YOUNGSTOWN
Last summer, Youngstown State left tackle Andrew Radakovich confidently predicted that the Penguins would pull a Week One upset over Penn State, figuring the Nittany Lions would be distracted by their Week Two game against then-defending champion Alabama.
“I’m pretty sure they’re looking more toward the Crimson Tide than the Crimson Penguins,” he said at the time.
YSU lost 44-14. A week later, Penn State fell 24-3.
A year later, when asked about making that prediction, Radakovich smiled and said, “That’s what people told me. I blacked out during that interview. I don’t remember that.”
Friday night, YSU will open its season at 17th-ranked Michigan State. The Penguins are coming off their worst season in 15 years but Radakovich hasn’t softened his stance.
“I hope to win every game we play,” he said. “I’m not trying to be arrogant. That should be every team’s goal — whatever opponent you have, to beat them.”
The Penguins went 3-8 last year, losing their last seven games. It was their worst season since Jim Tressel went 3-8 in 1995 but the record was somewhat deceiving. YSU led in all 11 games and held second-half leads in seven of those games.
Maybe most telling: YSU lost by five points or fewer to the league’s three playoff teams, North Dakota State (34-29), Western Illinois (40-38) and Northern Iowa (34-30) and held fourth quarter leads in all three.
The last-second losses led to a litany of “What if?”s — from the poor kick coverage against North Dakota State to the Hail Mary loss to Illinois State to the last-second defensive stand by Indiana State — but none bigger than this one: What if senior safety Andre Elliott hadn’t suffered a season-ending shoulder injury in Week 4?
Considering the team’s problems in the secondary, would they have won at least two more games?
“Possibly,” YSU coach Eric Wolford said. “We could have won five more. You just never know. You can always say ‘What if?’ and this or that, but our thing is, you’ve gotta play the cards you’re dealt.
“Last year was last year. It doesn’t matter whether we were close or not. This year we’ve got to go out and play again.”
Unhappy with a defense that ranked next-to-last in the conference in yards allowed (439 per game) and points allowed (34 per game), Wolford brought in 29 new defensive players in the offseason and 45 new players overall.
Eight of those newcomers earned starting spots as the Penguins upgraded their depth, size and team speed.
“We had some pretty talented guys last year but we have a lot more talent on the field now,” said Radakovich. “We’re playing at a higher level than we were at this time last year.”
The change is most evident at wide receiver and defensive back. The three starting wideouts (senior Andre Barboza, sophomore Jelani Berassa and freshman Christian Bryan) have a combined one start between them. Only one starting defensive back, sophomore cornerback Donald D’Alesio, has played even one game for YSU — and those all came at safety.
Fortunately, the Penguins have experience at quarterback (where sophomore Kurt Hess is entrenched after earning conference freshman of the year honors), running back (junior Jamaine Cook, the team’s MVP, anchors the team’s most talented unit), offensive line (Radakovich has started the last 19 games at left tackle), defensive line (senior DT Andrew Johnson started every game last season) and linebacker (senior John Sasson led the team in tackles last fall).
“I think what’s different this year is we have a little better idea of where we are just because we’ve been through the rodeo with these guys,” said Wolford, who was a rookie head coach at this time last year. “A lot of times when you’re a coach, you don’t know what to expect from the first game or how they’re going to respond.”
YSU hasn’t had back-to-back losing seasons since 2003-04 and while the Penguins are picked to finish eighth in the nine-team Missouri Valley Football Conference, anything less than six wins would be considered a disappointment.
Wolford didn’t want to make a prediction about wins and losses but it’s clear he expects to compete for a postseason spot sooner rather than later.
“We expect to have success and I’m gonna leave it at that,” he said. “We all know what success is around here and what the standard is.
“Anything shy of that will be a disappointment.”
