For Nittany Lions' offseason, path to preparation steady in nature
Mike Yurcich recites his offensive priorities with ease.
They are, in order, to score as many points as you possibly can. Concurrent to that goal, turn the ball over “as infrequently as humanly possible,” he says. Complementary elements include playing with good sportsmanship, being tough, being smart, being skilled, and playing fast.
But, he adds, “Be tough. Be tough. And score.”
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Now five months into Yurcich’s tenure as Penn State’s new offensive coordinator, with six weeks of winter workouts and an official set of 15 spring practices in the books, the question for the Nittany Lions as July’s preseason camp approaches is how much progress has been made toward those ends.
In the wake of a 2020 campaign in which the Nittany Lions finished 37th nationally in total offense (430.3 yards per game), but struggled scoring (29.8 points per game, a program-worst since 2015’s 101st-ranked 23.2 ppg), Penn State’s coaching staff is counting on plenty. Determined to have seen steady progress through the spring, then maintained through the summer months as the Nittany Lions largely work independently of the coaching staff on the field, Yurcich acknowledged that his expectations are not necessarily linear.
“That's a great question. I think it's something, I think it's up, it's going to be maybe a little bit down, and it's up, it's down. But as long as it keeps on trending this way,” Yurcich said, pointing upward. “It may go up and then down, but then up, and then long as we're continuing to do this, that's what we want, the growth on an incline.”
Much of that steady development will rely upon the play of fifth-year senior quarterback Sean Clifford and the offensive firepower surrounding him.
Finishing the 2020 season on an upward trajectory himself, having struggled through much of Penn State’s 0-5 start to the schedule, Clifford said his aspirations ahead of the quickly approaching 2021 season have evolved to match those of Yurcich.
“Honestly just to kind of get better every day,” Clifford said. “Maybe in 2019, I would have been talking about how I want to win the national championship and I want to win the Big Ten championship, and those are true. I'd be lying to anybody if I said that that's not what our aspirations are for this year. The goal stays the same.
“But it's the day-to-day preparation, and how we're going to make each day matter, and how we're going to get one percent better every day. That's what truly matters because none of it matters if we're just going to talk about it. We have to do the actions every day to prove that we have the right to go win a national championship, to go win a Big Ten championship, and I think that that matters significantly more than just talking about goals and aspirations.”
Training his sights on arriving at preseason practices and, eventually, the start of the schedule on Sept. 4 at Wisconsin as prepared as possible, Yurcich insisted that the path to progress remains his focus.
“As long as that happens over time, we're good. There's going to be good days and there's going to be not-so-good days,” he said. “The thing that you want to see is more banking of back-to-back good days. So if we have a good day, then a bad day, good day and bad day, good day and bad day. Well, sooner or later, you want to say good day, good day, good day, bad day, good day, good day, good day, good day, bad day. And then it continues to build in that direction.”
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