1. As I said in my previous blog, Eric Wolford was doomed by Saturday's blowout loss to North Dakota State. He needed either a victory or a close loss to survive and everyone knew it.

As one of the players' parents told me after the game, "I think everybody knew what was at stake."

Bottom line: When Wolford was hired, YSU made a big financial commitment to the new staff in salaries, budgets and facility upgrades. No one is expecting a repeat of the 1990s, but there's no reason YSU should go five years without making the playoffs.

Wolford knew the standard and didn't meet it.

2. Youngstown State was hoping to keep the news of Wolford's firing under wraps until it had a chance to tell the players personally, so they wouldn't find out about it through the news and social media. But in 2014, that's pretty much impossible.

Typically, the news gets leaked by the coach's agent and I'm pretty sure that's what happened here. Agents feed national reporters/websites the information, then use those same avenues to promote their clients for other jobs. You're already starting to see it with the YSU job, which should be a rumor magnet considering the Jim Tressel connection.

3. From what I could tell on Twitter, most of YSU's players were unhappy with the move, which makes sense. There's a lot of uncertainty that comes with a new regime and (often) a lot of change. Wolford, in particular, was very aggressive in getting rid of Jon Heacock's players when he arrived in 2010.

While I doubt the next coach will turn over 75 percent of the roster in the first 20 months like Wolford did, you can bet there are several current players who will be former players by the time next season starts. The worst part is, scholarships aren't guaranteed, so players are at the mercy of coaches who didn't recruit them. It's a rotten system.

4. Speaking of losing their jobs, this is a tough time for Wolford's assistants, whose contracts are only good through the end of February. While Wolford is guaranteed at least $100,000 over the next year (which is the cost of his buyout), his assistants aren't guaranteed anything. Most of those guys are good men who did a good job.
Coaching is a tough business.

5. On paper, YSU will return eight starters on both sides of the ball and should be a playoff team, which is why it's so important to hire a good replacement for Wolford.

While some fans stayed away this year because they grew tired of Wolford's late-season losses (and his brash personality), the bigger problem is the apathy around the program.

Take it from someone who has written several stories a week about YSU football since August — very, very, very few people were following the team. By the end of the season, the only thing fans wanted to read about was Wolford's job security. And once I started writing about it, my Twitter account blew up.

That apathy/anger doesn't happen overnight. And it won't change overnight. The next coach needs to win and engage the community. Otherwise, you're going to see a lot more home games with 1,000 fans (or fewer) in the stands.

6. I don't know who the next coach will be, but I was told the administration is going to "aim high." There are some guys they'd like to get. They're not sure they have a chance (especially since the next coach is "only" going to make $250,000), but they're going to try.

The Youngstown State job isn't quite as attractive as it was 15 years ago, but it's still a good one. Not too many FCS programs have the facilities, tradition and potential that YSU has.

7. One more thing to remember: Between Tressel's coaching tree and the Valley's strong coaching tradition, there are a lot of Youngstown connections. Mark Stoops had actually agreed to replace Heacock in November of 2009 before Florida State offered him the chance to become the defensive coordinator and make a truckload of money. Stoops, of course, is now the head coach at Kentucky and YSU's second choice just got fired.

8. My one piece of advice to the next coach — build around your seniors.

Wolford made it very clear that if two players were equal, he was going to play the younger player, which sounds good in theory but doesn't usually work. As radio analyst Chris Sammarone told me, "They're never equal; one guy is always better."

I also think it sends the wrong message to your players if you favor a younger guy just because he has more potential. It's hard to ask someone to stick around for four or five years, work their butts off in practice and in offseason workouts, and then give their job to some hotshot who hasn't earned it.

If the younger player is clearly better, play him. If it's equal, go with the upperclassman.

9. I know some people want to fire YSU athletic director Ron Strollo, but I'm not one of them. I'm a Strollo fan. He hasn't been a perfect AD but that job is tougher than people understand. YSU's athletic programs hit rock bottom in 2010 but they've improved dramatically since then and Strollo deserves a lot of the credit. So send your "Fire Strollo" tweets to someone else.

10. I'm on vacation beginning Tuesday but I'll have my usual YSU report card at some point this week and I'm sure I'll have the occasional tweet (@JoeScalzo1).

Oh, and Happy Thanksgiving, everybody. Thanks for reading all year.