LU's opponent this week is coming off a big win

Three days after losing 40-7 at South Dakota State, Youngstown State was a fractured football team.
Starting quarterback Todd Rowan called it quits and left the team. All-American defensive tackle Mychal Savage learned he would miss the season because of surgery on the shoulder he injured in YSU’s season-opening loss at Ohio State. Another D-line starter, end Luke Matelan, broke a foot and would be out at least six weeks.
All the while, Penguins coach Jon Heacock was defiant.
“We are all together in this,” he told the Youngstown Vindicator. “We will survive.”
And they did. The Penguins returned home and put their season back together, first dispatching of Division II Central State before handing then-No. 2 North Dakota State its first loss of the season.
No. 25 Liberty will head to Stambaugh Stadium Saturday for a 6 p.m. matchup with the No. 23 Penguins, who suddenly have the look of a Top 25 team again after a brutal start to the season.
No one really expected Youngstown State to beat Ohio State, but most expected the Penguins to show up. The Buckeyes limited YSU to five first down and outgained the Penguins 495 yards to 74. It didn’t get any prettier the next week in Brookings, S.D., when the Jackrabbits outgained YSU 506-205.
“Obviously, on the road, we didn’t play as well as we would have liked, but I don’t think our group has really stepped back in practice and preparation,“ Heacock said at his weekly media gathering Tuesday. “And that’s what’s been important for me. We had a good week last week, and we’ll have to have a good week this week. As long as we do that, it will allow us to have some success.”
A big part of the turnaround has had to do with YSU’s re-commitment to the ground game. The Penguins ran for a combined 96 yards in the first two games, when the play calling was fairly balanced. YSU switched to a run-heavy scheme for the next two games. Of the 124 plays the Penguins ran against Central State and North Dakota State, 103 were run plays.
The result — 579 rushing yards in the two YSU victories.
“Philosophically, they’ve taken a different approach,” Liberty coach Danny Rocco said. “Although the formations don’t resemble the traditional I formation that they were running in past years, I think a lot of their play calling and their philosophies of how to run the ball went back to the past. They ran the power play over and over and over and over this past week.”
Part of that has to do with breaking in a new quarterback. Brandon Summers, a junior transfer from Toledo, was named the starter for the Central State game even before Rowan left school. He gives the Penguins a shifty, athletic presence under center, one who is efficient in the pass game (14 of 20, 202 yards, 4 TD in the two wins) and in the run game (17 carries, 64 yards, TD).
“He’s picked up what we’ve given him,” said Brian Wright, YSU’s offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. “But I don’t know if he’s done everything we can possibly do. We’ve tried to add a little bit here and there each week and build. We started with the foundation and tried to build upon that as he gains more and more experience.”
Rocco said Youngstown State’s win Saturday against NDSU was an “attention getter,” one his players took notice of.
“Our kids follow this a lot closer than you might think,” Rocco said. “I think if North Dakota State would have gone in there and beaten them 34-3, there might be some question about how good this year’s version of the Youngstown State Penguin football team is. I think they proved themselves Saturday night in beating the No. 2 team, and in all reality, they pretty much controlled the game.
“I do think with them playing at that level, and them being recognized as a Top 25 team again this week, that’s something that certainly has our full and undivided attention.”