Penguins expect better from punter, kicker in ’17 season
By Charles Grove
cgrove@vindy.com
YOUNGSTOWN
Special teams played a large part in Youngstown State’s 2016 season.
On one hand, a fantastic punt return helped YSU to a 13-10 win over Indiana State in the midst of a lot of offensive turmoil as the offense was trying to find themselves.
On the other hand, poor punt blocking against James Madison put the Penguins behind the 8-ball in the national title game, and YSU was forced to try to play catch up all day.
The coaching staff this spring is spending time working on evaluating who will be playing special teams this fall.
“This time of year it’s just a lot of drill work,” YSU head coach Bo Pelini said. “It’s not a lot of full team stuff. It’s just a chance to evaluate guys and see who can do what. You look at the drill work and you can build your depth chart from there.”
Much like the offense and defense where the coaching staff is more concerned with evaluating individual players, that’s mostly the case with special teams as well.
“We don’t do a whole lot of full team stuff at all during the spring,” Pelini said. “A little bit of punt work but that’s about it.
“It’s a lot of technical stuff and a lot of seeing who has the skills to be able to do what we ask of them and put it all together in the fall.”
That individual evaluation on special teams won’t necessarily be affected by who’s going to be starting on offense and defense as well. The best players YSU has will be on the field no matter the situation.
“We’re going to put the best guys out there at the end of the day,” Pelini said. “You’d like be able to spread it out as much as you can but that as much as anything is making sure if guys are capable of doing what’s required.
“Sometimes in these drills it’s not necessarily about who wins the drills but who has the footwork, agility, speed, to be able to play in space and be able to do what we’re asking them to do.”
Two of YSU’s most important special teamers should be two local products, Springfield alumnus punter Mark Schuler and Cardinal Mooney alumnus and placekicker Zak Kennedy. Schuler was named second-team All-Missouri Valley Football Conference, averaging 42.5 yards per kick. Kennedy battled injuries at times during last season and made 19 of his 29 field goal attempts in 2016.
Pelini said he’d like to see Schuler improve on getting his punts away a little quicker.
“Mark has to improve his get-off time,” Pelini said. “It was pretty good but a little inconsistent at times last year.
“He’s still a young punter so we want to make sure he’s not overstriding. That’s probably his biggest flaw. He wants to take too big of a step and when he’s overextended he has trouble using his power. When he takes shorter strides his get-off time is going to be better but he’ll have his power underneath him too.”
Kennedy suffered injuries to his quadricep and his groin a year ago. He said he made sure to take it easy in the offseason.
“After a long season I made sure to get some rest,” Kennedy said. “I really didn’t kick much until spring and it’s been going well. I’m feeling strong now. My flexibility is up there and that’s the main reason I had some injuries.”
Pelini said he’s been impressed by his alma mater’s product this spring.
“Zak’s been good this spring,” Pelini said. “He’s hitting it consistently this spring and he’s way ahead of where he was last year at this time.”
