Archive for the ‘Football’ Category

Dominque Barnes has signed a free agent contract with the Detroit Lions.  The former Youngstown State Wide Receiver grew up in Michigan and will surely flourish in a system needing offense.  Barnes always told me he was going to get to the next level, no matter what, so congratulations Dominique Barnes, you made it!

In his career at Youngstown State, Barnes caught 168 passes for 2,062 yards and 15 touchdowns in 40 games played. His 168 receptions rank second in school history, his 15 touchdowns are fifth and his 2,062 yards are fifth as well.  Barnes set a school record with a reception in 34 consecutive games and became first player in school history to record more than 60 catches in consecutive years.

Ironically, Barnes could someday go against new divisional foe, and college teammate Brandian Ross, who is signed with Green Bay as a cornerback.  ”Brandian and I are very close and I am really happy for him too.  He has been my biggest supporter.”

He also joins his friend Donald Jones in the NFL.  Jones, who signed with the Buffalo Bills last season, was someone that Barnes credited many times as being a great influence.  ”Donald told me to be patient and good things will happen.”

Barnes has some studying to do as he already received a nice thick Lions playbook, but have faith, he is not only quick with his feet, he is also a quick learner.  Move over Barry Sanders, the little guy is loose in Motown!

“It’s a dream come true”, said Barnes via telephone.  ”I have been living with this dream since I first started playing football.”

Congratulations NCAA!  Your Witch Hunt at Ohio State has almost been completed!  All you have left to do now is kick all of the players off of the team, strip the school of every game won under Jim Tressel, and fine The Ohio State University.  What else…  oh yeah, throw probation at them, keep them down.

Jim Tressel exudes class.  I had the pleasure of being a guest coach of the Red-White Game at Youngstown State University in 1991 and met Tressel.  I was impressed at his demeanor with the average student and his willingness to make his program the entire city of Youngstowns, his drive to make a Fall Saturday at the Ice Castle an event, but most importantly his desire to win.  He did plenty of winning at Youngstown State and was promoted to his dream job coaching the nationally-prominent Buckeyes.  Never an “in your face”, cocky, kind of coach either.  Tressel often deflected praise with the only negatives he could scour up from week-to-week.

The only memorabilia I will ever associate to Jim Tressel is the countless piles of things he has donated to charities.  I wrote Tressel a letter in 2006 asking for something to use for a Chinese Auction at the first-ever Korey Stringer Memorial golf outing.  I took all of the required steps and had a signed mini-helmet sitting on my doorstep in a week.  That item, along with some Kelly Pavlik memorabilia, drew the most money in the auction.  In fact, it seems like every charity event I went to locally, there was always something with Tressel’s signature on it to assist the folks raising money.

The main function of a college football coach is to coach football.  Tressel cannot babysit every player he has to make sure that they are doing the moral thing 24/7.  As Ohio State Alumnus and current New Orleans Saints DB Malcolm Jenkins recently said, “They have a formal meeting with the players every year to go over the rules of what they can and can’t do.  When they [players] do something wrong, they know it is wrong.”

The boosters are a good concept at the college level.  However, there are always a couple of them who like to lean on the water cooler at work and brag about what they can do to manipulate a system for their own betterment.  I will never badmouth anyone who supports collegiate athletics with scholarship donations.  I will criticize people who do it for their own gain and notoriety as a status symbol.

Leslie Cochran, the former President at Youngstown State University recently made comments in Sports Illustrated that made Tressel and his coaching staff sound like the new regime of the Youngstown Mafia.  Cochran referred to the program as “family” and said that those things happened but were always kept within the family.  Pretty brash for the “father” who sat at the head of the table glowing with pride when Tressel was winning National Championships.  Sad thing is, Cochran thinks that a fly pattern is the path an insect travels in a corn field.

I recently stopped to buy gas on my way to work.  I was wearing an Ohio State shirt.  When I went inside to prepay for my criminally-priced fuel, a Michigan fan, wearing a Michigan shirt pounced on the wrong Buckeye fan.

