By Joe Scalzo
scalzo@vindy.com
YOUNGSTOWN
After a solid — and slightly overlooked — first season on Youngstown State’s football team, there is probably no defensive lineman with a safer job than senior Andrew Johnson.
He doesn’t see it that way.
“I feel like I can’t take any plays off [in practice],” said Johnson, who transferred in last summer from Bowling Green. “Just because I’m a senior and this is my last go-around doesn’t mean I’m guaranteed any playing time because we have that much talent.”
That wasn’t the case last year, where players such as Johnson and then-senior DT Torrance Nicholson wore down in games because YSU didn’t have enough depth to give them a breather.
“We definitely went out and recruited with depth in mind,” defensive line coach Tom Sims said. “We wanted to upgrade our talent also and we felt like we did that.”
Junior college transfers Nick DeKraker and Josh Fenderson arrived in the spring and 10 more defensive linemen joined the team this summer, including Grand Rapids Community College transfer Aronde Stanton, a junior defensive tackle.
“He’s really coming on and doing a good job,” Johnson said of Stanton. “Watch out for [No.] 94 this year.”
DeKraker, Johnson, Obinna Ekweremuba and sophomore D.J. Moss (Fitch) were the first team defensive linemen in Saturday’s scrimmage, with Stanton, Fenderson and pass rushing specialist Daniel Stewart also getting first-team looks.
Of those, the undersized (5-foot-11) Moss might be the biggest surprise.
“He’s an overachiever,” Sims said. “He has to do everything right and he has.”
Said Moss, “I’m just working hard, trying to do things right and make a name for myself.”
While an offensive lineman might play all 70 snaps, even the best defensive linemen are limited to 40-50 and Sims plans to rotate liberally, particularly since so many conference teams play an uptempo style.
“The best way to put it is, a great miler will lose to an average relay team,” Sims said. “We’re a work in progress. We feel like we took some steps forward this week but we’ve got a long way to go before our first game.”
YSU coach Eric Wolford’s philosophy is the closer you are to the ball, the less likely you are to play early in your career. Positions such as wide receiver or cornerback rely more on athleticism, whereas positions such as guard or defensive tackle are more strength-oriented.
Since freshmen typically need time to bulk up for the college game, it’s unlikely one of the newcomers is going to snag a starting spot.
But since defensive linemen rotate in and out so often, it wouldn’t be a surprise if a handful earned letters.
“Anybody that proves that they can contribute, we’re going to put them out there and give them opportunity,” Sims said. “So we’ll have a lot of people playing.”
YSU lost two starters to graduation, Nicholson and Luke Matelan, and senior-to-be Stephen Meadows left the team in the offseason after losing his starting spot to Ekweremuba in the final six games.
Like last year, Sims said players will be constantly evaluated.
“It’ll be day-to-day, play-to-play,” he said. “Lot of people talk about starters. I’m looking for finishers, people that I can trust at the end of those ballgames that are going to finish them.”
