We interrupt this All-22 of Penn State’s 24-15 loss to the Harbaugh-less Michigan Wolverines to bring you the All-22 on the firing on Sunday of (former) Nittany Lion quarterback coach and offensive coordinator Mike Yurcich by head coach James Franklin.
And off we go:
1. Franklin is big on acting quickly to change a narrative that casts him in a poor light: A few weeks ago, he didn’t like how the criticism lingered after Penn State lost to Ohio State, including questions from the media. So, after nine-and-half years, he switched his traditional Tuesday press conferences to Mondays. Midseason. On the fly.
Now, after getting outcoached by a team without its head coach to see his all-time record against Ohio State and Michigan go to an absolutely dismal and embarrassing 4-16 amid some inane extra-point decisions, Franklin fires Yurcich, with only gimmes Rutgers (see No. 13) and Michigan State left on the regular-season schedule.
1a. The questions in Monday’s presser will surely focus on Yurcich, not Franklin. It begins at noon. Watch it live here.
2. Athletic director Pat Kraft had to have signed off on this. Or, maybe, instigated or insisted on it. Kraft did say this last December: “I want to make sure that [Franklin] has every resource available to go win a national championship. [It’s] why I’m so happy that we’re going to play in the Rose Bowl, why I know we’re going to be elite and why we’re going to win a national championship — because I believe he does everything the right way with those young men. That’s what it’s really about.”
2a. A seasoned attorney friend of mine who does a good bit of employment law and had a post-graduate academic focus on the business of intercollegiate athletics, says that Kraft may have agreed to the firing, but should also say, “No more, or you’re next.”
3. Yurcich is the second offensive assistant that Franklin has fired in calendar year 2023. WR coach Taylor Stubblefield, who was hired by Franklin on Jan. 19, 2020, was fired by Franklin on Jan. 15, 2023, after coaching for three seasons at Penn State and developing Jahan Dotson, Parker Washington and Mitchell Tinsley — all of whom are in the NFL. Stubblefield landed at Air Force, which is 8-2 this season and sits tied for first in the Mountain West Conference. (For more on PSU WR coaches, see No. 15.)
4. We kind of saw this coming, even though Penn State is 8-2 and scored 63 points each against Delaware and UMass (shows you just how much Franklin truly values those games). After Penn State’s disastrous loss to Michigan on Saturday, when asked about QB Drew Allar, Franklin spun the narrative to the play-calling without mentioning Yurcich by name.
4a. Franklin said: “We’ve got to do a better job of calling a game to allow our quarterback to get into rhythm. That is critical. We’ve got to find easy completions for a quarterback to get into rhythm. That’s what everybody does. We’ve got to do a good job of that. And then on top of that, although there weren’t sacks, there were too many pressures and there were too many times where we were not creating separation.”
4b. More Franklin, on Penn State’s game plan against Michigan: “I thought early on it was to do everything we possibly could to stay on schedule and not be in third-and-long situations. I thought we did that for the most part. We still weren’t as efficient on third down as we need to be, that was the biggest issue. Although we were able to move the ball and do some things in the first half, we were not successful on third down, which was really to me the biggest issue.”
4c. Penn State’s offense was 1 of 16 on third downs vs. Ohio State, and 4 of 14 on third downs vs Michigan. That, ultimately, led to no more second chances for Yurcich.
5. When asked a few days after the Ohio State loss by Audrey Snyder of The Athletic to evaluate Penn State’s play-calling, here is what Franklin had to say: “…Obviously when you are talking about evaluating that, opening drives are a big evaluator of that in terms of game planning and success. Third down is a big indicator for quarterbacks as well as coordinators. Red zone, those things I think are really telling.”
6. Penn State’s official announcement of the firing came at 2:34 p.m. on Sunday, in an email from Penn State Athletics’ stratcomm director, with the innocuous subject line of “Penn State Football Staffing Update.” It read:
6a. “Statement From Penn State Football — Penn State head football coach James Franklin announced today offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach Mike Yurcich has been relieved of his duties, effective immediately. Ja’Juan Seider and Ty Howle will share interim offensive coordinator responsibilities for the remainder of the season.
“We thank Mike for his contributions over the last three years, but feel it is in our program’s best interest to make a change at this time. We wish him and his family nothing but the best in the future,” Franklin said.
7. Seider, the running backs coach since 2018 and the veteran of the offensive staff, typically spends games on the sidelines, while Howle, the tight ends coach since 2021, has been up in the coaches’ booth. Yurcich, who called the plays, moved upstairs to start the 2023 season.
7a. In 2022, PSU RB Nick Singleton was Big Ten Freshman of the Year. His stat lines:
2022 — 156 carries, 1061 yards, 6.8 ave., 12 TDs
2023 — 134 carries, 523 yards, 3.9 ave., 7 TDs
8. Where does grad assistant Danny O’Brien fit? Teams are permitted to have 10 full-time assistant coaches. With the firing of Yurcich, do not be surprised if O’Brien moves to a full-time coach designation for the remainder of the season and runs the QB meeting room and practices.
8a. O’Brien was named ACC rookie of the year in 2010, when he was a first-year starter at quarterback at Maryland, where Franklin was offensive coordinator and QB coach. O’Brien came to Penn State as an offensive analyst, and was moved to GA in 2023, which has allowed him to coach Allar and the other quarterbacks on a daily basis. This season Yurcich moved from the field to the press box to call plays, leaving O’Brien to the face-to-face in-game coaching and conversations with Allar.
