New coordinator Mike Yurcich ready to take the reins of Penn State’s offense

He was one of the highest-paid assistant coaches in the country last year. He was hired to replace a respected, veteran play-caller after just one year. And he’ll be tasked with helping Penn State rebound from a losing season.

No pressure, Mike Yurcich.

To be sure, Yurcich will be under the microscope in 2021 as he replaces Kirk Ciarrocca, who was fired after just one season as Nittany Lions offensive coordinator.

The abrupt move seems to speak more of Lions coach James Franklin’s admiration for Yurcich than his disapproval with Ciarrocca, who still had Penn State’s offense among the Big Ten leaders despite a litany of handicaps.

Yurcich was only available because his boss at Texas, Tom Herman, was fired and replaced by former Alabama offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian, who was bringing in his own staff.

So what will a Mike Yurcich offense look like?

“It’s not going to be a Mike Yurcich offense,” he said Tuesday in his first media availability since joining the Lions last month. “It’s going to be a Penn State offense. There are three keys to it, really: One, we want to be a physical offense. Two, we want to be a smart offense. Three, we want to be a skilled offense.

“We’re going to be a talented offense obviously from the players who we’re able to recruit here at Penn State, but we want to be tough, smart and skilled. So when we line up, the most important thing is our players. How we line them up in formations and get them matched up and lastly it’s plays. So players, formations and plays. That’s been the key to our success.”

The main takeaway is that this will not be an overhaul on the order of what Joe Moorhead installed when he took over in 2016. Moorhead quickly helped lead the Lions out of an era of NCAA sanction-strapped rosters into a legitimate national contender.

Both Moorhead and his successor, Ricky Rahne, left Penn State for head coaching jobs. With Ciarrocca gone, Yurcich becomes Franklin’s fifth offensive coordinator in eight seasons at the helm.

And he does have some tweaks in mind. Including, perhaps, putting the quarterback under center if the situation calls for it.

“There is a time to go under center,” Yurcich said. “I think it provides a lot of advantages. When you can turn your back to the defense, they don’t know where the ball is necessarily, so I think your play-action passes can increase. I think that you can sustain a longer suck on the defense on play-action passes, because you’re now taking a five-step drop instead of a flash fake out of the gun.

“So I think playing under center has a tremendous amount of advantage, depending on what your schemes are.”

Since Moorhead’s arrival, the Lions have operated exclusively out of the shotgun. And exclusively can’t be emphasized enough — Penn State quarterbacks even lined up deep to spike the ball or kneel it.

That doesn’t mean a return to the days of I-formation football for the Lions. Yurcich said he’s just fine with Penn State’s recent trend of shifting a second tight end into the backfield when needed.

What he wasn’t ready to deliver on Tuesday was an early analysis on the quarterbacks he inherited, including two-year starter Sean Clifford.

“My comments on any individual player, my opinions of them, I’m not going to give them,” Yurcich said. “Whether it’s on Sean or anybody up front, or any receivers right now. I think it’s best for me to approach this very non-judgmental, especially with media. I think it’s fair for me to go through spring practice and then give you an assessment of where these guys are at.”

Yurcich will be starting with just three scholarship quarterbacks when practices open next month — fifth-year junior Clifford, third-year freshman Ta’Quan Roberson and newly arrived true freshman Christian Veilleux.

Both Will Levis and Micah Bowens entered the transfer portal last month, with Bowens bound for Oklahoma and Levis — who split time with Clifford in 2020 — evaluating his options.

The Lions could still end up adding another veteran option via transfer themselves, though at this point any addition wouldn’t have the benefit of going through spring ball with the team.

However it shakes out, the biggest key for the offense will be to cut down on turnovers, which were arguably the biggest factor in Penn State’s stunning 0-5 start last fall.

“We got to have a guy behind the center that can make decisions and be accurate with the football,” Yurcich said. “What kind of quarterback is that? We’ve won with all kinds of guys that can run it a little bit better than some, but the most important thing is we have to be able to throw it accurately. We have to be smart. We have to be tough. We have to be good leaders at that position.”

Signing day redux

Once one of the most important days on the college football calendar, the first Wednesday in February is now more of a footnote.

The traditional national signing day is here. But like most major programs, Penn State has essentially all of its 2021 class in the fold, having inked 15 players back in December’s early window.

One significant addition could be coming, however. Davon Townley, a four-star defensive lineman out of Minneapolis, is set to announce his decision between Penn State, Michigan State, Nebraska and Washington on Wednesday morning.