Different test awaits YSU in season’s 1st road trip at Kentucky
Trending
YOUNGSTOWN -- Coming off the team's first game of the season, Youngstown State football coach Doug Phillips offered his assessment of the team's performance during YSU's weekly press conference on Tuesday morning.
Phillips started off by highlighting the Penguins' effort throughout the contest and pointed out how the defense adjusted to hold Mercyhurst to a field goal on the opening drive after allowing the Lakers to move the ball down the field.
However, he expressed his disappointment regarding the two special teams miscues in the second half, including the partially blocked punt and the mishandled kickoff return that went out of bounds at the 2-yard line. Cleaning those things up has been a focus for YSU in practice this week, according to Phillips.
"Those two things leave a sour taste because you didn't finish the game the way you started, and those are things you gotta clean up on a Tuesday [practice]," Phillips said. "All that situational football is how you play complementary football, and our young men have to understand that. We gotta get better in those areas."
While the ninth-ranked Penguins came away with a comfortable victory in Week 0, YSU faces a much-different test this week in its first road trip of the season at 1 p.m. (SEC Network+/570 WKBN) on Saturday at Kentucky.
With the jump in the level of competition, facing the Wildcats can be a barometer for where the Penguins stand before they head into Missouri Valley Football Conference play in a couple weeks.
"This game, it's definitely a stepping stone. It shows us where we're at. It's a good way to see what we need to improve on as we get more into conference play," receiver Bryan Hunt said. "This just shows where our offense is at and where we need to fix certain things. It's a real test for us. Going down the road, we still got a lot more tests to go through. But this is a big test to show us what we're made of and go from that."
Defensive lineman Thomas Jolly likened it to last year's trip to Michigan State. The Penguins hung around against the Spartans, but self-inflicted errors ultimately cost them a chance to tighten up the game.
Jolly said that the way YSU played in East Lansing set the tone for how the rest of the regular season unfolded.
"We left that game with confidence knowing that they didn't beat us. We kind of beat ourselves with some turnovers, giving up some big plays towards the end and not really stopping the run," Jolly said. "We beat ourselves not doing our job the right way. So when we play teams like this, it's almost a benchmark of, alright, if we do our job the right way, we got a chance to go in there and do something special."
Going into a hostile environment like Kroger Field in Lexington will also help prepare YSU for what it will see on the road in the MVFC at South Dakota State and Southern Illinois.
"Going to be in a loud stadium, can't hear. So we have to really hone in on our details and execution," Hunt said. "I know the Missouri Valley's a great conference, and there's a lot of great teams in that conference. So I think just going against Kentucky first will honestly help us."
Going into last week's game, YSU's preparation was more centered around itself since the Penguins didn't have any game film to work off of with Mercyhurst breaking in a new head coach, new defensive coordinator and new players.
With Saturday's game serving as Kentucky's season opener and the Wildcats also breaking in a new head coach, coaching staff and more than 30 new players, YSU's approach this week will be more of the same.
"Am I going to watch LSU, where the OC is from? Or am I going to watch Oregon, where the head coach is from? You could also watch the defensive coordinator and what he did at Texas A&M. So you could go down some rabbit holes," Phillips said. "So really, the focus has gotta be on us.
"We know the personnel. They got a lot of transfers, a lot of guys that played a lot of football. ... They're building a roster going into their first year. They gotta play nine SEC games, so they're building a roster with size and speed."
Phillips reiterated how important it will be for the Penguins to play mistake-free, fundamentally-sound football in order to give themselves a chance against Kentucky.
"How can we get better? What can we do different? What can we do better in our communication, our execution and go in there and not make mistakes?" Phillips said. "You go play a perfect football game, and guess what? A team might be better than you, but you played a good football game. What I mean by that, you didn't turn the ball over and you didn't have penalties. So every game you go into, you focus in on those things."