Young Penguins make a splash

Influx of talent gives Youngstown State a lift.

By Lyndal Scranton

September 30, 2010

When Eric Wolford was hired as Youngstown State's football coach in December, he found a program that had slipped.

Asked on Wednesday his first evaluation of the Penguins, Wolford said he saw a lack of discipline and, more important, talent.

"We needed to do a better job recruiting," Wolford said. "Our level of talent had dropped significantly, especially after watching film of everyone in the league."

With 13 freshmen in his two-deep depth chart, Wolford's team is one of the Missouri Valley Conference's early surprises.

The Penguins, 3-1 overall and 1-0 in the league, are ranked 20th entering Saturday's game at Missouri State.

"It looks like they have the old Penguin swagger back," MSU coach Terry Allen said.

That appeared especially true last week. After falling behind reigning league champion Southern Illinois 14-0, YSU reeled off 31 unanswered points to win.

The Penguins have done it with a strong running game (sophomore Jamaine Cook averages 103.5 yards), good quarterback play (freshman Kurt Hess is completing 70 percent of his passes) and takeaways (a plus-5 in turnover margin).

"That's what wins football games," Wolford said of turnover margin. "The (ball) is gold and you have to take care of it."

Wolford, a former assistant under Steve Spurrier at South Carolina, said the players have bought into the toughness that he has demanded.

"We've created a culture and environment that's competitive," he said. "If you don't do things right (on the field), you're gonna be standing next to me.

"We like to work hard and do things right. It's early, but I feel we're headed in the right direction."

Turning sleepless nights into happy days

August 26, 2010

By Joe Scalzo

YSU football coach Eric Wolford has spent the last eight months treating every day like he’s preparing for a big job interview.

It isn’t a great approach if you want to catch up on your sleep but it’s pretty helpful in building a program.

“If you’ve got a big job interview tomorrow and it’s your dream job, I don’t know that too many people are going to sleep very well,” he said. “I’ve got my dream job every day, so my mind just constantly goes.

“That’s why you have to keep note pads by your bed. When you wake up, you write something down and hope you can go back to sleep.”

His offensive coordinator, Shane Montgomery, understands. After three years as the offensive coordinator at Miami (Ohio) — where he coached Ben Roethlisberger — he was promoted to head coach in 2004.

“You think you’re prepared,: said Montgomery, who went 17-31 from 2004-08. “But it’s not until you’re thrown into that seat that you realize, ‘I can’t let up. It’s my program now and I’ve got to kind of put my stamp on the program and do things way I want to do it.”

Wolford, an Ursuline High graduate, was a four-year starter at guard for Kansas State coach Bill Snyder, who in 1989 took over a team that had just been named “Futility U” by Sports Illustrated. Wolford was a member of Snyder’s first recruiting class, helping the Wildcats perform one of the most remarkable turnarounds in college football history. Wolford’s senior year, the Wildcats won their first bowl game, beating Wyoming in the 1993 Copper Bowl.

That stint, combined with a year as a graduate assistant, taught Wolford how to build a successful foundation.

“A lot of the things we do here, structurally and the foundation that we’re trying to lay here, is what Coach Snyder did at Kansas State,” said Wolford. “What he did there, it’s been documented, it’s the greatest turnaround in college football.

“There’s some similarities to what we have to do here.”

Wolford hasn’t been shy about his belief that the program has underachieved in recent years. He often references Jim Tressel’s success and believes YSU can reach those heights again.

It’s the biggest reason he took the job after spending much of his career climbing the Division I ranks.

“Some of my friends and people I know, their first head coaching jobs were at places that have never won,” Wolford said. “I think about Coach Snyder when he took over Kansas State. They had never won a bowl game and had the longest losing record in college football.

“That’s the exciting part about being here. We can win.”

Wolford is known as a relentless recruiter, something that was on display early when he assembled his coaching staff.

Although most of his assistants have a Football Bowl Subdivision (I-A) background, one of his best hires was receivers coach and recruiting coordinator Phil Longo, who spent the last two seasons as the offensive coordinator at Southern Illinois.

