YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio - The Youngstown State University football team is preparing to take the field for the first time since 2019.

The Penguins will be playing spring ball due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Teams in the Missouri Valley Conference are set to play eight conference games during the regular season before 16 teams from the FCS are selected for the playoffs.

The Penguins last played a game on November 23, 2019, where they defeated the seventh-ranked Illinois State Redbirds 21-3.

YSU finished the 2019 season 6-6 and failed to make the playoffs.

The 2021 Penguins team will look a lot different than the 2019 team. Bo Pelini left YSU in 2019 after five seasons as head coach to become the defensive coordinator at LSU. He has since been dismissed from that position.

YSU hired New Middletown native Doug Phillips to replace Pelini.

Phillips was a graduate assistant for YSU in the early 1990s under Jim Tressel before having stops as head coach of Springfield Local (1997-2000) and Salem (2001-2005) High Schools. He then moved back to the college ranks as an assistant with Ohio State, Bowling Green, Iowa State, and Cincinnati.

The 52-year-old begins his first season at the helm with a game against top-ranked North Dakota State at the Fargodome in North Dakota.

The Bison are in the midst of a historic run, winning eight championships in the last nine seasons. The only championship they did not play in was the 2017 game which YSU lost to James Madison 28-14.

North Dakota State and YSU kick off Sunday at 3:30 p.m. on WBCB.