Messages

226

YSU Penguin Athletics / Re: Jim Tressel stepping down as YSU President

« on: June 23, 2022, 11:12:56 PM »

He will have held this job for over 8 years, a very long tenure for a college president in this era. He will be 70 or very near it on his last day.  It is time.  Few men in the history of the university will have left behind a more enduring legacy, in Stambaugh stadium or in Tod Hall.

227

YSU Penguin Athletics / Re: YSU Baseball

« on: May 30, 2022, 09:36:38 PM »

Unfortunately, the university was unable to acquire all the property between Fifth and Belmont and between Lincoln and the service road. We could have constructed an awesome sports complex that served baseball, track, soccer, softball, lacrosse, and tennis. The opportunity for an on-campus baseball facility is now gone. The facilities that have been squeezed into the available space are fantastic.

There is one other possibility, not on campus but on the edge of downtown. There is one more large tract of former steel mill property just east of the South Avenue bridge, opposite side of the Covelli Center. That land could house an all-turf baseball field that could accommodate YSU, high schools, and amateur baseball during the summer. I wonder if anybody ever gave that some consideration.

228

YSU Penguin Athletics / Re: YSU Baseball

« on: May 29, 2022, 11:47:21 PM »

We have endured enrollment decline, but Akron and Wright State lost 39% and 40% of their students during the past 5-7 years (don't remember which is which.)  Wright State was operating this year with just 11 sports and received a waiver to stay in D1.  They will have the required 14 sports next year by adding women's bowling and men's indoor and outdoor track.  In comparison, I believe we now offer 21 sports.

The Horizon League designates three men's sports as primary (soccer, basketball, and baseball.)  You must participate in two of those. So YSU baseball is safe unless we started a men's soccer program. And the interest in that in the community is nonexistent (thank god.)

229

YSU Penguin Athletics / Re: YSU Baseball

« on: May 28, 2022, 11:24:06 PM »

The Horizon League tournament finished up today and Wright State beat Oakland in the championship game 24 -0! Unbelievable score. Wright State is above the rest of the league in baseball for sure. And the championship format demands many good pitchers for the 4 or more games most would need to play in the bracket. Wright State only played 3 games and won them all, getting the benefit of winning the regular season title. Oakland was 2nd. Oakland had played 3 and were in their 4th game so their pitching was thin. Oakland beat YSU twice by 2 -0 and 4 - 2. YSU beat Purdue Fort Wayne 6 - 0 and Northern Kentucky  11 - 7.  Our pitching was remarkably good in the tournament but our offense was lacking. One thing I noticed is that many of the teams had players from all over the map and we only had mostly somewhat local players. The transfer portal hurt us losing 5 players. Not sure what we got in return, but it did not measure up to our losses of talent. Need to work the portal better this coming season much like football, MBB, and WBB who did well in the portal. A new world in college sports these days. And probably our recruiting budget and overall budget is less than the other schools. All in all not a bad showing in the tournament. And Matt Brosky, our great starting pitcher, made the all-tournament team with a 3 hit complete game shutout in less than 100 pitches. He may get drafted as scouts were at the games.

Finishing third was a nice accomplishment for this team. As you pointed out, we were torched by the transfer portal and left with a very weak offense. It would indeed be interesting to learn what other Horizon League schools spend on baseball. I suspect that baseball is an afterthought at every league school except for Wright State.

230

YSU Penguin Athletics / Re: Future Football Schedules

« on: May 20, 2022, 11:22:26 PM »

Yes! But we still need one conference, and two out of conference games for 2023 according to what I'm seeing on Future schedules site!

At the time that the OSU game was announced, media reports stated that we were indeed also hosting Valpo and Robert Morris.

Disregard the 2023 conference schedule that you are looking at. The league office announced that the 2023 schedule would be completely reworked to accommodate Murray State at a future time.

