43
RB Ruiz runs for two TDs as White cruises past Red
By Joe Scalzo
YOUNGSTOWN
With 10 minutes left in the opening quarter of Friday’s Red-White game, Youngstown State defensive coordinator Ron Stoops looked down at the offensive formation from the Stambaugh Stadium press box and started yelling into his headset.
“Draw! Draw! Draw! Draw!”
It was a draw.
“There it is!” Stoops yelled out, as the right side of his defense got sucked in and running back Martin Ruiz bounced outside. “C’mon!”
Ruiz cut back in and finished off a 17-yard touchdown to give the White (starting offense) a lead it would never relinquish, cruising to a 31-7 victory in the first spring game of the Bo Pelini era.
“I saw a lot we need to get fixed,” Pelini said. “There were some areas where we reverted back to some bad habits and that can’t happen.
“When you go out there when it’s quote-unquote ‘real,’ you’ve got to carry over what you’ve been coached to do when the lights come on and I thought we struggled at times with that tonight. Some [players] more than others.”
Friday’s game was the last of YSU’s 15 spring practices, a 32-day stretch that Pelini hopes laid the foundation for a team capable of ending YSU’s eight-year playoff drought.
“Our expectation, our standard is to compete for a playoff spot and compete for a national championship,” said Pelini, who was hired in December after seven years at Nebraska. “That’s what I came here to do. I don’t see any reason if we come together and do the right things why we can’t make that happen, but it’s not just magically going to happen. We’re gonna have to put the work in. There’s gonna have to be a level of commitment with this group of kids that hasn’t been here the last four or five years or whatever it’s been.”
Ruiz finished with 20 carries for 115 yards and two touchdowns, while sophomore quarterback Hunter Wells completed just 6 of 15 passes for 77 yards, although one was a pretty 35-yard touchdown pass to Andrew Williams down the left sideline that gave White a 17-0 halftime lead.
“We had a good first drive with a couple big plays, but we had a slump and that’s something we have to get better at,” Wells said. “We can’t have a high end, then choke down on a couple drives, then start showing up. We’ve got to be steady the whole game.”
Backup quarterback Ricky Davis, who switched over to the White team after starting with the Red, had the throw of the night — a 27-yard rope to I’tavious Harvin in the end zone — and sophomore kicker Connor McFadden added a 40-yard field goal in the win.
The Red offense mostly struggled against the backup defense, mustering just 191 yards (compared to 398 for the White) with nine punts. Running back Tevin McCaster had the lone score, a 6-yard run with 19 minutes left.
Safety Jameel Smith led the Red defense with a game-high 11 tackles, finishing off a strong spring after losing his starting job to Tre’ Moore early last season. With Moore nursing a hamstring injury for most of camp, Smith seized the opportunity to impress a new coaching staff.
“Basically, I just wanted to learn the new defense, get to know the coaches and do everything the right way, everything they asked me to do,” he said.
The spring game ended a busy stretch for Pelini, who hired a staff, moved his family back home, assembled his first recruiting class and held spring practice over four months. When asked if he’s glad the 15 practices are over, he smiled and said, “Honestly, I wish we had 15 more.”