Penn State fires offensive coordinator Mike Yurcich
Penn State has fired offensive coordinator Mike Yurcich, sources confirmed to Blue-White Illustrated. Yurcich joined the Nittany Lions in 2021. His offenses tended to struggle to consistently produce against the top opponents on the team’s schedule over the last three seasons but generally performed well against lesser foes. The high-flying attack he orchestrated at other stops during his coaching career never quite materialized in State College. There were flashes of greatness, of course. But they were rarely sustained quarter to quarter or game to game.
The first sign of 10th-year head coach James Franklin being frustrated with Yurcich came after the Lions’ 24-15 loss to Michigan.
“We’ve got to do a better job of calling a game to allow our quarterback to get into rhythm,” Franklin said. That is critical. We’ve got to find easy completions for a quarterback to get into rhythm. That’s what everybody does. We’ve got to do a good job of that. And then on top of that, although there weren’t sacks, there were too many pressures and there were too many times where we were not creating separation.”
There were other instances in the past where Franklin seemed to call out Yurcich without doing so by name. He would say that a game needed to be called differently. Or, that the team got too far away from the run and/or pass too often.
Penn State will now have its sixth offensive coordinator of the Franklin era. A hiring timeline is not yet set. But, expect it to get done sooner rather than later. That said, this is the first in-season firing since Franklin took over the Penn State program in 2014. So, the timeline may be longer than usual.
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Through 10 weeks, Penn State had one of the better offenses in college football in some areas but not many of them. Third down was a problem all season long. So, too, was staying on schedule with crisp play on first or second down. The running game regressed in 2023 despite having the same two talented starters and what some think is a better offensive line. And, receiver play was putrid for much of the season.
Where Franklin goes next will be critical. He must get this hire right. Penn State needs to be in position to make the College Football Playoff when it expands to 12 teams next season. Its best path to do so is having an offense that works well in tandem with the defense. Too often in the Franklin era, the defense had to shoulder entirely too much of the load, especially in the biggest games of the year. Things must even out moving forward.