231

YSU Penguin Athletics / Re: 2023 football commit

« on: May 19, 2022, 05:30:10 PM »

Is that the kid from Hubbard?  Baseball was my game so I can't evaluate football players.  But an acquaintance who played under Narduzzi told me that this kid is not good enough to play at the FCS level. Take that for whatever it is worth. 

232

YSU Penguin Athletics / Re: Garrett Coviington is in the transfer portal

« on: May 19, 2022, 05:24:41 PM »

Dana Balash is reporting that Covington is returning to YSU for his sixth season.  Apparently, not much interest in the transfer portal for a guard coming back from a serious injury.

233

YSU Penguin Athletics / Re: Mark Waid

« on: May 12, 2022, 05:26:20 PM »

In retrospect, Waid should have just gone to Fordham right out of high school. Remember that Pelini recruited him late after experiencing pressure from the locals. Then shortly before bolting for his ill-fated gig at LSU, Pelini recruited Crenshaw.

234

YSU Penguin Athletics / Re: incoming fb xfer

« on: May 07, 2022, 09:52:29 AM »

Our new linebacker coach worked at Western Illinois, so he is getting a known commodity. WIU had a really bad defense, but we can't rule out the possibility that this kid can play.

235

YSU Penguin Athletics / Re: Tennis

« on: May 04, 2022, 05:37:33 PM »

Congratulations to both teams.  I watched both championships on Sunday.  Impressive, and both teams are very young.

Also congratulations to the lacrosse team that finished the regular MAC season as tri-champions with a 8-2 conference record.  Amazing to tie two established programs in only our second year of operation.

Expect the track teams to collect more hardware this weekend.  It has been a good spring.  Only the softball team is under-performing. Baseball is bad but I understand that they were destroyed by the transfer portal after last season.

236

YSU Penguin Athletics / Re: YSU at Ohio State Saturday September 9th 2023 (Time TBA)

« on: April 26, 2022, 12:52:15 PM »

Be Happy!  YSU Football needs all the help they can get with recruiting both players and coaches.

Losing 63-0 and being mocked by the Ohio sports media will repel recruits and drive away casual fans.  It was far better in the 1990s when thousands of fans in the Mahoning Valley believed that we could play with OSU.  They were delusional, but their faulty perception was actually helpful to the program.  Nothing good can come out of this game except the money.  And there better be a lot of money!

237

YSU Penguin Athletics / Re: YSU at Ohio State Saturday September 9th 2023 (Time TBA)

« on: April 25, 2022, 05:19:49 PM »

I hate these games but I guess that they are a fact of life. I wonder how much we will make from this game. It might be enough to nearly pay for replacing the seats in the gym.

238

YSU Penguin Athletics / Re: Spring Game

« on: April 25, 2022, 01:20:30 PM »

  Agree with many of the comments above.   D-line looks like a strength.   I think we have capable back up running backs with Dra Rushton and Randy Smith, appears to be more depth and talent at wide receiver.   McLaughlin did not play, I think he and Crenshaw give us skill and talent to compete.  However, the O-line is an issue, just not very good.   Going to be hard to win in our conference without a good o-line.

Agree.  Did all the o-linemen play?  Is that really the starting unit or did we experiment? With 17 o-linemen on the roster I am still hoping that we can find five who can form a cohesive unit.  One good thing is that of the three MVFC teams that annihilated us up front last season (NSDU, SDSU, UNI,) we don't play two of them this year.

239

YSU Penguin Athletics / Re: Women's BB news

« on: April 22, 2022, 12:47:20 PM »

Barnes likes to isolate the post and Lily Ritz was G-d send for the program this past season.  She's gone and now he plugs in a Tennessee transfer to take her place is pretty impressive.

Unfortunately, I think she only has one year of eligibility left at YSU.

Factoring in the Covid year, Ritz has one year of eligibility remaining.  The Tennessee girl played for three seasons. Unless she redshirted as a freshman, that would give her two years of eligibility remaining.

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YSU Penguin Athletics / Re: Women's BB news

« on: April 21, 2022, 10:28:46 PM »

Excellent news. Building that pipeline to West Virginia seems like an excellent idea.