2001, Roussel said, “I’d be giving my opinion rather than anybody else, but yeah. I think there’s a lot of, ‘How are they not getting into the playoffs?’ out there. It doesn’t have the lure or the luster that it had 10 years ago or 15 years ago or whatever, but it’s still a very good job.”