“Looks like you guys are done for awhile”, he said.

“Yeah, I guess we are.  If you guys would have won any Big-10 Championships and had rings to sell you would have gotten into more trouble than us”, was about the best response I could give.

Congratulations on what you have achieved so far Coach Tressel.  You have more to do and don’t let the minority ruin what you have created for yourself.  Relish in your successes and learn from your defeats.  This may be the biggest defeat of your storybook career, but I know it won’t be the end.  You didn’t know your ex-quarterback was driving with a suspended license.  You didn’t know your running back had a tattoo of a rose on his thigh.  Guess the NCAA will have to add some more rules so they can move on to the next campsite to invade like coyotes.

The NCAA crackdown is coming to a school near you!

As an unofficial end point to Spring Football at Youngstown State University, a pancake breakfast is offered to the public to raise money for a good cause.  Head Coach Eric Wolford and his wife are the founders of a charity called No Stone Unturned.  The charity helps families who have had problems financially and fallen victim to the crazy healthcare situations.

Wolford, speaking on the breakfast, commented, “We expect a big turnout and there are a lot of people helping with it.  It is going to be a big day.  Players and many other people will be there helping out.”

The breakfast itself starts at 9 a.m. at Mt Carmel Hall in Youngstown.

Wolford credits his wife for much of the organization of these type of functions.  He says it is their way to “pay ahead” and help people who have children with disabilities continue to provide for their families and not spend every cent they have on medical bills.

A little bit more than a year ago, Ron Strollo made a great decision.  That decision’s name was Eric Wolford. In a football hungry town, someone with more passion for the game of football, his players, his family, and anyone he meets was brought in to be the savior. At first, it was hard to tell if someone could be so passionate about so many different things.  Time is usually the best test and after his first full season, the passion is genuinely obvious.  Granted, a 3-8 season will not win many coach of the year awards, but a long-term plan is in place, a huge recruiting class of highly touted prospects has been added to the mix, and winning feels like it is only a moment away.  I got to sit down with Coach Wolford and review 2010, preview 2011, and just talk about football and life in general.

Paneech: Props on the recruiting class, very defense-heavy.  Did you feel like you filled some holes?

Wolford: No question.  We signed 24 players on defense.  I don’t worry as much about our offense because we are headed in the right direction and do the things we need to do.  Now we have the ability to rotate some guys in on defense and finish games.  That was our emphasis and you can see it when you look at the recruiting class.  Our staff did a great job, and we feel it is a very good class.

Paneech: How do you feel about the Youngstown media coverage you had in the last year?

Wolford: I have had a good relationship with the Youngstown media.  If something negative gets written or announced, I feel that they are entitled to their opinion and that is what sells papers and gets ratings.  Do I always agree with what gets said?  No, but I also understand that there are media versions of stories too.  Sometimes I give you guys the media version.

Paneech: A couple of weeks ago, there was a tragedy near campus where a young man and YSU student lost his life.  If people Google Youngstown State and that incident pops up , could it deter from your recruiting?

Wolford: There are multiple shootings happening on campuses across the country, unfortunately.  There was a football player at Arizona State who was recently shot.  In our society today, it has become a little commonplace because young people don’t know how to handle their emotions.  We all get caught up in it, but I do know that we have the third safest campus in the State of Ohio. I’ll continue to dwell on the positive.

Paneech: Last year at this time, you were more worried about acclamation of getting to know the players, it seemed to be a huge focal point going into Spring ball.  With that not so much of a hurdle this season, where is the concentration centered to?

Wolford: Last year there was an acclamation period for both players and coaches.  Now, it is completely different, we are 360 degrees from where we were last year at this time.  We don’t have problems with anyone talking back or guys being on time.  They understand work ethic and doing things right.  They understand that if you are running a drill and you have to touch that line, that line, and this line at full speed and they don’t go full speed or miss a line, that they are going to go again.  We are now at the next step and we are working on finishing, learning to finish better.  All of the character issues that surfaced in the past have been taken care of.  Are we all angels?  By no means.  You will really like this football team. They are good kids and very enjoyable to be around.  The chemistry is unbelievable. We know that we have a chance to be a good football team and we are close.

