YSU looks to keep momentum rolling after open week
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YOUNGSTOWN -- For the Youngstown State football team, last week's open week had both positive and negative ramifications.
Not only were the Penguins able to "refocus" and work on improving in certain areas for an extended period of time, it also gave the team the opportunity to rest and recover physically after the grind of playing eight straight games.
However, it also came in the midst of a four-game win streak, and the Penguins want to make sure they continue to maintain their prior momentum for the final three games of the regular season.
"That's just coming from within us. We gotta create our own momentum coming out of the bye week and just continue to use the momentum that we had to go through the season," senior right tackle Nick Nielsen said. "We definitely didn't want to take the week off. You see teams come out of a bye week and get starstruck and get a loss. We just took it as a week to really refocus on where we want to be as a team and how we're going to get there."
In 2024, YSU played 12 straight games with no off week. Then last year and in 2023, the open week came right between non-conference and conference play, so this year was a change-up from what the Penguins have been accustomed to in recent years.
"It's the first week since I've been here where the bye week's been this late in the season -- usually we have it around Week 4, Week 3," quarterback Beau Brungard said before the win over Northern Iowa. "I think it'll be big for our guys and our team to get our legs back, get our bodies feeling good. Once you start the first game of the season, your bodies are just always hurting, there's never going to be a point in the season where your bodies feel 100%."
Open week routines vary team-by-team and coach-to-coach, and YSU tried to find a middle ground between sticking with its game-week routine and changing it up.
"There's no magic formula," head coach Doug Phillips said. "I've done different things."
After beating the Panthers on Oct. 17, Phillips gave the Penguins the Sunday and Monday off.
When they returned on Tuesday, they did running and mobility work, along with film review of the UNI game. Then Wednesday's practice mirrored what a game-week "Grit Tuesday" practice normally looks like.
YSU wrapped up the week on Thursday and Friday with practices that looked a lot like fall camp.
"We were probably out there a little extra. I wanted to get 60 plays in, offensively, defensively, one-on-ones, red zone, playing the whole field, playing football substitutions, those things," Phillips said. "Right or wrong, I think every coach has a different way to approach it. I wanted to get a good lather on Friday before we were going to give them Saturday and Sunday off and got back to it Monday."
With the fourth-ranked Penguins welcoming No. 9 North Dakota to Stambaugh Stadium this Saturday at noon (ESPN+/570 WKBN) for their fifth ranked opponent in seven weeks, YSU returned to its normal game-week routine this week.
"This week, you go in and now you're back into preparing for a game, and a Tuesday grit practice can be a physical day," Phillips said. "I think every coach and player loves routine, and when you get out of that routine, you gotta get back into it. So it's great to be back into a routine."
The Fighting Hawks are in the midst of a tough stretch. They lost to UNI early in the month, but bounced back to knock off then-No. 1 South Dakota State, before losing to South Dakota in overtime last week.
North Dakota has also had YSU's number in the series, owning a 5-1 record against the Penguins, including last year's 35-17 win in Grand Forks, N.D.
"They're a great team, great program. The one thing they did, they beat us up last year right from the get-go. [They] hit us in the face and we weren't able to recover, and they kind of dominated that game," Phillips said. "So I know we're going to get a great football team coming in here. They're talking championships. I know that's the caliber of football you're going to get from those Dakota teams."