“Wolf is as direct and honest a guy as I’ve coached with,” said Longo, who helped the Salukis go 15-1 in the conference the past two years. “When they say he’s extremely passionate about the game, they’re not lying. He has the answers to a lot of things and when he doesn’t, he’s very humble about it and he’ll go find the answer.

“So for me, that’s his strength right now.”

Longo said the players and coaches always know what Wolford expects, which makes it easier for them to do their jobs.

“There’s never any confusion or gray area about what needs to get done,” he said.

Wolford also asks his assistants for input, starting each day with a staff meeting to make sure everyone is on the same page.

“I think he’s done a really good job of asking people’s opinions,” said Montgomery. “When you’re a head coach, you’re only as good as your assistants.

“You realize that we’re all in this together.”

And to be successful, Montgomery said, you have to find the style that fits you best.

“He’s learned there are ways to do things differently,” he said. “Things that Bill Snyder did that made him successful are different than what Steve Spurrier [at South Carolina] did. And Ron Zook [at Illinois] and Mike Stoops [at Arizona].”

The best approach, Montgomery said, it to take the best of what you’ve learned and make the job your own.

“I think you try to do what’s best for you and what’s best for your personality, because all head coaches are different,” he said. “Ultimately you have to get your team to do things right on and off the field.”

Oh, and one more thing, Montgomery said:

“You’ve got to win.”

Assistant coaches collect titles as way to get financial security

(PHOTO- South Carolina offensive line coach Eric Wolford, center, was also given the title of running game coordinator, in part so he could get a multiyear contract.)

By Steve Wieberg

November 11, 2009

Behold today's college football assistant coach.

He's an executive associate, senior associate, associate or assistant head coach. Or a running or passing game coordinator. Or in one case, a defensive passing game coordinator. The array of fancier, added-responsibility titles — beyond the traditional offensive and defensive coordinators — has reached the point that well more than one in three assistants today are something more than mere position specialists.

And in many cases, their contract terms reflect it.

South Carolina, for example, limits multiyear contracts to its coordinators but wanted to extend that security to new hires Eric Wolford and Lorenzo Ward this year. Head coach Steve Spurrier runs the offense. Ellis Johnson was the Gamecocks' incumbent defensive coordinator.

So in addition to putting Wolford in charge of the offensive line, athletics director Eric Hyman approved his appointment as running game coordinator. Johnson was re-designated as the assistant head coach for defense, freeing Ward to become coordinator as well as safeties coach.

Beyond the contract length, "In the minds of assistant coaches, if you've got that coordinator's title, it gives you maybe a quicker timeline to becoming a head coach," Hyman says. "I think that's part of it."

He acknowledges, "There has been a proliferation of created titles."

Major-college football now counts at least six passing game and 13 running game coordinators. At Colorado, Greg Brown is in his fourth year as secondary coach and his third as the defensive passing game coordinator.

Close to 60 top-level assistants have some sort of senior, head-coach's-right-hand-man designation.

Alabama, whose nine assistants earn an average of more than $300,000, has two associate and two assistant head coaches in addition to offensive and defensive coordinators.

Florida State has executive, associate and assistant head coaches under Bobby Bowden, and they and offensive coordinator Jimbo Fisher— the designated successor to Bowden — average a little more than $399,000.

"Up to this point, the coordinator has been the person who got attention after the head coach as someone with experience and authority and perhaps on the next-layer-of-the-onion route to becoming a head coach," says Dutch Baughman, executive director of the Division 1A Athletic Directors Association. "Here's an effort to identify people who are very, very good and title them differently to kind of elevate them from the crowd."

He sees little wrong with it, he says.

Among other things, Baughman says the moves could better position minority assistants to move into head coaching jobs — a sensitive issue in a sport in which the number of minorities in charge of programs has long lagged.

"Perhaps that's another way," he says, "a school can say, 'Look, he's not a coordinator but pay attention to this guy. He's really, really good. And to support him, we're going to give him this title.' "