Paneech: How many steps are there to get where you want?

Wolford: I don’t feel there is a set number of steps.  It is a process that you have to patiently go through.  Any football program that has had sustained success has always had a good foundation.  This group that is here right now is the foundation and I feel good about building on it.  These kids push each other and hold one another accountable, they also take care of one another.  We put in a 2 a.m. curfew because nothing good happens after two in the morning, it was done for their protection.  Not one guy complained.  I am not out there checking, but if anyone gets in trouble after two, they are going to be in serious trouble.

Paneech: You did recruit a few wide receivers among your defensive slew.  Unfortunately, gone is Dominique Barnes.  Is that position a concern?

Wolford: At receiver, we lost Jelani Berassa, which was a bigger loss than anyone could have anticipated.  He is a tremendously talented young man who is maturing.  He is one of those guys that it is a pleasure to be around and he has got a bright future if he continues to work hard and do things right.  I think we are untapped at receiver and that we underachieved.  [Kevin] Watts came in here and did some good things as a freshman, but other than that, I think we underachieved, and that is not acceptable.  I have addressed that with my coaching staff and we are going to become overachievers at that position in the immediate future.  We signed three kids from South Carolina and one from Cleveland that are very talented.  They are going to be raw and are not a quick-fix solution, but we are not looking for a quick-fix, but rather a foundation.  I didn’t want to play a lot of freshmen last season, it just happened.  The best players are going to play.

Paneech: What about other positions like defensive backs and a new kicker?

Wolford: We have got two junior college safeties coming in here that can flat out play and they could have went a lot of other places, so we have competition now.  Donald [D'Alesio] is going back to corner a year older now.  Randy Louis is a guy who exceeded our expectations last season.  He is working hard and is up to 184 pounds now, he is all-in.  Obviously, we lost a great kicker, but we feel pretty good about [David] Brown. He is a highly-rated kicker whose film speaks for itself.  He has got a little bit of swagger but he knows what the expectations are.  Jake Smith decided to transfer and he isn’t even playing football anymore.  Football is not for everybody.  It takes work, it’s hard, and it’s tough and some guys can’t take it. We have raised our levels of expectation around here with stronger work ethic and more commitment.  Some guys can’t keep up, so they have to find something else to do. It doesn’t make them a bad person, I just say ‘I wish you well’, and let them know if there is anything I can do to help them out, that I would.

Paneech: Discuss the charity you are involved with and what sort of things you and your wife do to keep it active.

Wolford: We started a foundation because my wife and I have a son who basically has a disability.  We realized that there are a lot of costs that come with having a child with a disability that medical insurance companies don’t cover.  We said we wanted to start giving money to kids with disabilities to help them do various things.  This past year we gave 100 turkeys away at Thanksgiving.  We want to put something else together for Easter, we sponsor people for Christmas, I have paid people’s rent, I have given computers to families so that they can get their business back to a level where it needs to be to financially support their family, whatever the case may be.  It’s a very open-ended foundation with the key component being to help families or kids dealing with disabilities that don’t have the financial ability to make ends meet.

Paneech: The foundation is called No Stone Unturned, named after your son Stone.  Is it growing?

Wolford: It’s getting bigger and our goal was never anything other than helping people.  We give all of the money away.  I give away more money than I have.  It’s something I believe in and I call it “paying forward”.  I have been very fortunate to never have been hurting for anything, but I also believe part of that is from being generous.  I am a paying forward kind of guy.  My wife is the foundation.  We are having a Pancake Breakfast April 17th, the day after the Spring Game at Mt. Carmel in Youngstown.

Paneech: What were the highs and lows from last year?

