Dec. 15, 2009

Coach Wolford Takes Reigns Of Penguins Program Asking For 'Team Effort'

Press Conference Audio | Press Conference Video

Youngstown -- New Youngstown State Head Football Coach Eric Wolford told more than 200 Penguins family members, friends and supporters that he is ready to get the program back on top of the Football Championship Subdvision, but he said it will not be him alone that gets the job done, it will be an entire effort by everyone at the university and within and around the Youngstown community.

Speaking before an excited crowd at the DeBartolo Stadium Club, Wolford told the audience about his coaching background and how he is happy to be back in his hometown. He expressed the fact that he and his family are very tired of moving after making nine different coaching stops in 16 seasons. He and his wife, Melinda, son, Stone, and daughter Marlee, are ready to be permanent members of a community and Youngstown State football will benefit from their passion for life and football.

"I want you to know, we're here today and not one person is bigger than this team or this program or this university," Wolford said. "If we're all on the same page, and we want to get back to what the expectations are, it's going to take a community effort. I'm calling on you. I can't do it alone, but we can do it together. What do you mean coach? I'm going to be out in the school's and there's going to be talk. The way you respond to talk is how we get ready to nail this first recruiting class. My hair's on fire right now. Youngstown doesn't know what they got yet, because we're going to recruit like it hasn't been done in a long time. We'll be in every school. We'll be in kids' homes."

YSU President Dr. David C. Sweet hands off to new football coach Eric Wolford at Tuesday's Press Conference.

His hometown city will learn quickly. Wolford, affectionately called Coach Wolf, has brought energy, passion, fire and not to mention a pretty impressive bite to the Youngstown State program. After spending just 11 months at South Carolina, Wolford said he learned a tremendous amount from Head Coach Steve Spurrier and is ready to bring that to Youngstown.

"Steve Spurrier, in basically eight months, has transformed me, taught me, groomed me to be in this position here today," Wolford said. "That's pretty good for that short of period of time. A lot of people in the media have a perception that Steve Spurrier may be a little bit difficult or what have you, but he's the most genuine person. He loves people. He loves kids. His whole life he's been bombarded by media and he probably gets a little bit tired of it. I think he also likes to pull their chain a little bit too. I appreciate that about him."

The Gamecocks went 7-5 this past year and will play in the PapaJohns.com Bowl on Jan. 2 against UConn. In his short stay with the program, Wolford helped the Gamecocks rank 13th in the nation last year in recruiting and the upcoming 2010 class was off to a flying start.

Now, YSU gets the benefits of his never-stop, never-slow down persona with more than 1,300 numbers at his fingertips in his cell phone that will continue to grow by leaps and bounds.

His roots are in Youngstown and now he returns to those beginnings.

Wolford played on the offensive line and defensive line for Coach Dick Angle as a senior at Ursuline High School, which is right across the street from the YSU campus.

Coach Jim Tressel tried to get him to join the Penguins program, but Bob Stoops, an then-assistant at Kansas State, lured Wolford to Manhattan, Kan., in the fall of 1989. He started on the offensive line each of his four seasons for the Wildcats as the program grew from a laughingstock to respectability under Bill Snyder.

As a senior in 1993, Wolford anchored the offensive line that paved the way for the first Bowl victory in Kansas State history. In the spring of 1994, Wolford signed as a free agent with Arizona, only to be released and end up back at KSU that fall.

"I got cut professionally and Coach Snyder was a big influence for me to get into coaching," Wolford said. "When I think about Coach Snyder, when I got done playing, and a I just got cut from the Cardinals, he said 'Wolf you need to be in football, you need to be coaching.' The things that he instilled in me are a lot of little things that you need to do as a person, as a player, as a coach that make a difference in winning and losing and it's not based on talent. It's those little things that make a difference in championships. I credit Coach Snyder for a lot of my success."

He spent one season at Emporia State before joining Jim Leavitt in Tampa for a start-up program called South Florida that had its nerve center in trailers outside of campus. He watched a plan be created in 1996 and for three years served worked with Leavitt as the offensive line coach. Now, USF is a member of the Big East Conference and has been ranked repeatedly throughout the past eight years.

Wolford sees a similar growth situation occurring in Youngstown. With the Watson and Tressel Training Site, an indoor facility set to be constructed within the next year, on the Horizon, he sees a program ready for a quick rise.

"Ron Strollo is committed to making this place a first-class place from a facility standpoint to administrative people he surrounds himself with and that's the thing that trigged with me way back in South Florida is he wants this thing to be right, just like all of you do."

From South Florida he spent three years at Houston followed by one season with Darrell Dickey in North Texas. That one year at UNT was important because he met his wife Melinda, while coaching the offensive line of the Mean Green.

Coach Wolford said growing up in Youngstown made him who he is today and he will be relentless to improve the program.

Soon after, they went to Arizona where he was reunited with friends Mike and Mark Stoops. During his final season, the Wildcats were 6-6 and Wolford had the opportunity to get closer to home coaching for Ron Zook at Illinois. While with the Illini, he recruited Northeastern Ohio and in his first season the program went to the Rose Bowl.

Following the 2008 season, he headed to the Southeastern Conference and the position of run-game coordinator/offensive line coach at South Carolina. People asked him if he was crazy for being Spurrier's offensive line coach, but Wolford embraced the challenge.

But while in Columbia, news reached him that the head-coaching position was vacant at Youngstown State. That put the wheels in motion for a possible return home and gave him visions of taking over the Penguin program. Now that's happened.

"I love Youngstown, Ohio," he said. "Youngstown, Ohio, has made Eric Wolford what he is today. You look in the coaching profession alone, every person from this area that's come up through this environment and what we have here. Family's important, working hard, passion and doing things right. The traits that you learn here, the ability to handle adversity. When you go off, whether you are a student-athlete, whatever your endeavors are and you go out into the real world, and you happen to be working somewhere other than this area, you will excel. You will excel. That's why people love to talk about Youngstown.

"Most of them say you people over there are crazy. No, it's called working hard and being relentless and about being passionate about what you do. I have tremendous passion to work with young people."

He is officially the Penguins' head coach, only the sixth since the program started in 1938, with a staff to hire and student-athletes to recruit. The 2009 Penguin program lost 12 seniors, but of that group three were running backs, three were wide receivers and another was the quarterback. He will hit the ground running hard because that's the only way he knows how. But like he has said so many times, he cannot do this by himself. He said all the players in the program now, are his players.

"In order for us to get back to exactly where we all want to be, it's going to be a team effort. Everybody at this university is onboard. That staff that we will put together will be committed to young people. They will genuinely care about them. They will treat their players like their father figures away from home. They will represent the university well. We will be visible. We will be approachable. And if we're not you contact me. We are going to find a way to bring this thing back.

"I'm ecstatic to have this opportunity. I'm looking forward to this community embracing us, embracing our staff. We love football. We love being here. This is a special moment for my family. I want you to know, this is not going to be done alone, we're going to do it together."