Mark Brungard is the only Youngstown State quarterback school history to direct the team to two National Championships. Brungard was the starting signal caller for the 1993 and 1994 National Champion Penguins.
Brungard started the final 41 games of his career at quarterback and played in a total of 49 contests while at YSU. He completed 496-of-876 passing attempts (56.6 percent) for 6,116 yards and 38 touchdowns His 41 career starts are second in school history for a quarterback by one.
He ranks second in passing attempts, pass completions and 200-yard passing games (10) while ranking third in passing yards and fourth in touchdowns.
As a senior in 1995, Brungard started every game for the Penguins. In 11 games, he completed 165-of-311 passes (53.1 percent) for 2,010 yards and 10 touchdowns. He had 174 yards rushing and four scores for the year. For his efforts, he was named the team’s Outstanding Offensive Player.
In 1994, he quarterbacked YSU to its second consecutive National Championship. After a season-opening tie against Stephen F. Austin, the Penguins won 14 straight games, including a 28-14 victory over Boise State in the title game.
He threw for a career-best 2,453 yards while completing 189-of-314 passing attempts for an impressive 60.2 percent completion percentage. He had a career-high and school-record 21 touchdown passes to post a 142.2 passer rating. He also had 204 yards rushing and seven touchdowns on the ground.
Brungard finished with 2,657 yards of total offense for the year, which stood as a school record until 1999.
As a first-year starter in 1993, Brungard engineered his first national championship campaign. In 15 games he completed 129-of-224 passes (57.6 percent) while throwing for 1,504 yards and seven touchdowns. On the ground he had a career-best 313 yards while scoring five touchdowns.
During his redshirt freshman campaign in 1992, he played in eight games behind senior starter Nick Cochran. That year he completed 13 passes for 149 yards.
In 1991, Brungard was a redshirt quarterback during the Penguins’ first National Championship victory.
Brungard excelled in the classroom as well becoming just the second Youngstown State student-athlete to earn an NCAA $5,000 Postgraduate Scholarship in 1995.
He earned his degree from YSU in Human Performance Exercise Science from the College of Education. He went on to get his Master’s in counseling from Westminster.
He is currently a health and physical education teacher and the varsity high school football coach at Poland High School. He is also a pastor for a Non-Denominational Church, the Church of the Rock.
A native of nearby New Middletown, Ohio, he was a two-time first-team All-Ohio selection at Springfield Local High School before coming to YSU. As a senior, he was a team captain for three different sports.
Mark resides in New Middletown with his wife Kari and their three sons -- Brannon, Brady and Beau.
