YSU coach Doug Phillips says his team is embracing 'great challenge' of playing Michigan State at Spartan Stadium

One week removed from the start of Big Ten play, Michigan State faces a Youngstown State ballclub which is newly ranked in the AFCA FCS Coaches Poll and has a rich tradition with seven FCS championship game appearances.

The No. 25 ranked Penguins are led by junior quarterback Beau Brungard, who has totaled 409 rush yards and six rushing touchdowns in wins over Robert Morris and Mercyhurst. Brungard has also passed for 236 yards and a touchdown on the year while completing 26-for-37 (70.2 percent)

Brungard set the Missouri Valley Conference single-game rushing record with 264 yards on just 10 carries while scoring four touchdowns against Robert Morris last weekend. He was named both the Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Week and the Stats Perform’s National Offensive Player of the Week .

A second-generation quarterback for YSU whose father Mark led the Penguins to back-to-back national championships in 1993-94, Brungard earned all-conference honors as first-year starter in 2024. He also led the Penguins to their first FCS playoff appearance since 2016. Brungard totaled 3,193 yards with 28 touchdowns (12 passing, 16 rushing). He rushed for 998 yards.

To this point in the season, Michigan State’s Week 3 opponent is averaging 40 points a game, while giving up an average of just 16 points through eight quarters.

Now, realistically, those numbers probably won’t hold up when Michigan State (2-0) and Youngstown (2-0) square off at 3:30 p.m. (BTN) on Saturday at Spartan Stadium, but this could serve as a cautionary tale in terms of taking no opponent lightly. no matter what the level of football.

Let’s not forget that mid-major Western Kentucky came into Spartan Stadium in 2021, led by Bailey Zappe and gave up 31 points in a 48-31 victory where Zappe threw the ball 64 times, completing 46 of those passes for 488 yards and three touchdowns.

Now again, there probably won’t be a repeat of history on Saturday in terms of points and yards surrendered when Michigan State, which is 3-0 all-time against YSU, faces the Penguins. But the numbers say that Youngstown State has enough juice in their offense to cause some problems.

By the way, the last time the two programs met, Michigan State topped YSU 42-14 back in 2021.

With that in mind, here’s what sixth-year Penguins’ head coach Doug Phillips had to say as he previewed Saturday’s game during his weekly press conference earlier this week.

The Penguins’ head coach is not heading into his team’s first road game with any illusions about the task at hand. He is more concerned with using his team’s performance against Michigan State as a measure of where his team is at and where they could potentially be going forward.

“For us, just getting on the road, that experience of getting on the road the next two weeks is (going to be) huge for us,” Phillips said. “So, having the opportunity to go play a Big Ten team, and they’re big, they’re physical, they’re strong, it’s a great challenge to see where we are as we get ready for league play. You want to see growth from week two to week three.

“It’s got to be physical. You got to have great pad level. We’ve got to play with great fundamentals. Now we just get to do it against a Big Ten school.’’

In approaching some aspects of the challenge presented by Michigan State, Phillips is focused on his team more than their opponent.

“I think our kids understand the scheme of it,” Phillips said. “I think their football IQ has really expanded. That’s probably where I’ve seen the most growth from last year to this year, was football IQ (because) if you’re thinking, it’s hard to play the game of football. So, I tell our young men, that’s why you got to get it down. You got to study, and if you’re thinking during a play, you’re probably not playing fast.

“In our receiver room, a lot of those guys are thinking and when you’re thinking, it slows you down and you’re not being able to react. So I think defensively, that’s the growth I saw in the spring, in the summer. Now can we see it playing the next level?”

Talk about a coach who is seemingly building a specific culture, Phillips sounds like a leader who knows what he’s talking about and knows how his team must approach Saturday’s matchup with Michigan State.

“The challenge now, I told our kids, is what we put on tape is who we are,” Phillips said. “And trust me, they have the personnel. They probably have someone assigned to watch every kid, every play. So, if you had bad eye discipline in the back end, if you had bad technique on the offense and defensive line, they’re going to know it, and they’re going to try to expose it. We’ve got to clean this stuff up on film because teams are going to start taking advantage. Now, they got film on (us) from two games. We got to clean that stuff up because, again, they got a lot of personnel to sit there and check out our kids and see who they can attack this Saturday.’’

Usually, the opposing coach waxes poetic about the opponent’s skill players but Phillips sees another position that has been a huge part of Michigan State’s success and could be a problem for his squad on Saturday – Spartan redshirt junior punter Ryan Eckley

“The one thing I’ll say about Michigan State, you watch one of their best football players, and you guys probably don’t even realize it,” Phillips said. “Their punter is unbelievable.

“They’ve had nine of 14 inside the two-yard line. So when you’re watching film of them, you want to talk about offenses having to work upfield, uphill. They’re on the inch-yard line to start a drive. He places the ball. It’s like a golf shot. It’s unbelievable. They had a safety against Western Michigan because of that. So field position is so critical.’’