YSU working this spring to address 2024 defensive struggles
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YOUNGSTOWN -- The 2024 season was far from a banner year for the Youngstown State defense.
Statistically, YSU was 88th in the FCS in total defense, giving up 406.2 yards per game, and 111th in scoring defense, allowing 35.83 points per game. Additionally, the Penguins were among the worst teams in the country in yards allowed per play (7.58).
The issues on the defensive side of the ball forced the YSU coaches and players to have some tough conversations this offseason about what went wrong and how to proceed.
"It starts with trust, trusting coach to player, player to player and coach to coach," head coach Doug Phillips said. "Trust takes awhile to develop, so our focus this offseason has been to be honest. Sometimes have that honest talk, sometimes we gotta tell you what you don't want to hear. I do believe we have great defensive players, so getting them in a system that fits them, and the more they play together, the more they come together."
Defensive coordinator John Haneline isn't shying away from the Penguins' struggles. As a result, YSU has focused a good bit of time getting back to the fundamentals during spring practice.
"I always say to the kids, they're going to win football games. I'm going to lose them, so I gotta put myself first and foremost in that reflection," Haneline said. "The first thing I thought of with some of the younger guys was getting back to the basics and fundamentals. We have four things we're focusing on, and that's our pursuit, our block defeat, tackling and then ball disruption. ... It's been a long offseason waiting to get to spring ball and correct those things."
Personnel-wise, the lack of continuity on defense has certainly made it harder to find and build consistency.
Before the start of last season, YSU saw every defensive starter but one enter the transfer portal, which meant there were plenty of new faces at each level of the unit.
"In our league, the teams more easterly probably had to face more of the portal challenges than maybe the teams that are out west," Phillips said.
Under Phillips, YSU has stressed its philosophy as a "developmental program" that focuses on recruiting high school players and fostering their growth and development.
While the Penguins have and will continue to use the transfer portal to fill positions of need and build depth, YSU's overall developmental philosophy won't change, according to Phillips.
"We're all searching for answers, and our answers are that we're going to recruit high school football players, we're going to develop them and then when they get really good, we gotta find a way to keep them here," Phillips said. "I'm really happy with the incoming freshmen. We got five that are practicing now, and we've gotta continue to build that. If one decides to leave, we gotta have the replacement and someone ready to go. We don't want to live in the portal, you want to be able to develop within and have guys ready to go."
However, this offseason, despite losing a few players to the transfer portal and a couple to graduation, the Penguins have been able to return the majority of the players on its defensive depth chart, particularly at linebacker and in the secondary.
At linebacker, Carston Marshall, Mike Wells, Preston Zandier and Andrew Centofanti each saw considerable playing time last season, and at defensive back Isaiah Hackett, DJ Harris, Makai Shahid, Jeremiah Robinson, Jordan Rudolph and Isaiah Crozier all returned.
Plus, YSU also added Dayne Hodge, a transfer defensive back from Tulsa, and gets back defensive back Dathan Hickey, who missed the 2024 season with an injury.
Having that kind of roster continuity is vital for YSU as it works to grow and improve from what it did last season.
"You can't stress that enough to know the majority of who your defense is coming out of spring ball," Haneline said. "Having those relationships with those guys -- they're all in to be Penguins. They're all in to go correct the things we want to correct. ... Having those guys here is absolutely huge.
"I've seen a different vibe and a different brotherhood amongst the guys. Energy and effort has been one thing for me -- I'm going into year four I believe now -- and it's different than probably the last three years. ... That energy and effort has been off the charts. Now we just gotta continue to clean up execution."
While the Penguins brought back Mike Voitus, Ebony Curry Jr., Joe Brown and Da'Shawn Carter up front, depth along the defensive line probably took the most losses this offseason.
So finding players to fill that depth has been an additional focus for YSU during spring.
"We got some young guys on the defensive line, but they put a C on our chest, so we coach and we gotta develop those guys," Phillips said. "They've (been) thrown into fire this spring. They're going against three returning offensive linemen -- and Isaac Perkins transferred in who was a two-year starter -- so they're going to go against a good offensive line, and that's where we gotta make each other better."