Pelini’s promise: All eyes on the future

August 2, 2015 at 12:05a.m.

Coach embraces roster continuity

YOUNGSTOWN

Just before his first training camp at Youngstown State, Bo Pelini made one thing clear: whatever happened during the Eric Wolford era, stays there.

“You’ll never hear me talking about what happened in the past here,” Pelini said. “They did a good job here and Coach Wolford did a good job here and they worked really hard at what they did. What happened, happened. I don’t know exactly why those things happened. Sometimes the game gets you.”

That’s a stark contrast from Wolford, who wasn’t shy about taking shots at his predecessor, Jon Heacock. Pelini also differs from Wolford in another way: he’s embraced continuity, not change.

Of the 98 players on YSU’s roster as of Sunday, 66 of them were with the program last year. Only eight players from Wolford’s last team opted to leave Pelini’s program following spring practice and just one of those, tight end Chance Towery, saw action in a game last season. (He played in six games and did not record any statistics.) Three coaches — offensive coordinator Shane Montgomery, defensive coordinator Ron Stoops and offensive line coach Carmen Bricillo — are also still here from the Wolford era.

The Penguins will still have plenty of new faces, but most of those will come from a super-sized recruiting class of 26 true freshmen, including kicker Zak Kennedy, who joined the team for spring practice. (Three players from February’s class opted not to join the Penguins.)

Pelini has added two FBS transfers — sophomore FS Jalyn Powell, a Warren Harding High graduate, is transferring from Michigan State and junior SS LeRoy Alexander, a Toledo native, played the last three years at Nebraska — and may add another one before camp opens Tuesday. Former Nebraska DL Avery Moss enrolled for the spring semester and participated in spring practice. A rumored transfer, former Auburn DL Elijah Daniel, signed with Murray State this week.

He also added two junior college transfers: junior SS Jamar Pinnock (Scottsdale Community College) and junior DL Donald Mesier (Mesa Community College).

“When I first came in and looked at the roster, I didn’t think we were deep enough,” said Pelini, a Cardinal Mooney High graduate who joined YSU in December after seven years at Nebraska. “At the end of the day, there’s always going to be a separation between the first-team players and the second-team players — especially certain first-team players — but you want to try to bridge that gap as much as you can. And the way football is now with the length of the season, sometimes you’re gonna go into that third-team guy.

“We made a concerted effort in our recruiting and bringing in a couple transfers and a couple walk-ons, to really try to build our numbers and I think we’ve done that. Now it’s time to start developing those kids into players.”

YSU was picked to finish fourth in the Missouri Valley Football Conference’s preseason poll, not bad for a team that has made just one playoff appearance since Jim Tressel left after the 2000 season.

On paper, Pelini’s team is talented enough to end the school’s eight-year playoff drought. But, as Pelini said, “they’re going to get what they earn.”

“It doesn’t matter if they picks first, fourth or eighth,” he said. “At the end of the day, we get a chance to line up and make our hay.

“If we start earning it Tuesday and Wednesday and Thursday, and put the work in every day, we have a chance.”