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YSU visits winless Sycamores
By Brian Dzenis
YOUNGSTOWN
Indiana State has not won a game this season, but it has won a game called “Two degrees of Bo Pelini.”
The Sycamores are in a rebuilding season under first-year head coach Curt Mallory, who is the younger brother of current Atlanta Falcons secondary coach Doug Mallory. Doug was the defensive backs coach at LSU when the Penguins head coach was the defensive coordinator from 2005-07.
It is that connection that gives Pelini confidence to say the 0-8 Sycamores are heading the right direction.
“It’s a great football family. Their dad Bill was a great coach at Indiana for a long time. Their team plays football the right way,” Pelini said. “You don’t come in as a new staff and turn it around immediately. It’s hard and it takes time. I see all the makings of a team that’s getting better every week. I wouldn’t expect anything different knowing the family and what he’s all about.”
Indiana State’s current losing streak goes back to last season at 11 games. The Trees are last in the Missouri Valley Football Conference and their 0-5 conference mark is just one game back of both YSU (3-5, 1-4) and Missouri State (2-6, 1-4). The Bears and Sycamores met last week in a battle of two teams that were a a combined 1-13. That game went the way most Trees games have gone, as the Bears scored on six of their seven first-half possessions in a 59-20 defeat. The team’s most competitive loss is a 24-13 defeat to Illinois State on Sept. 30.
Going back the last three years, all of YSU’s games with Indiana State have been decided by three points. Last season, it took Valley Christian graduate Darien Townsend returning a punt 79 yards for a touchdown to down the Sycamores 13-10. YSU dropped the two previous contests with a score of 27-24.
It shouldn’t be a surprise, but the Trees are rooted at the bottom of most statistical categories among MVFC teams. The Sycamores rotate two red-shirt freshman quarterbacks Cade Sparks and Isaac Harker, who are pretty similar from a numbers standpoint. Both have four picks on the year. Sparks has 828 passing yards and five touchdowns to Harker’s 639 yards and three scores. Receiver Bob Pugh is fourth in the nation in yards per catch with 27 and has 568 yards and three TDs.
On defense, linebackers Jonas Griffith and Katrell Moss are fourth and fifth in the conference in tackles with 74 and 72, respectively.