Giger: Yurcich hiring will keep Franklin off hot seat

Remember John Donovan? Ouch. Sorry. That was a three-word haymaker for Penn State fans.

But yeah, Donovan, the jet sweep, bubble screen loving guy who was James Franklin's first offensive coordinator when he arrived at Penn State in 2014.

Donovan never had a chance.

The benefit of hindsight tells us that now. He actually might have been a good offensive coordinator under different circumstances, but that wasn't the case.

Donovan took over at a time -- after the scandal and roster cutbacks -- when the offensive line was terrible and thin. When the quarterback, Christian Hackenberg, was thought to be really good but really wasn't, then got broken as a result of the bad O-line. And when there really weren't many playmakers.

We all -- and that's ALL, meaning you, me and anyone who viewed the Penn State team through a clear lens -- thought Donovan was a bad offensive coordinator. Everybody thought he was wasting Hackenberg and that his lack of creativity calling plays was killing the team.

Will we ever truly know if Donovan could have been a lot better? No.

Instead, Joe Moorhead brought his revolutionary offensive system to Penn State in 2016, and the Nittany Lions won a Big Ten title. That offense was spectacular, but it also had everything the Donovan offenses didn't have.

Namely a guy named Saquon Barkley, a reliable, consistent quarterback in Trace McSorley, and tremendous receiving weapons such as Chris Godwin and Mike Gesicki.

Moorhead pulled all the right strings. His offense was perfectly suited for that group.

And this much was as clear then as it is now: Joe Moorhead not only was the most important hire James Franklin has ever made, he also saved Franklin's job at Penn State. The job that everyone felt was on the line during that 2016 season, especially after losing at Pitt and after the 49-10 thrashing at Michigan.

Franklin saved his head coaching career with one huge change at offensive coordinator. And the Penn State program, as a result, was rejuvenated back into a national power.

Fast forward to last season. And let me point out one thing that, again, we learned after the fact.

The offensive coordinator never really had a chance. In this case, it was Kirk Ciarrocca.

The COVID pandemic wiped out spring ball and summer workouts, a vital time for Ciarrocca to install his offensive system. Ciarrocca and the other offensive coaches did as well as they probably could doing all of that difficult stuff by Zoom, but come on, that was more of a monumentally impossible task than anyone would ever let on.

Ciarrocca not only didn't get to install his own system, he was forced to "blend" his system with the holdover Joe Moorhead, Ricky Rahne offense from the previous four seasons. Penn State had success with that system, and Franklin didn't want to blow it up.

Franklin had a starting quarterback returning in Sean Clifford, so he figured the system could still succeed as a blend, regardless of any difficulties there may have been installing it by Zoom.

But here's the problem: Clifford struggled mightily early last season, beginning with a poor first half in the opener at Indiana.

Ciarrocca thought he was getting a proven quarterback, but instead he was watching Clifford turn the ball over, make bad reads, miss open receivers and have to scramble for his life because the line couldn't protect him.

If you were Kirk Ciarrocca, would you have trusted Sean Clifford?

Just like the jet sweep and bubble screen became synonymous with Donovan, Ciarrocca's tenure will be known for a whole bunch of ill-advised fade passes in the red zone. Those were bad calls, period.

But as Ciarrocca pointed out, the fade pass is at least a safe play, with low odds of turning the ball over. Either your receiver catches the ball, or it falls incomplete. It's just a shame they all seemed to fall incomplete.

On top of Clifford's struggles, starting running back Journey Brown had to retire because of a medical condition. Noah Cain got hurt just seconds into the opener at Indiana and was lost for the season. Penn State was down to its third-string tailback before the first series of the season was over.

So, you're Kirk Ciarrocca, and everything that could go wrong has basically already gone wrong.

LIke I said, he never had a chance.

And then he got fired.

Franklin had a chance to bring in a hired gun in Mike Yurcich, and there was no way he could pass that up. Yurcich has been a star offensive mind for several years, and he provides the same kind of opportunity that Moorhead provided in 2016 -- a chance to light up defenses from anywhere on the field.

Penn State started 0-5 last season, before winning its last four games. Given everything that Franklin has done since 2016, there is no reason to believe he would have been on any hot seat coming into this year.

None.

But what if the Lions struggle again this season? If they were to go, say, 6-6, and look as bad as they did for much of last year, then all of a sudden Franklin's seat surely would start to get a whole lot warmer.

So, Franklin went out and did the one thing he absolutely had to do. He fired Ciarrocca even though the guy never really got a fair shake, and hired Yurcich.

