Watch Penn State coordinator Mike Yurcich talk quarterbacks, offensive line, running backs, and more
STATE COLLEGE — Penn State offensive coordinator Mike Yurcich held his first news conference of the spring here on Wednesday night.
Yurcich met with reporters after head coach James Franklin’s team wrapped up its fifth practice of March. The Lions have just nine more drill days to go before closing things out with the Blue-White game on April 23. That’s set for 2 p.m. inside Beaver Stadium.
Yurcich was asked about numerous position groups during his chat with reporters. The BWI team was on hand to capture footage of the entire question and answer session. That video can be seen below. But, first, we pick out some notable quotables to share.
Yurcich talks Clifford, young quarterbacks
As we wrote Wednesday, it wouldn’t be a media session with the second-year coordinator if the quarterbacks did not come up. Therefore, Yurcich was asked to cover Penn State passers Sean Clifford, Beau Pribula, and Drew Allar.
On Clifford and areas for growth, Yurcich said:
“I think the biggest thing from year one [to] year two, and so we’ve been through practice five, is just the fluidity of getting through the progressions and being able to anticipate,” Yurcich said.
“If it’s RPOs, he’s more well versed in the system the second year. You can see that. I think he feels that right now. So, it’s not probably one thing. It’s everything right now. More of a comfort zone with how I call it, what we’re looking for, what we’re trying to get done. More familiarity.”
On Pribula and Allar and where they’re at, Yurcich said:
“Both Beau and Drew were coached extremely well in high school, in different systems,” Yurcich said. “Our system’s different than their system’s, and just getting the verbiage down, being under center at times, being able to have the direct protections, even run checks at times, all those things are probably the biggest areas of growth right now for us, with regard to the young quarterbacks.
“But, they’re doing an excellent job. They’re very far along because of how they were groomed in high school. They show a lot of arm talent. They have good feet, good pocket awareness, both of them.”
Freshmen Penn State running backs standing out
For those who have not followed spring news conferences before, young players are almost always asked about more than their older counterparts. There is a good reason for that, however: While Penn State coaches have seen them in action at the college level, no one else has.
With that in mind, two first-year players who also came up beside the quarterbacks were backs Nicholas Singleton and Kaytron Allen.
“They’re impressive,” Yurcich said. “Those two guys are going to make it ultra-competitive in that room. They’re very explosive.”
