ALTOONA, Pa. -- In a surprising move, Penn State head coach James Franklin announced the departure of offensive coordinator Kirk Ciarrocca and the hiring of former Texas offensive coordinator Mike Yurcich Friday.
Yurcich becomes the fifth offensive coordinator in Franklin's eight seasons at Penn State. He follows Ciarrocca and Ricky Rahne who led the offense for one season each and Joe Moorhead and John Donovan, both of whom led for two years.
The struggles the Nittany Lions went through in 2020 on both sides of the ball were well-documented, but the dismissal of Ciarrocca is oddly timed and not expected. Franklin and the Nittany Lions typically don't make splash moves like this one, so it does raise suspicions that the issues with Ciarrocca went beyond the performance this season.
As bad as the offense was in the beginning of the season, Penn State managed to average 36.25 points per game in its final four games after managing an abysmal 24.6 points per game in five losses.
There were plenty of built-in excuses for Ciarrocca, beginning with injuries to key players in running backs Journey Brown and Noah Cain, as well as tight end Pat Freiermuth. He also had the lack of spring ball and the coaching staff turnover to deal with, but it just never felt like the right mesh throughout the season, with all things considered.
That is where Yurcich enters the picture. It's been rumored that he was the guy Franklin wanted when the position was open last year, but Penn State couldn't outbid Texas for his services. With Tom Herman being fired as head coach of the Longhorns, it renewed the possibility for Yurcich to be hired.
While it's not certain why Ciarrocca was dismissed, it is known that Yurcich is a guy Franklin wanted on his staff. Yurcich has an impressive resume, despite taking a different route than most to get to the top-tier of the collegiate ranks.
He started coaching at Saint Francis (Ind.), working up the ranks until he became the offensive coordinator there before leaving to become a graduate assistant at Indiana. From Indiana, he went to Division II Edinboro, where he coached quarterbacks and wide receivers for a season before being the offensive coordinator from 2006-2010. He spent two seasons as offensive coordinator at Division II Shippensburg, then headed to Oklahoma State.
Yurcich spent 2013-2018 directing an explosive Big 12 offensive attack for the Cowboys. Oklahoma State averaged 38 points and 478.3 yards per game in the six years Yurcich was there. Even more impressive is that the Cowboys scored 40 or more points 35 times; that's something Penn State managed to do once in 2020.
Following his time with Oklahoma State, Yurcich joined the staff at Ohio State for a season as the passing-game coordinator and quarterbacks coach. The Buckeyes went 13-1 and Justin Fields ended up as a Heisman Trophy finalist. From there, Yurcich went to Texas for a season. In his lone year with the Longhorns, Yurcich's offense averaged 42.7 points and 475.4 yards per game.
Those statistics are in stark contrast to what Penn State's offense accomplished under Ciarrocca. It ranked 54th nationally in scoring and No. 37 in FBS in yards at 430.3 per game.
His offenses are built around the strength of the players around him, rather than his system. That adaptability is going to be huge moving forward, as the Nittany Lions have a multitude of offensive weapons returning. It might mean fewer goal-line fades and more pounding the ball up the middle in the red zone, but that's to be determined.
During the fall, Franklin preached winning the explosive-play battle and while there wasn't much success early, it was there late and it was there with the emergence of wide receivers Jahan Dotson and Parker Washington. With those two expected to return, Yurcich will be able to build on the foundation Ciarocca laid later on in 2020. And the two aren't the same schematically, the Yurcich brand of offense is expected to feature similar terminology.
When he was hired at Texas, Yurcich molded his offensive terminology around what had been there under the former offensive coordinator, and there's no reason to doubt that will be the case at Penn State. With another uncertain off-season, preparation-wise, the more adaptable and flexible everything can be for the Nittany Lions should be a plus. especially after seeing the issues the off-season presented in 2020.
Yurcich is the fourth offensive coordinator quarterback Sean Clifford has worked under at Penn State in the last five years. That type of change can wreak havoc on the confidence of any offensive player, especially the quarterback. Clifford made strides down the stretch in 2020, nearly returning to his successful ways from a year earlier.
The biggest bright spot for Clifford is how Yurcich develops quarterbacks; the previous two quarterbacks he worked with are Sam Ehlinger at Texas and Fields at Ohio State. Under Yurcich, Ehlinger completed 60 percent of his passes and threw 25 touchdown passes, while Fields threw 40 touchdowns and only three interceptions.
In 2020, Clifford threw for 16 touchdowns and had nine passes intercepted.
Efficiency at quarterback should be Yurcich's top priority once he can work with the Nittany Lions, but seeing what Ehlinger and Fields did illustrates what Clifford can accomplish in 2021.
Yurcich is inheriting what has the potential to be an explosive offense. Whether he'll be able to get more out of the offense than Ciarrocca was is yet to be determined.