ALTOONA, Pa. -- Anytime a coaching hire is made at the collegiate level or any level for that matter, it takes a lot to start on the right foot. Penn State's new offensive coordinator Mike Yurcich is no different as he transitions into his role with the Nittany Lions.
Yurcich is tasked with getting an entire offense up-to-date and learning its second offense in as many years while also helping put the finishing touches on a 2021 recruiting class. On top of those tasks, he's still trying to get to know his players and coworkers
"I know these players are chomping at the bit to learn our schemes. We're starting to meet with the players to install, but we want to make sure we're organized as a staff," Yurcich said during a Zoom with the media Tuesday afternoon. "It's been a juggle between installation and recruiting, and you're trying to get to know your players at the same time."
To get to Penn State, it took Yurcich years of action in Divsion II football, where he coached in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference at both Edinboro and Shippensburg. While at Shippensburg, Oklahoma State's Mike Gundy offered him a job as their offensive coordinator. Yurcich would then head to coach quarterbacks at Ohio State following his stint with the Cowboys before spending a season with Tom Herman at Texas.
Those experiences helped shape Yurcich as both the man and coach he is and those he's been with have not been forgotten along the way.
"Influences on me...I think every coach I have worked for has had an impact on me throughout the years. I started out in a good situation, one that allowed me to get my hands dirty right off the bat," Yurcich said. "Mike Gundy had a big impact on me as a head coach, an offensive coach."
Yurcich has had success at every stop he's made and has helped make quarterbacks such as Mason Rudolph, Sam Ehlinger and Justin Fields into NFL caliber players.
Now though, his quarterbacks are Sean Clifford, Ta'Quan Roberson and Christian Veilleux. Whether or not they'll make it to the NFL is yet to be determined but for now, Yurcich is passing off judgement.
"I think it's best for me to approach this very non-judgemental," Yurcich said.
Clifford took a big step back in 2020 and his backup Will Levis entered the transfer portal just last week. That leaves only Roberson and Veilleux as the scholarship quarterbacks on the roster, a far from ideal situation in a position where depth and development are paramount.
"It's always a challenge," Yurcich said. "Our eyes have to be right and our feet have to be right. If you have those things going for you on each play then you have a chance for success."
Veilleux is the wild card as a true freshman who has enrolled early, but being on campus early on in the installation process is huge for growth early and getting off on the right foot with the Nittany Lions.
"For any new quarterback coming in, it's nearly impossible to play without that spring experience," Yurcich said. "For him to come in early, it gives him a really good chance to get a leg up in competing."
The quarterbacks will lead an offensive attack predicated on winning the turnover battle, scoring and creating explosive plays, all of which ere areas of struggle for Penn State last season. When the offense takes the field for spring practice and against Wisconsin for the first game of the season, the offense will undoubtedly have a new look to it, but also will have a little of head coach James Franklin's favor as well.
"It's not going to be a Mike Yurcich offense. It's going to be a Penn State offense," Yurcich said. "We want to be tough, smart and skilled."
The Nittany Lions will be returning to a tempo offense which they got away from under former offensive coordinator Kirk Ciarrocca. Prior to 2020, Penn State utilized a very potent up-tempo attack and Yurcich looks to return to those roots.
"That's something that's really helped us as an offense...It can harm you if you're not careful and you don't know what you're doing, but you can minimize the amount of communication the defense can have between snaps," Yurcich said. "You're trying to exhaust them. Trying to wear them out and get huffing and puffing"
Tempo and the spread have gone together like peanut butter and jelly at Penn State under Franklin and with Yurcich leading the offense it will put a new twist on what has been largely successful for the Nittany Lions. It's a far cry from the smash-mouth, three rushes and a cloud of dust offense Joe Paterno ran, but when done correctly can implement some of those power football tendencies as well.
That includes going under center, a lost art for the Nittany Lions.
"I love power football. It's how I was raised. There's a time to go under. 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," Yurcich said. "I think play action passes can increase. I think that you can sustain a longer suck on the defense on a play action pass because you're now taking a five step drop instead of a flash fake out of the gun."
Okay, under center is great but what about a fullback? The fullback position is nearing extinction in title only as many teams line people up where the fullback would typically be, but it's labeled differently. At Penn State this position is typically a tight end or H-back.
When the Nittany Lions look to the power attack or are in a position to out-muscle an opponent look for the tight end to be the key to the attack and who would be filling that position.
"We're trying to get a lot done with those tight ends and inserting those guys into the line of scrimmage and trying to create extra gaps with a longer athlete," Yurcich said. "To me, muscling up formations doesn't necessarily need to be with a fullback, but I think you can do it out of multiple tight end sets and get a lot done with that as well."
Whether a team can handle going under center or deploys a fullback, offenses are irrelevant if the right people aren't running them. One of Yurcich's strong suits in his career has been his ability to adapt an offense to the personnel playing within the offense.
"You can't try to fit a square peg in a round hole. You got to make sure that you're asking your quarterback to do things that are within his skillset and the same thing with every other position out there," Yurcich said. "There certainly comes a time where you're trying to make sure that the personnel you're recruiting fit into your system, but your system has to be adaptable to the talent level."
The talent is there for the Nittany Lions, now, it's up to Yurcich and those around him to maximize it and get everything out of an offense that routinely underperformed in 2020.