We will be taking a look at the YSU preview against Michigan State in a moment. First, we want to take a quick look back at week one.<\/p>\n
After a thrilling overtime victory in Thursday\u2019s home opener against Incarnate Word, the Youngstown State football team is riding on momentum.\u00a0 The offense has improved a lot from what the Spring saw as new starting quarterback <\/span>Demeatric Crenshaw<\/b> shined in the spotlight scoring two touchdowns on the ground and one in the air to Kentucky Transfer <\/span>Bryce Oliver<\/b>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Not only was Crenshaw the new hot shot in town, but <\/span>Jaleel McLaughlin<\/b> kept on improving from his standout spring season where he rushed for 242 yards on 29 carries and two touchdowns, becoming the Missouri Valley Football Conference Co-Offensive player of the week.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n While the offense was far more improved from what was seen in the Spring<\/a>, the defensive side had its shares of ups and downs as the Penguins were fooled by the Cardinals short pass attempts on the defensive side, but improved especially in the fourth quarter with the pressure from <\/span>Vinny Gentile<\/b> who sacked UIW\u2019s quarterback Cam Ward.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Other big defensive players who made an impact and to watch for during week two against Michigan State are <\/span>James Jackson<\/b> (six total tackles), <\/span>Grant Dixon<\/b> (six tackles) <\/span>De\u2019Marco Augustin<\/b> (seven tackles), <\/span>Jordan White<\/b> (seven tackles) and <\/span>Zaire Jones<\/b>.\u00a0 If the Penguins clean up some messes, look for them to possibly give Michigan State a hard game.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n A few key facts about the performance Thursday against Incarnate Word. It was the first time the Penguins won on a field goal in more than two decades. The last one was <\/span>1998<\/span><\/a> in a 18-15 win against New Haven. Surprisingly, it’s not YSU legend and former Eagles NFL kicker Paul McFadden, but rather Colten\u2019s older brother <\/span>Connor McFadden<\/span> who kicked in their overtime victory back in 2016 against Wofford.\u00a0 That 2016 team was the one that made it to the FCS title against James Madison.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Looking at the Penguins game this week against the Spartans, a few keynotes stand out.\u00a0 One of the keynotes is that this is the first time since 2014 when YSU traveled to Memorial Stadium, nearly beating Illinois 28-17.\u00a0 The last time they played Michigan State, was the year prior in 2013, losing to the Spartans 55-17.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Some talented names that played for both teams were YSU All-Time passing leader <\/span>Kurt Hess<\/b><\/a> who went 11-27 for 121 yards and a touchdown.\u00a0 <\/span>Martin Ruiz<\/b><\/a> who rushed for 36 yards and a touchdown as well 57 yard on the receiving end and a touchdown added to that. Plus, kicker <\/span>Joey Cejudo<\/b><\/a> for the Penguins would get the first points on the board for Youngstown State with a 34-yard field goal.\u00a0 Cejudo would try out for a few NFL teams after he graduated and now works with kickers for different camps. The team\u2019s head coach was now Kentucky Offensive line coach <\/span>Eric Wolford<\/b>.\u00a0 On Michigan State\u2019s side, they had their star quarterback in <\/span>Connor Cook<\/b><\/a> who threw for over 200 yards and four touchdowns in the game and former YSU Defensive Coordinator <\/span>Mark Dantonio <\/b>was the head coach for the Spartans.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In that 2013 game for the Spartans, they got their first rushing touchdown from now NFL Free Agent <\/span>Jermey Langford<\/b><\/a> that went three yards out and then four touchdowns in a row from Cook to <\/span>Kevin Muma<\/b><\/a>, <\/span>Bennie Fowler<\/b> and <\/span>Trevon Pemdieton<\/b>.\u00a0 Going back to the ground game, Langford had 68 yards on 15 carries and two touchdowns.\u00a0 His teammate Nick Hill had only nine carries but rushed for 83 yards and a touchdown in the process.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The two teams also met back in 2011 with that game being much closer as the Spartans only beat YSU by the final of 28-6.\u00a0 Now Baltimore Raven practice squad member and former Pittsburgh Steelers superstar <\/span>Le\u2019Veon Bell<\/b><\/a> played in the game rushing for two touchdowns on 40 yards.\u00a0 Vikings quarterback <\/span>Kirk Cousins <\/b><\/a>was another one of those future NFL players in that game passing for over 200 yards and a touchdown.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Michigan State Now<\/strong><\/p>\n A lot has changed since 2013 as the Spartans are led by second year head coach Mel Tucker who after a disappointing COVID seven game shortened season in 2020, is looking to go back to the Connor Cook days\u00a0 instead of finishing three and five.\u00a0 Looks like coach Tucker is heading in the right direction with these players as they are coming off of a Friday BIG 10 conference <\/span>38-21<\/span><\/a> win against the Northwestern Wildcats.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Quarterback <\/span>Payton Throne<\/b><\/a> went 15 for 25 with 185 yards and a touchdown.\u00a0 But, just like how Michigan State needs to stop McLaughlin, the Penguins defense needs to lock down talented junior running back <\/span>Kenneth Walker III<\/b><\/a> who rushed for 264 yards on 23 attempts and four touchdowns.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Defensively, the Spartans have a pretty tough defense dramatically improved from the 2020 season.\u00a0 Some of these players include <\/span>Xaiver Henderson<\/b><\/a> the senior strong safety who led the team in tackles with nine against Northwestern.\u00a0 Others to watch out for against the Penguins offense are free safety <\/span>Angelo Grose<\/b><\/a> who had five solo tackles (nine total), cornerback <\/span>Kalon Gervin<\/b><\/a> with eight, <\/span>Simeon Barrow<\/b><\/a>, <\/span>Jacob Penasiuk<\/b><\/a> and <\/span>Drew Beesley<\/b><\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Kickoff is at noon with the game available on Big Ten Network or can be listened to on 570WKBN as both teams look to go 2 and 0 to start off the 2021 season.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We will be taking a look at the YSU preview against Michigan State in a moment. First, we want to take a quick look back at week one. Recapping Week One’s 44-41 OT win against Incarnate Word After a thrilling overtime victory in Thursday\u2019s home opener against Incarnate Word, the Youngstown State football team is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3128,"featured_media":33767,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"This post should cover a small recap of YSUs last game against Incarnate Word and then preview of them and Michigan State","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"1","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"875","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,8,4162],"tags":[420,4825,6305],"class_list":["post-38464","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-fbs","category-fcs","tag-michigan-state-spartans","tag-youngstown-state-football","tag-ysu-penguins"],"modified_by":"Michael Kovacs, ADMIN","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38464","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3128"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38464"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38464\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33767"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Interesting Facts After The Game<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Last time YSU Played Michigan State<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Before the 2013 game<\/h3>\n
Game Time\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n