Correspondent photo / Robert Hayes. Youngstown State defensive lineman Hunter Allen (93) battles through a block during practice Monday. The Penguin defense is seeking to build upon an impressive 2022.

YOUNGSTOWN — In his very first meeting as Youngstown State’s defensive coordinator in February of 2022, Jahmal Brown told his new squad it would simplify its schemes and prioritize stopping the run.

If you can’t stop the run, Brown reasoned, then you can’t play great defense because offenses will be able to pick and choose how they want to attack.

The results were palpable in the coordinator’s first season.

After inheriting a defense that ranked in the bottom of the Missouri Valley Football Conference in nearly every statistical category in 2021, Brown’s charges reversed their fortunes, finishing in the top half of the league in all of those weak spots from a season before.

As promised, it began with stopping the run. Youngstown State finished third in the Valley at 120.2 rushing yards allowed per game.

The biggest jumps Brown said he noticed were in grasping concepts and then going from there.

“I think just learning, understanding what we were trying to do, understanding the core concepts,” he said. “Once they understood it, (we) started to play fast and started to play physical. That’s where it all started — those guys learning and becoming comfortable with what we were doing schematically and what we were asking those guys to do, and we took off from there.”

Among the changes Brown made upon arrival was putting the Penguins into a four-man front. That took pressure off of multiple positions. Opponents weren’t able to deploy as many double teams along the front, and it also freed up YSU’s linebackers to make more plays.

It also played into YSU’s depth in the trenches, as the Penguins used upward of 12 linemen during the 2022 season.

“With that kind of depth, it gives you the ability to be in the four-down, and I’m a firm believer in the four-down — keeping guys off of the linebackers, not asking those guys up front to take on as many double teams, and I think that played a huge part,” Brown said. “When I told them we were going to a four-down when I got here, they were excited about it.”

Defensive end Dylan Wudke was a perfect example of how those results played out. Wudke pieced together an All-MVFC Second Team season in 2022 after posting 43 tackles, including 23 solo stops. Those 43 tackles were the third most of any Penguin a season ago. He also boasted 12 tackles-for-loss and five sacks.

Given the results, Wudke was selected as an All-MVFC Preseason First Teamer in 2023.

The standout senior said the new look allowed YSU’s frontline to play more aggressively and to make more plays.

“We had a whole new scheme, so guys had to really learn the new playbook and guys really bought into what (Brown) brought to the defense with his scheme and strategies to just get vertical and violent so we could stop the run,” Wudke said.

And, of course, personnel matters, too.

Head coach Doug Phillips noted it all began with the players and their buy-in, but that a four-down look would maximize the strength of YSU’s defense, which lied — and still lies — in the trenches.

Now, with the vast majority of the defense back, the Penguins are looking to take it a step further. Phillips noted that a season ago, the defense was challenged to keep opponents to under 125 yards rushing. In 2023, that goal is under 100 yards.

“In that front seven, we’ve only lost a few guys,” he said. “Those guys have played a lot of football. … So I’m excited. We play a lot of guys, but you have to do that in this league, and I said (we have) strength in numbers. When you can play 25 guys defensively every week, it just gets you ready for that next opponent and keeps you fresh.”

Brown also said he expects another improvement from the frontline in terms of pass rush.

“The front four is going to be big for us, not only stopping the run, but this spring and in this fall camp, those guys have taken huge steps as far as their pass rush ability, being able to get to the quarterback while only rushing four. That’s what I’m looking forward to the most,” Brown said.

All of that, Wudke says, will move YSU toward its ultimate goal as a defense.

“We want to be the best — simple as that,” he said. “We work day by day. Coach says ‘the process’ — taking each practice, each day moving forward and getting better and better every day to become the best defense we can be.”

jwhetzel@tribtoday.com