By JOE SIMON - Tribune Chronicle
Mark Brungard believes the talent to win an FCS national championship can be found close to Youngstown, and he should know.
Brungard, a Springfield High School graduate, led Youngstown State University to back-to-back national titles in 1993 and 1994. Now the Poland High School football coach, Brungard is anxious to see the Penguins return to those winning ways, and he hopes new YSU coach Bo Pelini holds a similar vision as to how to get there.
"There are a lot of players that can help this program get back there that are within a 60-mile radius," Brungard said. "Then sprinkle in your kids from Florida and Texas and other areas, but I think you can win championships with kids within a couple of hours of driving from our city."
Pelini, a Cardinal Mooney High School graduate, was named the Penguins' football coach Tuesday. Fans hope he can return YSU to national title contention, a distinction it held throughout the 1990s when Jim Tressel led the Penguins to four national championships - a lot of times with a roster loaded with players from neighboring high schools.
A former NFL assistant coach and major Division I coach, Pelini brings a sparkling resume, one that Brungard hopes will keep local kids in the Mahoning Valley.
"I'll be anxious to see what coach Pelini's reputation and name means to recruits," Brungard said. "If coach Pelini can win over some recruits from the greater Youngstown-Warren-Akron-Canton-Cleveland area, I think that would make a lot of fans kind of re-bond with the team. Just to get more fans into what coach Tressel always called the 'State of Youngstown.' "
Out of the 95 players on Youngstown State's roster, 25 are from Ohio, including nine from the Mahoning Valley. Several area players have chosen to venture to nearby Mid-American Conference schools over the years, such as Kent State, Akron, Ohio University, Toledo, Miami and Bowling Green. Whether that changes with Pelini is uncertain, but Brungard said Pelini probably has a better chance of wooing potential recruits than most coaches.
"He's been at the highest level - the professional level and major college level," Brungard said, "and he can tell kids firsthand that might go to a MAC-level school, 'Listen, you can come play for a championship here or you can go there and play in front of 1,500 people on a Tuesday night. That's really not a lot fun. We're trying to put together championships at Youngstown.'
"I think that's something you have over those schools, and the facilities (at YSU) are right there with those Division I schools. Those recruits can be had if they're impressed the right way."
Brungard admitted he doesn't know Pelini or his recruiting tactics, but said "his name will precede himself as he sits down with kids and families. That has to carry some weight."
One person who does know Pelini well is a high school coach who actually grew up emulating him. Current Mooney football coach and fellow Cardinals graduate P.J. Fecko is just a few years younger than the 47-year-old Pelini and said he spent much of his youth watching Pelini star as a three-sport athlete (Pelini was an Ohio State captain as a free safety). The two are now close friends, and Fecko said he has a pretty good idea of the kind of recruit Pelini likes.
"Knowing Bo, he looks for a combination of different things," Fecko said. "He's not big on you have to be this big or a four-star, five-star guy. He has shown that at all the places he's been. He looks at a lot of intangibles. He loves people who will compete at the highest level, and he won't accept anything else."
Brungard was a bit surprised Pelini decided to come back to Youngstown, and he praised him for not possessing an ego that might keep some coaches from returning to their hometown.
"Initially, when you think about the level he was at and the financial level he coached at, YSU isn't going to offer that," Brungard said. "You think about maybe where he's at with his family and wanting to come back to his roots, where his kids can be closer to their grandparents and wife can be closer to family. In a lot of ways, it seems to make more sense the more you think about it."
Fecko wasn't as taken aback by Pelini's decision, mainly because he's gotten to know him so well over the years. He said Pelini attends the Cardinals' football camp every year and gives back "whatever humanly possible" to his alma mater. Pelini's overall personality is something Fecko's admired since he was a child.
"As a youngster, not only was he outstanding in athletics, but he was just a really good person," he said. "That's an important part to all this. Here's a guy who could've had a lot of jobs across the United States, a lot of jobs that people with large egos would've taken and not come back to their hometown, but that's important to him. Home is important to him, and his family is important to him. That says a lot about him as a person."
Area football fans will find out more about him as a coach in the coming months.