Now, Franklin needs to do the one thing he didn't do last year, and that's turn the offense -- the ENTIRE offense -- over to his new coordinator and let him have total control. Yurcich has a tremendous track record -- far better than Moorhead's coming in a few years ago -- and the CEO head coach Franklin needs to hand over the keys and get out of the way on offense.

All indications so far have shown that Franklin will indeed do that, from the QB going under center in open spring scrimmages, to talk of using a huddle and even, gasp, a fullback from time to time.

Mike Yurcich is the head coach of the offense. I have great faith that he will turn this into a high-octane unit that scores a lot of points, which is interesting because I'm still not at all sold on Clifford.

But even if Clifford struggles some, I still believe Yurcich will find a way to get the absolute most out of the quarterback and the offense, which in turn will lead to winning a lot of games this season.

Which is exactly what Franklin needs to make people believe that last year was a fluke, not merely the start of more bad things to come.

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NO DEPTH CHART

Penn State made the rather big announcement this afternoon that it will NOT be releasing a public depth chart this season.

That is going to be disappointing news to a lot of diehard fans who like to study depth charts to know everything they can about the team.

And it certainly will be disappointing news to members of the media, who rely on depth charts as pieces of information that help us do our jobs.

But let me point out one thing: This really shouldn't be that big of a surprise.

College football programs don't have to release depth charts. The view here has sort of always been: Why do they do it in the first place, if they don't have to?

Michigan doesn't do it under Jim Harbaugh. More programs around the country are taking that stance, as well.

It was just a matter of time before James Franklin decided to go his route. He doesn't give out much information about his players -- never has -- and doesn't discuss injuries at all, unless they are season ending.

Fans and media who feel like they should be entitled to this information just because that's how it's always been, well, times change. Coaches would prefer to keep every little nugget of information as closely guarded as possible, and Franklin is no different. Force the opposing team to do a little more homework trying to guess which players might play, rather than flat out telling them in a depth chart.

Unless there is some rule that is introduced in the future, I believe the majority of college football programs ultimately will do exactly what Penn State is now doing by refusing to release a depth chart.

By the way, Wisconsin did release its depth chart Monday. Here it is.

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CAPTAINS NAMED

Penn State revealed the football captains on Monday. Here's the list:

* S Jaquan Brisker

* DT PJ Mustipher

* QB Sean Clifford

* K Jordan Stout

* S Jonathan Sutherland

* LT Rasheed Walker

Clifford and Sutherland have the distinction of being the first three-time captains in the history of the PSU program. That's quite an honor, given the dozens of All-Americans and countless other tremendous players who have played for the Nittany Lions.

Stout is a captain for the second year in a row.

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HOCKEY SCHEDULE

Since we announced our expanded Penn State coverage here on DK Pittsburgh Sports last week, we have heard from several people wondering if that will include more hockey coverage.

The answer is yes. If there is big news in the hockey program, the plan is to include it in our daily PSU B1G Story roundups.

Today, there was some news, as the schedule for the 2021-21 men's hockey season was released. You can find the entire schedule here. The Lions will open up Oct. 3 at home against LIU. The first Big Ten game will be Nov. 5 at Ohio State.

This is from the PSU press release:

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Following a mainly conference-only slate during the 2020-21 season due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Penn State men’s ice hockey squad announced a full 35-game schedule for the upcoming 2021-22 season on Monday morning. The schedule is highlighted by 20 home contests at Pegula Ice Arena.

Coming off an up-and-down 10-12-0 record a season ago, Penn State opens the 2021-22 campaign with three-straight home series including regular-season games on opening weekend for the first time in program history. The Nittany Lions begin the season against one of the newest NCAA Division I programs, Long Island University, on October 3-4 in a rare Sunday-Monday set.

The conference tournament begins the first week of March with a return to the best-of-three quarterfinal format on March 4-6 followed by the two semifinal contests on March 12 and the Big Ten Championship to be played on March 19. All games of the 2022 Big Ten Tournament will be played at the site of the higher seed.

The NCAA Regionals will be held at neutral sites on March 25-27 with the Frozen Four returning to Boston, Massachusetts on April 7-9.

All dates are subject to change with game times and TV schedule to come. Season ticket renewals for the 2021-22 season are currently underway and run through Tuesday, September 14 with single-game tickets going on-sale Wednesday, September 22. For more information on ticketing CLICK HERE.

For more information on the 2021-22 season presented by the Penn State Bookstore: the Official Bookstore of Penn State Athletics, visit the men's hockey page at GoPSUsports.com or call 1-800-NITTANY Monday-Friday from 8 a.m. – 5 p.m.