Mike Yurcich shares where he'll call plays from, talks Penn State QBs, more
STATE COLLEGE -- Enthusiasm oozes out of Mike Yurcich's pours and is written all over his face when he talks about offense.
Not just any attack, of course, but the one that he's now charged with directing at Penn State.
Yurcich exudes confidence when he speaks, and it's clear that he has no problem with developing and communicating a plan. His track record speaks for itself.
Here are some things we learned from the new Nittany Lions offensive coordinator during the team's media day here at Beaver Stadium on Saturday.
His thoughts on the quarterbacks
For better or worse, there is no other place to start but here.
Yurcich inherited a quarterbacks room that features returning starter Sean Clifford in addition to third-year and first-year players Ta'Quan Roberson and Christian Veilleux, respectively. The latter two haven't attempted a pass at the college level, of course, while Clifford was mired by inconsistencies and turnovers in 2020, among other things.
How does the new boss feel about the group after winter conditioning, spring practice, and one summer practice?
On Clifford:
"Well, any quarterback that has his demeanor, and attitude, and willingness to learn, and understands every day that there's something more to attain, his ceiling's very high, and I think he can get a lot better," Yurcich said "And, so, that's my job to help him along and to guide him and to give them the information that he needs, and to continue to press upon the things that he has to improve upon and apply pressure where it needs to be in practice, give him difficult looks, allow him to fail, and then, figure it out and then continue to build his confidence up.
"I think that's the process of learning. He's a tremendous leader. Sean is all about helping this team win. He's willing to do whatever it takes. So therefore, you got to just try to help them. You have to guide them and help him get where he wants to be. and he wants to be great, so whatever that takes, detail in meetings, and technique work, watching all the film we can with them, and getting prepared for each game plan."
On Ta'Quan Roberson and Christian Veilleux:
"They both have the talent necessary," Yurcich said. "The play, right now, typical of young quarterbacks, is just inconsistent nut trending in the right direction. There's improvement there. Over the summer, you can't really watch him throw the football at all, so, this will be a big fall camp for them growth-wise. We saw a big increase from practice one to practice 15 through the spring game, and so we need to continue to see that growth, but the maturity is there in both young men.
"Understanding what it takes to be great, whether it be extra meeting time, extra film time, asking the right questions, not being afraid to take a risk in the meeting room, I think they're learning that and they're getting better at that, and those are the things that it takes to be great."
Yurcich also added:
"You got to coach them all, and try to bring out their best attributes, and try to make sure that you're trying to optimize their ability to make plays, and to do what they do best and to help them be tougher to help them be better thinkers, clear thinkers. I think those are all the challenges for each quarterback that plays the game of football."
Booth or field?
Penn State has had offensive coordinators call plays from both the coaches' booth and the field during the James Franklin era.
Yurcich wasted no time when asked about that on Saturday: He will be on the field.
"Well, I think it's important from a leadership standpoint, to be able to rally the troops, so to speak, and to be able to look Cliff in the eye and have a good conversation with him, as well as clear communication with any adjustments that we need on the field, to be able to talk to each personnel grouping, be able to talk to Coach Franklin, I just think that communication is very critical, and at the same time, you have to have good eyes up in the box be able to trust them," Yurcich said.
It's not yet clear which assistant will be the eyes and ears upstairs. In 2020, Kirk Ciarrocca was the only member of the offense's on-field staff who was in the press box during games.
"It's critical that we have consistent information flowing from the box to the field," Yurcich said. "In the past, it's always been good, as long as the information is 100%.
"You do not want to transmit any communication if there's any uncertainty, but when you have expert guys in there with years of experience, those guys are used to seeing it, and when they say it's a particular movement or coverage or stunt or blitz or alignment, you're trusting what they say."
Watch James Franklin, the coordinators, talk at team media day
One other thought here from Yurcich: Every practice features loads of play calls made from field level, and so doing the same during a game makes a lot of sense.
Running back rotation
How does an offensive coordinator deploy an embarrassment of riches at a position like running back where only one player is typically on the field at a time? And, how many of those players would he usually put on the field during a particular game?
Yurcich has lots to figure out because Noah Cain, Devyn Ford, Caziah Holmes, Kevyone Lee, and John Lovett all have something to offer the Nittany Lions this fall.
"How many running backs [per game]? I would say three, somewhere around there," Yurcich said. "Some weeks you may want four. Some games, I don't know if I ever had just two guys go, but there's no cap on it. You want to create rhythm, you want to make sure that your best ball carrier is getting enough carries to where he can generate a little bit of rhythm because there's some flow to the game. There's flow to running backs just like any other position."
How will he and the staff go about figuring out who plays the most?
"It's simple," Yurcich continued. "You practice hard. You play hard, and then we'll figure out who emerges from that, and when you constantly compete against one another, you make each other better, and then your most talent, most competitive, player will rise to the top.
"That's how it happens, that's the process. So everybody has an important role."
He said it
Asked how long it will take Penn State's offense to get firing on all cylinders once the season arrives, Yurcich said:
"I don't have a really good answer for you. How long will it take? If I knew exactly how long it's going to take, I'd probably go into the fortune-telling business. I can't predict. All we can do is plan [and] look at where we are from a personnel standpoint. We got a really, really huge challenge week one against Wisconsin, how good they're coached on defense, how talented they are on defense, at their place. That's a challenge in itself. However explosive we have to be to win that game is what we want to be, whatever that entails.
"That's the goal. All we have to do is go to work, play to our personal strengths, figure out who our best players are, compete, make sure that our best players are getting pushed, create great depth, understand our philosophy, our team's philosophy, and just put our best foot forward every day, and the process takes care of that."
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