The stars lined up for the Penn State coach James Franklin earlier this month, when the highly regarded Texas offensive coordinator Mike Yurcich reached the open market after the Longhorns hired the genius of the joke Steve Sarkisian as head coach. Six days later, Franklin announced that he had fired the first year OC PSU Kirk Ciarrocca and replaced him with Yurcich.
The change was bold and unexpected for many, even after the disappointing 4-5 season of 2020 from the Lions of Nittany. On Monday, Franklin addressed the media for the first time since he removed the stunner and explained that things just happened to fall into place.
“As it happened, it obviously happened very quickly,” said Franklin. “You know, Yurcich is a guy I have contact with and have communicated with for a long time. And I think that at the end of the day, it was a very difficult decision, obviously. But, philosophically, I felt it was the right thing to do, get where we want to go and play a style in attack that I think will be important for us to play in many different ways. You know, in many different ways.
“Whether it’s our team, and what we have to do to be successful on the field in terms of explosive moves, (limit) turns and then obviously score points – those things are the three most important things you’re going to do in the attack, ”he added. “How it impacts our locker room, how it impacts, recruitment – all of that.”
When Ciarrocca arrived at Penn State in December 2019 after a success For three years in Minnesota, there has been a lot of talk about combining the professional style system he administered with the Golden Gophers with the widespread attack that Lions have been using since the days of Joe Moorhead as OC. Moorhead stepped down to become head coach in the state of Mississippi after the 2017 season and was replaced by in-house hiring. Ricky Rahne. Therefore, there was no change in the general offensive approach. When Rahne left to become Old Dominion’s head coach after the 2019 campaign, Franklin hired Ciarrocca.
Trying to combine the two approaches without spring practice due to COVID-19 and then a disjointed preseason thanks to Big Ten’s indecision to play in 2020 obviously hampered the transition. The attack, especially at the beginning of the season, was less about mesh and more about porridge. In the 0-5 game, Lions averaged 24.6 points per game.
Even with a 56-21 break in Illinois at the end of the year, Penn State’s scoring attack fell almost a touchdown per game of 2019 (35.8 to 29.8). Yards per game have dropped significantly and yards per catch have also decreased. The average yardage per move dropped from 6.1 to 5.5. Meanwhile, in less than four games in 2020, Nittany Lions launched the same number of interceptions it had in 2019 (nine) while losing three more fumbles (8-5). Quarterback Sean Clifford has significantly regressed since the 2019 season and backup Will Levis fought for a brief stint as a starter.
Without ever mentioning Moorhead, who is now Oregon’s offensive coordinator, Franklin made it clear that he wants to return to THIS attack style (Penn State averaged 41.1 points and 6.6 yards per move in 2017, Moorhead’s last year) . And Franklin thinks Yurcich, whose Texas attack in 2020 averaged 42.7 points per game and 6.4 yards per move, could take Lions where they need to be.
“A few years ago, we were running the spread, we were mixing over time, we were doing a lot of these things and we were very successful,” said Franklin. “And then, obviously, with the decision we made in the last hiring cycle, this was a little different from the past (by Ciarrocca). So that’s when we felt that the combination had to happen so that we could balance these two things and make sure that we were still executing an attack similar to what we had done in the past.
“I hope this brings us a little closer to that – who we want to be and what our philosophy is in the attack,” he added. “It is more aligned with our position.
As for having to fire Ciarrocca after a single season – and crazy, in fact, thanks to the pandemic – Franklin said it was nothing personal.
“I have a huge respect for Kirk, really,” said Franklin. “Obviously, (it was) a difficult decision and a difficult part of the business. It was a difficult conversation to have. Kirk handled this extremely well, as he does everything. It is a total class act and I wish for nothing but the best.
“But it has more to do philosophically, how we want to play,” he added. “And I think what I said before, about an emphasis on explosive moves, and an emphasis on (limiting) turns and an emphasis on scoring points, are the three most important things you should do in attack. And specifically in today’s college football, the way this thing is going, there will be games where you have to score 40 points – you know, 42-41 or 42-40, or whatever – and those things are one award now, probably more than ever. So this is really the emphasis and these statistics and these things, making sure that they are aligned with the way we want to play and the type of football we want to play in attack. “
Here’s a look at the respective 2020 offensive production numbers for Penn State and Texas, respectively.
