From today’s Tribune/Vindy:
Scouting Report Week 2: Dayton
LOCAL SPORTS
SEP 8, 2022
JOEL WHETZEL
Staff writer
jwhetzel@tribtoday.com
Correspondent photo / Robert Hayes Youngstown State SAM linebacker D’Marco Augustin makes a one-handed pass breakup against Duquesne last week. Augustin and the Penguins welcome Dayton to Stambaugh Stadium this Saturday.
YOUNGSTOWN — If it’s true that a team’s biggest jump comes between Games 1 and 2, then consider this Youngstown State’s opportunity to show it’s prepared for a steep climb in schedule difficulty after Saturday.
YSU began its season last Saturday with a 31-14 win over Duquesne, and there was plenty to like. Still, there were a number of things the Penguins (1-0) need to clean up as they host Ohio’s only other FCS program, Dayton, on Saturday at the Ice Castle before rounding out nonconference play next week at Kentucky.
“There are goals that we set each week, whether it’s yards per (pass) attempt or stopping the run. So we have to continue to focus on what we can do to get better and hit those areas,” said YSU coach Doug Phillips. “I always say that practice execution becomes game reality. I think Bill Belichick said that, and we stress that each and every day. If we’re not making the passes on third down in a Wednesday practice, what makes you think that’s going to happen on Saturday? So our kids have to take that jump, that big leap, and keep improving in those areas.”
And he highlighted a few of those areas, in addition to the aforementioned pass game. YSU began each half last week by giving up a touchdown to Duquesne, and also left points on the table due to not finishing drives and special teams miscues, the latter of which being an oddity for the Penguins since Phillips took over.
Phillips added, “There’s a lot of improvement we can make. I think this team will continually get better week by week, but we have to make a huge jump this week.”
In Dayton (1-0), YSU is getting an opponent that rallied from a 14-6 halftime deficit at Robert Morris for a 22-20 win over the Colonials.
Similar to the Penguins, Dayton used its run game for most of its offense. That begins with dual-threat quarterback Dante Casciola.
The redshirt freshman went just 10-for-19 for 87 yards passing last week, but led the Flyers with 96 yards and a touchdown on the ground.
“Compared to Duquesne, they run a lot more. The quarterback looks to run around a lot,” said YSU defensive end Dylan Wudke. “I think he had more rushing yards than passing yards. On pass plays, he’ll sit back, look around and then take off, so we have to contain him in the pocket, and in the run game we have to be early in stopping and being violent up front and change the line of scrimmage.”
As a team, Dayton ran for 230 yards and two touchdowns on 44 carries, an average of 5.2 yards per carry. In addition to Casciola, tailback Jake Chisholm, a StatsPerform Second Team All-American last year, tallied 75 yards on 22 attempts, and also led the Flyers with three receptions. He’s Dayton’s all-time leader in all-purpose yardage.
That will provide a good test for a YSU defense that had no trouble stopping Duquesne’s run game last week. The Penguins allowed just 51 yards on 25 carries.
Similarly, Dayton’s run defense was stout against the Colonials last week. Dayton allowed just 30 yards on 25 attempts for an average of 1.2 yards per carry. Linebacker Nathan Arthur led that charge with nine tackles and a forced fumble.
Of course, RMU doesn’t feature the rushing attack that YSU does, and Penguin running back Jaleel McLaughlin is coming off of a performance in which he needed only 20 carries to pile up 203 yards and three touchdowns. Behind him, Dra Rushton supplied a nice change of pace for the Penguins and ran six times for 41 yards. As a team, YSU tallied 274 yards on 41 carries — 6.7 yards per attempt.
As Phillips alluded to, though, it wasn’t a perfect day for the offense either. Demeatric Crenshaw completed just 14 of 29 passes for 154 yards and no touchdowns. He averaged 5.31 yards per attempt, and YSU’s offense struggled at times to finish drives that were venturing into Duquesne territory.
As far as Dayton’s defense goes, YSU receiver Bryce Oliver, who had six recepetions for 58 yards, noted that the Flyers will give YSU a lot of one-on-one opportunities on the outside.
“They play a lot of quarters as we watched on film (Tuesday) morning, so just manipulating certain leverages, getting certain matchups, O-line taking care of what they have to do, running backs take care of what they have to do,” Oliver added.
That also could provide an opportunity for the YSU pass game to get back to what Phillips said he saw during the preseason.
“We missed some throws that we’ve seen us hit in summer camp, and we have to go back, and figure out why we weren’t hitting those in the game,” he said. “We had that goal of 8.5 (yards per attempt). What we did was study all the playoff teams from last year … and what was their yards per attempt in the passing game? Anyone that made the playoffs, they were all in the 6.5, 7.5 and 8.5 or 9 (range), and we said that’s what we need to get to.”
ABOUT THAT SERIES HISTORY
Dayton leads the all-time series 9-1, but the teams have only met once since the 1980s. That came in 2013, when YSU defeated the Flyers 28-10.
Prior to that, the teams had last met in 1977, a 27-23 Flyer victory. Current Dayton head coach Rick Chamberlin was a Flyer linebacker in that contest.
SCORING STREAK
Dayton has scored in 498 consecutive games, but 194 of those weren’t at the Division I level. Still, it’s the longest active streak in college football. Dayton’s last shutout loss was to Marshall, 9-0, on Oct. 16, 1976.
PREDICTION
Youngstown State corrects its mistakes from Week 1 and wins 34-7, but Dayton pushes that scoring streak forward another week.
