Correspondent photo / Robert Hayes. YSU senior Jaison Williams talks to his teammates during a huddle prior to the start of the Penguins first fall practice.
YOUNGSTOWN — As Youngstown State opened fall camp with its first practice on Monday, one thing stood out to head coach Doug Phillips — the Penguins have work to do.
“We gotta get a lot better. It’s day one and there’s probably 40 new faces out here,” Phillips said. “We have kids that have been here a long time, and they know the expectation. We repped a lot of guys today, but you don’t play the game in spiders and shorts. So we’ll really know when we get to Monday when the full pads come on.”
YSU enters the 2024 season coming off its first FCS playoff appearance since 2016. The Penguins rode a high-scoring offense, coupled with an aggressive front-seven on defense, to an 8-5 record that included a first-round home playoff victory over Duquesne before a season-ending road loss to Villanova.
Meanwhile, Phillips is entering his fifth season as head coach. Since going 1-6 during his first year in 2020, the Penguins have progressively improved over the course of each of his next four seasons at the helm.
But Phillips and the rest of the YSU coaches have a tough task at hand this fall. In addition to the group of players that graduated, entered the NFL draft or used up their remaining college eligibility, the Penguins’ roster took a sizable hit with the number of players that left the team via the transfer portal this offseason.
As a result, YSU will field a lot of new faces, especially on the defensive side of the ball where the Penguins lost 10 of their 11 starters from last year’s season finale.
The position battles on defense that began in the spring will continue well into camp this month.
Junior defensive back Jaylen Castleberry is the only returning starter. But the coaching staff saw some names start to take that step forward starting in the spring, including Iowa State transfer linebacker Carston Marshall, senior linebacker Logan Pasco, junior defensive end Michael Voitus and junior defensive end Dawan Martin.
“You gotta come in and earn it. How do you earn it? You got 24 more days to earn it going into game one,” Phillips said. “Nobody is going to get anointed. So what I like to see at the end of camp is who rises up in that competition. We had a new guy show up yesterday, and what I saw today was a young corner sitting with him at a table knowing that guy is coming in to compete against you. That’s how you win championships — you gotta have high competition, but they can still connect. They understand when they take the field, they’re battling for a spot or for a position.”
While there are question marks on defense, the offense returns a wealth of talent and experience — with the exception of the quarterback spot, where the competition remains ongoing between sophomores Beau Brungard, Brady Shannon, Max Blanc and redshirt freshman Bryce Schondelmyer.
YSU returns four of five starters on the offensive line, two tight ends, a 1,000-yard tailback in Tyshon King, as well as receivers Max Tomczak and Joey Farthing.
“I saw great leadership today, I will give props,” Phillips said. “We got a lot of seniors playing in their last year of eligibility, and those kids feel a sense of urgency. So if they see someone not practicing up to the expectation, it’s no longer just me. They say, ‘Coach, we gotta restart that.’ That’s those kids holding everybody else accountable.”
A significant goal for YSU during fall camp is building that chemistry amongst all the new and returning players.
“When we leave here in 25 days, we gotta have a strong brotherhood,” Philips said. “That’s something that’s intentional that we talk about in every team meeting. It’s not X’s and O’s in that team meeting, it’s talking about what we need to do and that stuff doesn’t take any talent whatsoever — that connectivity.”
With the number of new players that YSU is breaking in, including the freshmen and transfers, Phillips said he’s expecting mistakes to be made, but how they learn and respond to those mistakes will be key for the Penguins.
“I tell our kids mistakes are going to happen, but don’t do bad attitude, bad effort,” Phillips said. “I can handle mistakes, it’s how you react to those mistakes. Do you come back or do you let that affect you for the next three plays?
“I really like the chemistry of this team and I really like being around this team. I don’t know yet what the 2024 team will be, but so far I’m excited. I think they can be tough, they can be competitive. They’re athletic. Now it’s our job to bring them together in the next 24 days.”
Have an interesting story? Contact Neel Madhavan by email at nmadhavan@tribtoday.com. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, @NeelMadhavan.