Wolford: I think that there isn’t a day that  goes by where I don’t feel honored to be the coach here.  This is a very special place with tremendous tradition.  I know there is a lot of pressure and the average person cannot handle it.  I think there are so many speaking engagements where I see the community and people that support this program.  I embrace the expectations.  Last year is gone, and that was part of the process.  Would we have a solid foundation today if we won five games last year?  You learn more from losing than you do from winning.  When you win games, you just push forward and never address your weaknesses.  So what happens is, over time, your weaknesses become bigger cracks.  There are a lot of coaches who have never lost, they have never had to pick themselves up off of the floor.  Some people joke that God wanted to see if I was going to pull a Woody Hayes last year and just go crazy. Through my family and support, I enjoyed things.  It was a lesson learned.  Sometimes I feel if we would have won a bunch of  those games and would have came back with a false sense of security.  As much as I hate to admit it, we are not the most talented football team out there. We are gonna be someday, but we are not right now.  The guys that come in need to be developed.  There needs to be accountability.  We shouldn’t be the inferior team on the field, it’s unacceptable.  We’re Youngstown State, we are Youngstown State.

I consider myself fortunate to have met some good people both in Youngstown, and nationally.  I couldn’t get a hold of quite a few of them, but was very happy to reach the ones that I did.  The Pittsburgh Steelers and Green Bay Packers tee it up tomorrow in Super Bowl XLV.  Here are predictions from a few folks with some star power on how the game will end.

Will Murray – Howard Stern Show Segment Producer

“I think Green Bay is going to win a very high-scoring game.  I will say the Packers beat the Steelers, 31-24.  That might be a little low on the score, but I do like the over and the Packers and expect a bunch of points.”

Joe Scalzo – Youngstown Vindicator Sports Reporter

“Green Bay Packers 823 kajillion, Pittsburgh Steelers 0.  I wanted to predict that the Steelers would end up with negative points, but I don’t want anyone to think I am biased.”

Donald Jones – Buffalo Bills and Former YSU Receiver

Donald Jones is attending the game in Texas after a stellar rookie season with the Buffalo Bills, where he started the last eight games and expects to play a bigger role in the offense next season.  ”I think Green Bay is going to win.  It should be a good game and it is really great being a part of this atmosphere.  It’s a different world, just crazy down here.  I’ll say the final score will be Green Bay 28, Pittsburgh 21.

Larry Snyder – Voice of The Phantoms

I think the Steelers will beat the Packers, 24-21. The Packers will make it close in the second half, but ultimately, the clock will be their enemy as Pittsburgh holds them off to get the close win.

Curt Carr – Head Coach of The Youngstown Phantoms

“Everybody wrote the Packers off when Aaron Rodgers got hurt.  I think he will lead his Green Bay Packer team to a 24-21 victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers in a close game.  It’s a really tough prediction, but they are the hot team.”

Trevor Parks – YSU Sports Information Director

“Packers 27, Steeelers 21.  Charles Woodson will be named the MVP at the end of the game for the Pack.”

Jack Loew- Southside Boxing, Trainer of Kelly Pavlik

“My wife likes Pittsburgh, so I will say that Green Bay wins 24-17.”

Anthony Paneech – Owner / Editor of Paneech.com

Pittsburgh has a great defense, but the Packers have a great linebacker.  Clay Matthews is the best linebacker in the league right now.  I know Steelers fans will haggle that Troy Polamalu was the NFL Defensive Player of The Year, but linebackers have bigger impacts on the majority of the plays from scrimmage.  Having kicked the outcome around for a few days, the prediction here is Green Bay 30, Pittsburgh 20. Clay Matthews will have at least two sacks.

Bo Pellini recently blew a fuse on Saturday.  Knowing he was wrong for letting his temper get the best of him, Pellini apologized on Monday.  Dennis Dodd is  the Senior Writer for CBSSports.com and was very critical of Pellini’s actions.

You can read Dodd’s article by clicking here.

