By Keon Edington / The Jambar
Before the 2026-27 season kicks off Aug. 27 for the Penguins, the Youngstown State University football team added 21 players to its roster through the transfer portal, including five players who graduated from Mahoning Valley high schools.
The Penguins recruited senior defensive back Cam Smith from Iowa State University, who won the All American Conference Defensive Player of the Year honor at Austintown Fitch High School in 2022. Linebacker sophomore Danny Inglis joins as a Canfield High School graduate and transfer from Iowa State. Both players have deep ties to Youngstown, as their fathers played for the Penguins.
Head Coach Doug Phillips said familiarity with YSU and football played a crucial role in recruiting Smith and Inglis.
“We knew Cam [Smith] from high school. We wanted Cam [Smith] — I was here when his dad played in 1991,” Phillips said. “Inglis, his dad played here — Both those fathers won national championships. In the same boat [Beau] Brungard, his dad played here.”
Phillips said that local recruits understand and exhibit local values.
“I think we understand the high school football programs that they played in,” Phillips said. “They understand the grit, the toughness and the blue collar that still is in this region of northeast Ohio western Pennsylvania or the state of Ohio.
Phillps said that local players also understand the climate that most games are played in and all that together plays in the role of adding players.
Other additions from the transfer portal include former Yale University senior wideout Aidan Stephens, former junior Vince Luce from Robert Morris University, Canfield graduate for offensive linebacker and Poland High School graduate Danny Nittoli, who will play linebacker.
Phillips said it’s important to continue to gain local talent within a close mileage.
“Our needs are seeing what is going to take us to the next step in winning championships and we thought we brought the right guys in, and there’s a footprint that we work when we look at the portal,” Phillips said. “We like looking at the footprint of what we recruit. ‘Are they from Ohio or are they from northeast Ohio? Are they from western Pennsylvania?’ So, if you look at the guys that we brought in, the majority of them probably fit that footprint.”
With 21 players added on both offense and defense, Phillips said the focus is on implementing them to both sides of the ball.
“It’s to be a championship-caliber program, you gotta have competition within your own roster,” Phillips said. “Bringing in the receivers we have, it’s gonna be a competition going in this spring, and I think just the ‘iron sharpens iron,’ see who rises to the top and, you know, what you’re looking for.”
Phillips said that many of the players didn’t get opportunities to showcase their talent at their previous schools, but they will have the chance at YSU.
Off-the-field conduct is just as important as on-the-field play, as Phillips said it’s one of the focus points the team looks at for new players to recruit.
“It’s the most important thing, we do look at character, how did they do academically, the character,” Phillips said. “Who they are as a person and they’re greater people than they are football players, and they’re gonna add to our locker room because you gotta win the locker room before you could ever win under center.”
Phillips said the expectation is for the new recruits to learn YSU’s system and focus on winning games.
“I think our players hold [the new members] accountable too, and we teach them the ways that we work and a lot of these guys came from. I think they’re excited that we have an opportunity to really do some great things next year, and I think that’s what a lot of them wanted to do. They wanted to come back here. They want to help win football games for Youngstown State and play for a program that has a chance to win championships,” Phillips said.