New Penn State offensive coordinator Mike Yurcich talks philosophy

Penn State coach James Franklin brought in Mike Yurcich to rev up the Nittany Lions’ offense, which struggled at times in 2020.

Yurcich, Franklin’s fifth offensive coordinator in his eight seasons with the Lions, has an impressive resume. He coached at Texas last season and at Ohio State and Oklahoma State before that. Those programs are just the recent stops.

He’s been an offensive coordinator for 15 years, and Yurcich’s Longhorns offense averaged more than 42 points per game last season.

Yurcich met with the Penn State media via a Zoom session Tuesday afternoon.

Here are some of the key takeaways.

Franklin is a fan of tempo when it comes to offense, and Yurcich is a tempo “guy.”

“You know tempo has been something that’s, that’s really helped us as an offense,” Yurcich said, referring to his past offenses. “And when you’re dealing with trying to run an offense that has tempo in it.

“The things that are good about tempo are, you try to minimize the amount of communication that the defense can have in-between snaps because there’s plenty of that based on your alignments, based on where the (running) back is, based on whether it’s three-by-one (receivers), based on where the ball is in the middle of the field.

“So you’re trying to really help handcuff them into minimizing how much information they can communicate in-between each plays from position to position. … You’re trying to minimize that, you’re trying to exhaust them. OK, you’re trying to wear them out and get them huffing and puffing and so it’s an equalizer.”

A Yurcich offense has three keys.

“It’s going to be an offense, there’s three keys to it, really traits, if you will,” Yurich said.

“One, physical. 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 that we’re able to recruit here at Penn State, but we want to be tough, smart and skilled. Tough, smart and skilled.

“And so when we line up, the most important thing is our players. How we line them up in formations and how we get them matched up and lastly, it’s plays. So, players, formations and plays. And, you know, that’s been the key to our success.”

Yurcich provided a little bit of insight into how he will coach his quarterbacks, and maybe how much he will run them.

Penn State starting quarterback Sean Clifford is back but No. 2 man Will Levis is in the transfer portal. The Lions leaned heavily on both those guys in the running game last season.

“What’s really important is that our eyes have to be right and our feet have to be right,” Yurcich said, referring to the Penn State quarterbacks.

“And if you have those two things going for you on each play, then you give yourself a chance for success.”

As far as QB runs, Yurcich said he tries to weigh the risk of running his quarterback, and possibly injuring him, with the reward of having a numbers’ advantage vs. the defense and possibly creating a big play or a touchdown.

“It all depends on your quarterback and really, your depth at quarterback as well,” Yurcich said.

“You have to weigh, you know, the risk versus the benefit because whenever you’re running the quarterback, you’re equating numbers, right?

“It’s 11 on 11 when the quarterback runs it. When you hand it off right now (to a running back) they have 11 (defenders) to tackle your 10, so it’s a simple math game.

“And obviously, you have an advantage whenever you’re running the quarterback or any type of option.”