Which Utopian territory Dodd was raised in, I am not sure.  However, the cheap shots he takes at the city of Youngstown, Ohio are horrible.  Pellini is from Youngstown and we are proud of him, happy when he comes home, and support him.  The same can be said for Jim Tressel, all of the Stoops brothers, Donald Jones, Brad Smith, Kelly Pavlik,  Ed O’Neill, etc.

Dodd was correct when he referred to Youngstown as a proud and tough town.  He had absolutely no reason to call my hometown “not particularly appealing”, in the first paragraph of his story.  Youngstown lost people when the steel mills closed their doors over 30 years ago.  This city is trying hard to take steps forward.  Youngstown is anchored by a growing university, a revitalized downtown area, a new arena which in the last year alone has hosted Elton John, the Harlem Globetrotters, and Disney on Ice.  It is General Motors territory, V & M Star territory, and has more to offer than so many other places.

Why, Mr. Dodd, do you make the empty claim that people from Youngstown have a chip on their shoulders? 

Show me a Division-I NCAA Football Coach who wouldn’t blast the refs for being outflagged 16-2.  Show me a winning coach who doesn’t grit their teeth, last time I checked Jon Gruden had a Super Bowl ring.  If coaches are nonchalant and lax, they probably are thinking about retirement.  So my question is simple:  Are all good college football coaches from Youngstown, or is Pellini’s intensity magnified by you, Dennis Dodd, because he is from Youngstown?

You owe the fine people of Youngstown an apology, Mr. Dodd.  Your story would have been more agreeable without the geographical name-calling and weak attempt at stereotyping.  Bo Pellini acted in an unfavorable manner, was held accountable, apoligized, and is moving on.  Again, when this man does countless hours of charity work in his hometown, has family and friends who love and respect him, has colleagues in the same profession he grew up with, and takes the time to talk to an ordinary Joe – we are proud to have him.  Youngstown is proud.

 

Youngstown State product, Donald Jones, had his best Sunday as a professional.  Jones did some damage and scored his first NFL touchdown in the Bills 49-31 come-from-behind win over the Bengals.  Jones finished the game catching five of Ryan Fitzpatrick’s passes including a 28-yard touchdown reception.  Jones’ five catches are a career-high and so were the 70 yards he compiled on the five receptions.

Jones also ran an end-around but the Bengals offense was not fooled, and Jones only gained one yard on the reverse.  The playing time Jones received was partially because the Bills had to pass to get back into the game.  Lee Evans running 60-yard go routes continuously will force him to take a play off here or there. With the opportunity, Jones may have secured himself additional playing time in the very near future for the Bills, who started the season 0-8, but have won two games in a row.

James Harrison is many things.  Loudmouth, All-Pro, Egomaniac, Super Bowl Hero, Steeler.  The one thing that Harrison should not be called is a cheap shot artist.  Shame on the NFL for making Harrison the reason for hiked up fines and suspensions for supposed “cheap shots”. 

The NFL is messing up here.  I have heard all of the arguments in the past six days.  The athletes are so much better these days (so is the equipment).  If an NFL player is so much faster than 40 years ago when a helmet looked like a deflated ball, then it would be more difficult to deliver a cheap shot intentionally.  Granted, there have been blatent cheap shots over the years, but how far is the league going to go to protect players and take the barbaric rawness that fans have come to love?

In fairness to Harrison, if he were trying to permanently injure Josh Cribbs, he must be faster than he showed returning a fumble in a Super Bowl a couple of years ago.  Cribbs is hard to just tackle.  How many times have you seen the Browns best weapon juke and make a defender dive and look stupid.  For Harrison to be able to pinpoint Cribbs’ earhole, and deliver a perfect shot with malice is too hard to do.  Who makes the decision on what is malicious and what is clean? 

I’m upset with the new mindset.  I joked a few years back about how the quarterbacks of the NFL would soon be wearing white pinneys and flags.  If you accidentally hit one of them, you will be ejected from the NFL and forced to play arena football in Canada.  Ah, if only Vince McMahon would reactivate the XFL and encourage good hitting… 

Former Youngstown State University Penguin Donald Jones is making a good impression at the NFL Scouting Combine.  Jones went South to condition for the combine appearances, and thus far, all of the hard work seems to be paying off.  Under the watchful eye of trainer Mike Gough at the Athletic Edge Sports Facility in Bradenton, Florida, Jones has worked tirelessly to get bigger and faster.

