Submitted photo / YSU Athletic Communications YSU head coach Doug Phillips addresses the team at the end of the first day of spring practice on Tuesday morning at Stambaugh Stadium.

YOUNGSTOWN — The sounds of spring are starting to fill the air in downtown Youngstown.

Not the fluttering of leaves as they return to the trees or the bustling of students on their way to class, but the collisions of helmets, spiders and pads.

Which can mean only one thing — spring football practices have begun at Youngstown State.

“I don’t know if we’ve ever been outside on the first two days of spring ball in Youngstown, but it’s been a beautiful week,” head coach Doug Phillips said. “To get out here and be in the Ice Castle and have the space that we need, it’s been tremendous. For us, we’ve got some new coaches, some new players, so we’re trying to build how we practice.

“I think in two days we’ve accomplished that with the effort and attitude. It’s not about how many plays, it’s about the execution of those plays. We’ve gotten a lot of plays in the last two days, but the pads come on Saturday, and that’s when we really see what type of football team we have.”

The Penguins are coming off a down 4-8 season after making the FCS playoffs in 2023.

As a result, Phillips elected to make a change at offensive coordinator, bringing in Mike Yurcich to replace Troy Rothenbuhler to oversee the offense and coach the quarterbacks.

The change at offensive coordinator also included the hires of Chris Parry to coach the receivers and Justin Heacock to coach the running backs, while Michael Zordich was also hired to fill a vacancy on the defensive coaching staff as cornerbacks coach.

With a new coordinator, comes some differences in offensive philosophy, including new plays, new playcalls and new terminology.

“Just mentally, everything’s brand new. So (we’re) spending a lot of time in the playbook, in the facility, learning and just making it second nature, so that once you step out on the field, you don’t have to think, you can just play,” said returning starting quarterback Beau Brungard. “It’s a big switch up from three years in a row knowing the same words, then you gotta scrap all that and learn the new ones. That’s probably been the toughest thing, just learning the new terminology and getting it down.”

The Penguins are hesitant to share too much about what the new offense will look like, but Phillips said that YSU could be more multiple in the run game.

“I don’t know if I want to tip our hand, but it certainly is a switch up from last year,” Brungard said. “We’re doing a lot of new things, and we’re taking this offense in a new direction. I think everybody’s fired up for it. We’re all just excited to keep learning and rep these new things.”

Also, after losing 23 players to the transfer portal this offseason, YSU brought in a few mid-year freshman signees and a handful of transfers of its own to supplement the roster.

The rest of YSU’s freshman class will join in the summer, and the Penguins will have another opportunity to add to the roster out of the transfer portal at the end of spring.

“Our locker room is great. I’ve always said you gotta win in the locker room before you win on the field,” Phillips said. “I truly believe in our brotherhood in that locker room. Our guys like being around each other. You see it in the weight room. We brought in great kids that not only are solid academically, but we think can help us on the football field. Our guys have taken them in, and you’ll see a lot of those names as we go through spring football be able to make plays for us.”

Spring also serves as an evaluation period for the coaching staff. They get a chance to see what new players can do and how younger players have improved, while also figuring out how and which players fit at certain positions throughout the roster.

“We’re finding out the one thing you still have to do, you gotta find out who your players are, what players can do and then you figure out the formations and plays, whether it’s offense, defense or special teams,” Phillips said.

But, for YSU, spring practices are about establishing “fundamentals,” according to Phillips, while also trying to learn and install Yurcich’s playbook amongst the players.

“We shouldn’t have to preach what the effort looks like in practice,” Phillips said of the focus and goal during spring. “What’s important now really focuses on the fundamentals of tackling, blocking and ball security. In our league, to beat the teams at the top, you gotta be fundamentally sound, you gotta have discipline and you gotta be able to do that for 60 minutes.”