43
Strollo weighs in on Pelini
By Steve wilaj
youngstown
Ron Strollo obviously saw Bo Pelini’s big meltdown at the end of Youngstown State’s Nov. 14 loss to North Dakota State. And the Penguins’ athletic director obviously wasn’t pleased, either.
But despite that incident — as well as YSU finishing 5-6 (3-5 Missouri Valley Football Conference) and missing the playoffs for the ninth straight season — Strollo saw plenty of positives from the homegrown Pelini in his first season with the Penguins.
“I think Bo’s been really really good with our kids,” said Strollo, now in his 15th year as AD. “That’s how I’ll always try to evaluate him. Our kids are excited to play for him — those are the expectations I had for him when he came in.”
While the Penguins finally adapted to Pelini’s ways by season’s end (it was a year-long process), YSU lost five of its six games by eight or less points. After a 3-1 start, it dropped three straight from Oct. 10-24 — and after bouncing back to control its own playoff destiny going into the final two weeks — also lost its final two contests.
So Strollo couldn’t deny there were some bumps throughout the season.
“This first season [with Pelini] isn’t exactly what everyone wanted,” he said. “A lot of times with new coaching staffs and changes — on the field and other things off the field — sometimes those speed bumps are a little harder to overcome.”
Pelini couldn’t be reached for comment for this story.
The bumpy season snapped the Cardinal Mooney graduate’s streak of seven-consecutive campaigns with at least nine wins as a head coach. Prior to joining YSU in 2015, he coached at the University of Nebraska, going 67-27 in seven years before being fired in 2014 amidst some controversy.
But Pelini actually fared better than current YSU President Jim Tressel in his first season leading the Penguins.
Before guiding YSU to four national championships in the 1990s, Tressel went 2-9 in his debut 1986 season. Also, Dike Beede went just 4-5 in his inaugural 1938 season, while Rey Dempsey was 4-6 in ’73 and Eric Wolford finished 3-8 in 2010.
Only Jon Heacock (8-3 in ’01) and Bill Narduzzi (5-4 in ’75) began their YSU careers with winning records. The second seasons have traditionally been much better for Penguins coaches — only Beede and Narduzzi followed with losing records — although Strollo knows Pelini had many chances for an especially strong start to his YSU career.
“Obviously, we knew the season would come down to a few games — it turned out a few plays in those games,” Strollo said. “Our success was determined on those few plays. You just never know, going into any season, how those plays will turn out.
“Like the last four years for us, we kind of fell just short again this year.”
Pelini has three years left on the four-year contract he signed with YSU in May.
“The playoffs and competing for national championships have been the expectations here for many, many years,” Strollo said. “That’s never changed. Just like coming in this year, we expected to be in the playoffs. Now we expect to be in the playoffs next year.”