Jones ran a 4.47 40-yard dash.  More impressively, he was able to bench 225 pounds 20 times, tying him for first in that category with all other participants.

Jones was officially measured at 6′ and weighed in at 214 pounds.

 

Earlier this year, Jones participated in the Under Armour Senior Bowl.  He was the first Youngstown State player selected to play in that game since Ron Jaworski was picked in 1972.  Jones’ selection made him only the fifth FBS player named to participate.

In his Senior season, Jones set a record for catches in a season with 77.  Against Missouri State and Southern Illinois, Jones twice tied the YSU all-time record with 11 catches in each game.

You can follow Jones on Twitter, his user name is @DaJones81.

Here is a link to the player profile I ran on Donald Jones during Youngstown State’s most recent football season.

Growing up a New Orleans Saints fan sucked.  Since I was ten years old, in 1977, I have rooted for New Orleans.  Living halfway between Pittsburgh and Cleveland and geographically nowhere near Louisiana always made my explanation of rooting for this team even harder.  As new Super Bowl and NFL Champions, the Saints have helped remove the weight of 33 years of torture in a three-hour span.

As a youngster, I heard it all.  New Orleans merchandise was tough to come by in Ohio.  There was no NFLShop.com in 1977 and merchandise was hard to find.  With each Christmas, I was asked what I wanted.  I selected the obvious stuff:  Atari, Microvision, Bike, and every year, I would ask for a Saints shirt.  I got the obvious stuff, but never got a Saints shirt until 1981.  It was a #38 George Rogers home replica and I wore it until the paint fell off.

I heard all of the mularkey at school.  Everything from, “Tom Dempsey cheated, he used a nine-iron“, to “Hey Paneech, they are 0-3 already, get out your bag”.  It got old and never went away.  If a schoolmate wanted to unnerve me all they had to do was fire up the Saints jokes.

In college, more of the same.  Remember, the Steelers were just coming off of a dynasty and the Browns and Bernie Kosar were winning division championships, so I was getting slagged both ways.  By the time I graduated college, I owned a Bobby Hebert and a Rickey Jackson shirt.  It was really heartwarming to see Rickey get into the Hall of Fame as I still feel he may be the most unheralded linebacker to ever play the game.  Wanna credit someone for ‘Who Dat?”, I’ll give you a hint.  Long before Ochocinco, Jackson wore a towel tucked into the side of his pants with a little stick figure drawing on it. Dig up the tapes, the crowd was screaming Who Dat a long time ago in the Superdome.  ’Dat’s Who.’

Things seemed to get better as Hebert and four great linebackers knocked the unbeatable Rams out in 2001.  However, other than hosting a few Super Bowls, the Saints would be a disappointment through the playoffs when they made it.  Again, the bag was back, the insults were flying, and I still stood by my team.

Just a couple of years ago, the Saints played well enough to get to the NFC Championship game, but ran into a buzzsaw in Chicago.  Dome teams do not play well in the snow.  Lesson learned, but enough respect garnered to keep the bag in that top right drawer.

As I watched the Saints win the Super Bowl, all I could think of was how to destroy my ‘Aint’s’ bag.  I dreamt of everything from setting up a lawn chair in my garage and flicking matches into the driveway until I hit the bag causing it to burn.  I thought of treating it like a pet and giving it proper burial in the backyard.  I even thought of giving it to my cousin who is a Browns fan, he needs it these days.  What I ultimately chose was to keep the bag, now over 30 years old, as a reminder of how things go in cycles through our lives.

If you are a fan of a sports team that has struggled for awhile, hang in there, things will eventually change.  It is way too easy to become a Yankees fan or to hop on the Kobe Bryant train.  This way is much more satisfying.