“Eric Wolford is an over achiever that was never supposed to amount to anything,” Youngstown State’s new head football coach said of himself during his inaugural press conference Tuesday.
Wolford will replace Jon Heacock, who recently resigned the position after holding it for nine years. Wolford was raised in the Youngstown area, and is anxious to return to his hometown.
“It’s an honor to be a part of this family again,” Wolford said. “…I love Youngstown, Ohio. Youngstown, Ohio has made Eric Wolford what he is today.”
Wolford told a crowd at YSU’s DeBartelo Stadium Club that there’s a lot of work to be done with the program, and he is willingly accepting the challenge. Wolford said he’s learned from experience—not just Division 1 experience—that sometimes a coach can learn more from losing than from winning.
“If we want to get back to what the expectations are, it’s going to take a community effort,” Wolford said. “I’m calling on you. I can’t do it alone, but we can do it together.”
Wolford said he wants to bring Youngstown State football back to where it was during the Tressel years, and to do that, he will start with evaluating the team’s needs. This will be his primary focus when recruiting, he said, but first he must assess where the team is as a whole.
Wolford said work on recruiting the next class will begin immediately. He said he will use this week, particularly Wednesday and Thursday, to begin recruiting in Mahoning and Trumbull counties, and will tackle the Cleveland area Friday.
“We are going to hit those areas immediately,” Wolford said. “…We’re going to recruit the state of Ohio harder than it ever has been. I can assure you that.”
“I’m going to be relentless and our staff will be relentless,” Wolford said. “We’ll et back to having some good old days.”
Wolford spent last season as the offensive line coach and running game coordinator for the University of South Carolina. Wolford, an Ursuline graduate, played football there and was coached by Dick Angle, Howland’s current head football coach.
Previously Wolford held a similar position at Illinois, where his lines led the Big Ten Conference in rushing (2007) and passing (2008) in back-to-back seasons. He has also coached at Arizona, North Texas, Houston, South Florida and served as a graduate assistant at his alma mater Kansas State.
Wolford was a four-year starter at Kansas State, where he helped the Wildcats win the school’s first bowl game in the 1993 Copper Bowl. After college, Wolford signed a free agent contract with the Arizona Cardinals.
He is the sixth head football coach in Youngstown State football history.
