Influx of energy, enthusiasm accompanying Yurcich's Penn State arrival

When James Franklin met with the media on Jan. 18, soon after the surprise announcement that he’d hired Mike Yurcich as the program’s new offensive coordinator, the tactical motivations for the move were discussed at length.

Far from a revelation of secrets of schematic detail, the swap from Kirk Ciarrocca to Yurcich just one year after bringing Ciarrocca in from Minnesota had one foundational purpose.

“It's going to be back to who we were in the previous three or four years,” Franklin said.

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For Franklin, rekindling that identity is a fundamental element to the program’s opportunity at success. And, coming off a 2020 season in which the Nittany Lions lost five games before finding the wins column, struggling to produce much in the way of offensive proficiency at any point along the way, the program’s recent past offers essential instruction to its potential future.

Beginning with Joe Moorhead’s arrival in 2016, the Nittany Lions reeled off three New Year’s Six appearances in four years, injecting an offensive identity ranking among the best in the program’s history. Beginning with 2016’s 37.6 points per game (6th) en route to a Big Ten championship and a Rose Bowl berth, the Nittany Lions followed the effort with the No. 3-ranked scoring average all-time at Penn State with 41.1 points per game, then set another mark at No. 8 with 35.8 points per game during 2019’s 11-2 campaign.

Even in 2018, the only year without double-digit wins in the four-season stretch, Penn State’s 423.0 yards per game ranked ninth in program history. Amidst evolving modernity in college football, the Nittany Lions did so with explosiveness in the passing game that helped lead to a program-high 290.2 yards per game through the air in 2017 and 260.7 yards per game passing in 2016.

The encapsulation of Franklin’s vision for the style of football he believes Penn State’s identity should be built upon, he provided a reminder of what that can look like.

“It's going to be spread, it's going to be tempo, it's going to be an emphasis on explosive plays,” Franklin said. “We're still working through all those types of things, but philosophically, (we) have been talking for a long time, and we're all on the same page on what we want to do and how we want to do it.”

Two months later, that vision is being put into place for the first time under Yurcich’s direction as the Nittany Lions progress through their spring practices.

Implementing personal energy through his coaching style, Penn State’s players have all taken note. As a result, the early reviews for Yurcich among the Nittany Lion players and coaches are that of the impactful variety, creating an aggressive, up-tempo system that integrates more of the talented personnel at the program’s disposal.

“I'm excited for where it's going,” running backs coach Ja’Juan Seider said. “I think the fans are going to be excited. I think the kids are very excited because it's an opportunity to play with an up-tempo offense again. And, when you play like this, it limits a lot of things of what the defense is going to do to you from the defensive schematic way. You won't see all the blitzes that you normally see versus a team that's slow-paced. It's gonna be fun. I'll tell you that.”

According to Yurcich, it’s an element critical to its success.

Attempting to dictate the tone of the game offensively while wearing down opponents in the process, the results have been offensive production in line with Franklin’s vision. Averaging 38.0 points per game through his six seasons as offensive coordinator at Oklahoma State, then 46.9 points per game with Ohio State in 2019 and 42.7 with Texas last season, the picture painted is one of an unrelenting offensive attack.

“You're trying to help handcuff (your opponent) into minimizing how much information they can communicate in between each play from position to position. They got to get their strength, they got to get their call, and so you're trying to minimize that,” Yurcich said. “You're trying to exhaust them. You're trying to wear them out and get them huffing and puffing. So it's an equalizer. You exhaust them and you eliminate communication. Those are the two main goals. Try to wear them out.”

Through more than a week of Penn State’s spring practices, the Nittany Lions have taken notice of its impact on both sides of the ball. Said by starting center Mike Miranda to be versatile with a tempo that will ultimately help lead to a fourth-quarter advantage over opponents, corner Tariq Castro-Fields echoed the sentiment in his first experience attempting to defend the new system.

“This offense is innovative, as far as tempo, as far as just moving guys around, just trying to give the best players the ball,” Castro-Fields said. “It's different from last year's offense for sure. It's great that we're getting all these different looks with formation, tempo, and stuff like that. I feel like this offense is surely going to prepare us for the things we're going to see in the fall.”

Simultaneously emphasizing protecting the football and creating explosive plays, two areas in which the Nittany Lions endured severe deficiencies last season, the intended result is improved yards per play, scoring, versatility, balanced proficiency between the run and pass, and increased ball distribution.

One step removed from the process, but able to take in Yurcich and the new direction of the Nittany Lions’ offense nonetheless, kicker Jake Pinegar is optimistic about what he’s seen so far.

“From what I can see, the offense looks great,” Pinegar said. “I talked to Sean (Clifford) and all these other guys about the offense, and they said they love it, and they're ready to get after it.

“Everybody has just been working incredibly hard this offseason. It's not an easy thing learning new things and stuff like that, but I think everybody has worked incredibly hard, and I think that's kind of the culture here right now. And for the offense, it's been a huge part of it, whether that's walkthroughs all the time, meetings all the time, quarterback meetings, it's just been a huge emphasis this offseason. I think there's a lot of juice, a lot of competitiveness, and a lot of drive that the offense is looking for. As a spectator, it's not my area of expertise, but from what I see, it looks like they're heading in a really good direction.”

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