Correspondent photo / Robert Hayes Youngstown State's Mike Voitus makes a tackle during a game against Northern Iowa.

YOUNGSTOWN — Back in August, before the start of this past season, Youngstown State junior defensive end Michael Voitus was elected as one of the team’s two defensive captains and one of the team’s five total captains.

“I was dealing with injuries through (fall) camp and spring ball, so I didn’t even play,” Voitus said. “Maybe a third of spring ball and camp, I didn’t practice or play. So to think that my teammates still saw me as a leader and as a captain of this team was humbling because I didn’t even play last season. I played 15 snaps per game the two seasons before. So it’s humbling to know the guys respect me and appreciate me.”

Voitus had earned the honor by a vote from his Penguins teammates, but it was also indicative of just how far Voitus had come since he joined the program ahead of the 2020-21 spring COVID year.

This fall, Voitus had a breakout season, starting all but one of YSU’s 12 games, while finishing with 28 total tackles, 3.5 sacks (second on the team) and a team-high eight tackles for loss. But there was a time when he was on the verge of no longer being a part of the Penguins’ program.

“I can say this because Michael knows it, but it wasn’t easy for Michael,” YSU head coach Doug Phillips said. “He went through some tough times there during COVID, during those first two seasons, to the point where I didn’t know if he’d make it in this program.”

Coming out of high school, the Poland alumnas and native had originally planned on going to John Carroll after developing a relationship with Blue Streaks’ then-defensive coordinator John Schaefer.

But then Voitus committed to Slippery Rock. After he found out that Schaefer had left John Carroll to become the Penguins’ defensive coordinator, he decommitted from The Rock and walked on at YSU.

It was a tumultuous transition for Voitus once he arrived on campus. As a walk-on, he had to earn his spot, and it wasn’t easy.

“Being a walk-on was interesting because you come from high school and you think you’re the best player. You probably are one of the best players on your team, then you get here and you’re just another guy,” Voitus said. “I was just another guy, another guy that was at the bottom, and I was just trying to learn college.”

Voitus struggled during his first couple seasons with the Penguins. He was still trying to learn and figure out how to balance his personal life, social life, football and academics.

He made some choices that led him down a rough path. Voitus failed classes and even a couple of drug tests.

“I was a walk-on, I was failing classes, failing tests. Honestly, although I worked hard on the field, I didn’t truly deserve to be a part of the program, especially one like Youngstown State,” Voitus said.

But Phillips didn’t give up on Voitus. He continued to give him chances, and finally the two had a meeting where Phillips gave Voitus an ultimatum of sorts.

“Coach Phillips told me, ‘I don’t know if there’s any more chances you’re going to get, you have to get it together, or you’re gone,'” Voitus said. “He wasn’t harping on it, he wasn’t yelling at me or cussing at me, or doing whatever. He just said, ‘Hey, you need to get it together.'”

The work ethic was there for Voitus, but it was on the football field. Now he just had to learn to apply it to the other aspects of his life.

Eventually, Voitus turned things around. He got his grades up, was put on scholarship and started to make a splash on the field.

“Thankfully, God had been pulling on me for some time to get away from that stuff,” Voitus said. “Fortunately I did, and if I didn’t, who knows where I’d be.”

After redshirting, Voitus played in all 11 of YSU’s games as a sophomore in 2022. That year, he had nine tackles and three sacks.

As a junior in 2023, Voitus played in four games, but missed most of the season with a broken leg that he sustained at Northern Iowa.

“I’m glad that it happened in hindsight because I don’t know if I would have been as hungry as I was for this season,” Voitus said. “Looking back on it, if I had played, continued to play, maybe I would have gotten complacent. Thankfully everything works out for a reason, and God allows us to do things that we weren’t capable of doing ourselves. He has everything planned out for us, and I just try to follow His will and His plan.”

Then after missing significant portions of spring ball and fall camp this year with other injuries, he finally found his footing with the Penguins in 2024 as one of the most consistently disruptive players in YSU’s defensive front-seven.

“So to see his growth, not only as a young man off the field and becoming a leader, but what he’s done in football,” Phillips said. “We’re blessed that he gets a few extra years. I think the NCAA approved (a waiver) because he’s had some injuries too, so we’re blessed he gets a couple more (years) with us.”

According to Phillips, Voitus embodies what the coaching staff wants to see from every player on the defensive side of the ball — pure effort and intensity every second of every play of every practice and every game.

“We tell our kids, there’s a difference between ‘go hard’ and ‘play hard,'” Phillips said. “‘Go hard,’ you’re thinking, do I need to go hard this time? Or there’s ‘play hard,’ where it’s just instinct. Every second for 4-6 seconds, it’s everything you got. Michael Voitus is one of those young men. In practice, we gotta get them off because you play that hard in practice every play, we gotta make sure he gets to Saturday.”

For Voitus, the opportunity to play for his hometown school has been the experience of a lifetime.

While he was growing up, Voitus’ brother played for YSU quarterback Beau Brungard’s father, Mark, while he was the head coach at Poland. Mark is a former Penguins quarterback himself who led YSU to national championships in 1993 and 1994.

“Me and Beau were kids on the sideline, throwing the ball around, running around, tackling each other on the field after high school games,” Voitus said. “That’s one of the things I cherish, just seeing him every day. Just knowing that me and him, this is all we’ve known, we’ve known ball, and all we’ve cared about really our whole lives is just ball. For as long as I can remember, I was tackling him, and I could still tackle him. It’s just so awesome to see how incredible he is.”

Sharing the experience of playing for the Penguins with those that he’s known most of his life, like Brungard, as well as new teammates he’s met during his time at YSU, has meant everything to Voitus.

He’s overcome a great deal. In football and in life, Voitus has fought through adversity and made it to the other side, and he’s better for it.

“It’s about football, but also growing as brothers and in fellowship with each other. That’s what life’s about,” Voitus said. “You grow as men, and as you become a better man, and you take more responsibility and you’re willing to do more. I believe that can lead you to become a better football player, because football and life go hand-in-hand. You get knocked down, you gotta get back up. And if you don’t get back up, you’re going to stay down and you’re going to get beat. So you pick yourself up and give it your best shot. You fall down, you get up and you go again. That’s how life is. That’s why football is the best sport.”