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YSU eyes another run at fcs title Penguins hoping to do one better
By Brian Dzenis
The Youngstown State football team didn’t reach the top of the Football Championship Subdivision mountain, but the Penguins have a good idea how to get there.
The Penguins will go for its first back-to-back trips to a national title game since the 1993-94 seasons this fall. Last year’s 12-4 campaign featured four different starting quarterbacks, four suspensions at the worst time and five victories that came by a touchdown or less.
“I thought we were close. I hear a lot of coaches talking about how close some these games are in [the Missouri Valley Football Conference] and there’s no doubt about it,” head coach Bo Pelini said. “The difference between last year and the year before was we won a lot of those games.
“It was the ability to step up to overcome adversity and the mental toughness that’s required to win close games to get over the top is key.”
The Penguins return a mostly intact offense and a defense that is missing two NFL-caliber talents in Derek Rivers and Avery Moss.
OFFENSE
Despite using four different quarterbacks in 2016, Pelini is looking at just one to be his starter. Senior Hunter Wells got the vote of confidence from his head coach.
“Hunter is obviously our starter going in,” Pelini said. “He had a heck of a year. I thought he really came along and made a lot of significant improvements from the year prior. I feel comfortable with Hunter going in.”
A heck of a year may be underselling it a bit. Mays entered his junior season as the fourth string quarterback and didn’t see action until week 9 against Indiana State. He threw for 1,714 passing yards, 11 passing touchdowns and five picks as he started the team’s final nine games.
Pelini said he is also comfortable with sophomore Nate Mays backing up Wells. Senior Trent Hosick returns in a reserve role and while senior Ricky Davis is listed on YSU’s roster as a quarterback, he spent spring practice as a wide reciever.
There’s about 2,500 rushing yards and 18 touchdowns to replace with the departures of leading rushers Jody Webb and Martin Ruiz. Only two other running backs saw the field in 2016. Junior Tevin McCaster got a big stage to show what he was capable of in last year’s national semifinal against Eastern Washington, where the Newcastle native piled up 154 yards on the ground and three touchdowns. South Range graduate Joe Alessi has decent sample of stats, 223 rushing yards and two TDs on just 11 carries. Some incoming freshman to watch at that position include Farrell’s Braxton Chapman and Cincinnati La Salle’s Christian Turner. Champman is Farrell’s all-time leading rusher with 3,067 yards and has made a Class A state finals appearance in his career. Turner compiled roughly 1,400 all-purpose yards —split even between rushing and recieving — and scored 13 touchdowns as La Salle won the Division II state title in 2016.
With the exception of Darien Townsend, who left the team in April after his junior season ended with a suspension during last year’s playoffs, all of YSU’s wide receivers and tight ends are back. Senior Alvin Bailey leads the returning wideouts in catches, yards and touchdowns with a line of 47 catches for 511 yards and five TD’s.
Senior tight end Kevin Rader returns after making arguably the greatest catch in YSU history to send the Penguins to the National Championship game. He’s joined by fellow seniors Shane Kuhn and Anthony Parente as well as Virginia Tech transfer Chris Durkin.
Pelini was a bit cagey when discussing his offensive line. Starting center Vitas Hrynkiewicz and guards Justin Spencer and Gavin Wiggins are back, but Pelini is not naming someone to the remaining two spots just yet.
“When we get into camp, I’ll get more specific as we move along,” Pelini said, I’d be remiss to name names because you never know how things will turn out. Everyone is going in with a clean slate.”
DEFENSE
It’s a big ask to replace defensive ends Derek Rivers and Avery Moss, who are now in the NFL training camps with the New England Patriots and New York Giants, respectively. The only knowns with the Penguin defense is its linebackers and the interior of the D-line. The rest will have to be sorted out through August.
Just because the program’s all-time leaders in sacks are gone doesn’t make for a change in how the Penguins play defense.
“We’re not going to change how we play. We’ve had a lot of success over the years playing how we played and we have guys on our roster who will fit right in,” Pelini said. “It’s not that you can easily replace guys like [Rivers and Moss], but we have some able guys that are ready to step up and do their thing.”
The likely guys to take the end spots, junior Johnson Louigene and senior Fazson Chapman have a combined 15 tackles last season. Pushing them will be Florida transfer Justus Reed.
Juniors Savon Smith, Cody Squiric and senior Donald Mesier all return at defensive tackle.
The team’s leading tackler, junior Armand Dellovade, returns to the middle linebacker role as the only Penguin in 2016 to record 100-plus tackles with 105. Senior Lee Wright — the team’s top tackler in 2015 — is also back. Some of the younger names to look at are sophomores Christian Randall-Posey, Malachai Newell and redshirt-freshman Curtis Parks.
The secondary will see all new faces at safety and corner. Senior Warren Harding graduate Jayln Powell is the most experienced of the bunch with 49 tackles in 2016. Junior Avery Larkin and senior D.J. Thomas have seen first-team reps at corner this past spring.
SPECIAL TEAMS
Mahoning County has the punting and kicking market at YSU cornered. Springfield sophomore Mark Schuler returns as punter and Cardinal Mooney’s Zak Kennedy reprises his role in the kicking game. The most expereinced kick and punt returner coming back is Bailey, who averaged 20.4 yards on nine kickoff returns.