1. At Tuesday's press conference, YSU coach Eric Wolford was asked to name something that he learned about his team in the loss to Illinois.

"We're physically better up front than I thought maybe we were," he said. "We've always taken a lot of pride in trying to be good on the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball. We were physical and that's a good sign."

Well, the Penguins weren't nearly as impressive up front on Saturday against Duquesne. Once YSU took a 28-0 lead, it should have been able to run the ball at will, much like it did against the Illini. Instead, the Penguins managed just three first downs in the second half, repeatedly getting stuffed on inside runs.

The defensive line, meanwhile, couldn't get consistent pressure against mobile QB Dillon Buechel and gave up 15 first downs in the second half. Some of that was Buechel's doing — he either got rid of the ball too quickly against YSU's soft coverage or he bought time with his feet — but in Year 5 of Eric Wolford's program, you expect YSU to be able to dominate a lower-level FCS team on the line of scrimmage. For the final 40 minutes on Saturday, it couldn't.

2. As a charter member of the "Get Jody Webb the ball more often" club, I make this plea: Get Jody Webb the ball more often

Webb obviously can't match Martin Ruiz as a between-the-tackles runner, but no Penguin is deadlier in space. He caught two passes for 48 yards on Saturday and carried seven times for 30 yards, so it wasn't like the coaches ignored him. But he is deadly on screens, delays and wheel routes. I'd rather see him get a few more touches than watch Andre Stubbs get stuffed on yet another failed jet sweep.

3. I've been critical of YSU's decision to play three lower-level FCS teams, but maybe it's a good thing the Penguins aren't hosting a playoff contender next week. (I mean a REAL playoff contender. Butler, which made the playoffs last year by winning the non-scholarship Pioneer Football League, doesn't count.) Between Dante Nania's ankle injury and the myriad injuries in the secondary, YSU could probably use some more time.

4. On second thought, never mind. There's no defending a Butler game. It's just awful in every way. At least Duquesne is decent. Butler got smoked 55-14 by South Dakota State last year. Who wants to watch a game like that? Who wants to play in a game like that?

5. Saturday's attendance was 10,525, which obviously means "tickets distributed."

YSU can usually draw a pretty good walk-up crowd for the home opener, but not when it's raining up until kickoff. (And not when your last home game was a blowout/snowout.)

I'm not sure Saturday's second half performance is going to help, either. (He wrote ... understatingly.)

6. When I was at practice on Tuesday, I asked strength coach Mike Cochran to name the team's strongest players. He mentioned defensive tackle Emmanuel Kromah and defensive end Terrell Williams, but said for raw strength, the winner is nose tackle Octavius Brown.

That would have been my guess. The man is built like a fire hydrant.

Cochran said running backs Demond Hymes, Ruiz and Ryan Moore lead the conversation for YSU's strongest pound-for-pound player.