9. I asked Franklin about O’Brien two weeks ago. His reply:
“He’s been really good. He played the position at a high level — technically, you could say in the Big Ten. He played the position in the CFL as well. Now, he’s worked with Mike for multiple years and understands what Mike wants. He has worked with and has played for me for a long time, so he kind of understands what I’m looking for. I think he’s done a really good job of developing relationships and trust with the quarterback room.
“He’s done the same thing in recruiting. I don’t think Mike would have went to the booth if he wasn’t comfortable how Danny would operate on the sideline. We wouldn’t have done it either unless Drew and the quarterbacks were comfortable with it. I think he has a really bright future in the profession.”
10. Yurcich was Franklin’s fifth offensive coordinator in a bit less than 10 seasons, not counting Tyler Bowen’s one-game stint as interim OC for the 2019 Cotton Bowl, which Penn State won 53-39. The five: John Donovan (2014-15), Joe Moorhead (2016-17), Ricky Rahne (2018-19), Kirk Ciarrocca (2020) and Yurcich (2021-23).
11. I don’t see Bowen (OC at Virginia Tech under Brent Pry) as a candidate for the job, but maybe former Penn State OC Joe Moorhead (Akron head coach) or former GA Joe Brady (Buffalo Bills QB coach) or former analyst Charlie Frye (OC/QB coach, Florida Atlantic).
11a. Darkhorse: Former Penn State analyst Kirk Campbell, a really sharp and young guy who is the current QB coach at Michigan. With Harbaugh’s status up in the air, so could be Campbell’s. (Among the folks who “liked” the above tweet was Campbell himself.)
12. To be clear: Franklin fired Donovan and Ciarrocca, and Rahne may have been pushed out the door a bit and encouraged to take the head coaching job at Old Dominion. Ciarrocca had a year left on his PSU contract and received almost $900,000 in severance payments…so that Franklin could fire him and hire Yurcich. Who Franklin just fired. A budget killer.
13. Ironically, Ciarrocca is the OC for Rutgers, who Penn State faces at noon this Saturday in Beaver Stadium. Rutgers is 6-4, but the Scarlet Knights were shut out 22-0 vs. Iowa over the weekend and are averaging just 24.1 points per game in 2023 — 85th in the country; Penn State is averaging 37.7 points in 2023, No. 15 nationally.
13a. Ciarrocca was the OC at Penn State during the 2020 pandemic season, when most team meetings were via Zoom and his efforts to install a new offense in person were severely limited. However, Ciarrocca’s offense scored 52 combined points vs. Ohio State (a 38-25 loss) and Michigan (a 27-17 road victory, PSU’s last win over the Wolverines). That’s almost double what Penn State and Yurcich did vs. the Big Two in 2023 (27 points).
14. If you are waiting for Franklin to take hold of the offense and run it his way, he has done it before — but not for quite awhile. And TBH as OC his offenses were usually average, at best. Here is where his offenses ranked nationally in major college football when he was the QB coach/OC for five seasons, at two stops, earlier in his coaching career. (Josh Freeman was the K-State QB in 2006-07 and O’Brien was the Terps QB in 2010).
| Team | Year | Record | Passing Off. | Total Off. | Scoring Off. |
| Kansas State | 2006 | 7-6 | 57 | 85 | 69 |
| Kansas State | 2007 | 5-7 | 21 | 40 | 18 |
| Maryland | 2008 | 9-4 | 64 | 68 | 92 |
| Maryland | 2009 | 2-10 | 68 | 102 | 98 |
| Maryland | 2010 | 9-4 | 65 | 80 | 29 |
15. Now that Franklin is on to OC No. 6, it is important to bring up that Penn State has had five wide receiver coaches in Franklin’s decade at Penn State: Josh Gattis (2014-17), David Corley (2018), Gerad Parker (2019), Taylor Stubblefield (2020-22) and Marques Hagans (2023).
15a. The common denominator? Their boss, who was a WR coach himself.
16. That’s right: Penn State has a coach on its staff who spent 10 years coaching wide receivers and tight ends in the NFL and in the college ranks. His name: James Franklin. Sure does not look like it these days. Franklin’s WR/TE coaching resume:
| Team | Year | Franklin’s Title |
| Kutztown | 1995 | Wide receivers coach |
| James Madison | 1997 | Wide receivers coach |
| Washington State | 1998 | Graduate assistant/tight ends |
| Idaho State | 1999 | Wide receivers coach |
| Maryland | 2000-04 | Wide receivers coach / recruiting coordinator |
| Green Bay (NFL) | 2005 | Wide receivers coach |
17. You have to wonder what culpability for the Nittany Lions’ offensive failures lies with the plethora of Penn State analysts. Yurcich didn’t mess up all by himself. The Nittany Lion football staff now numbers over 70 people, based on the number of people who appeared for a group shot of “full-time football employees” at Penn State football’s media day in August. (I was there and counted 73…now minus Yurcich.)
17a. Speaking of culpability: Who hired Yurcich?
18. I can’t help but wonder if the coordinator comp on the staff of DC Manny Diaz really hurt Yurcich. Penn State also lost to Ohio State and Michigan last year, but on the defensive side of the ball Diaz engineered great improvement in 2023:
19. Penn State’s defense (points allowed)
2022 — Michigan 41, Ohio State 44 (85 total)
2023 — Michigan 24, Ohio State 20 (44 total)
19a. Now, let’s do Yurcich and the Penn State offense (points scored):
2022 — Michigan 17, Ohio State 31 (48 total)
2023 — Michigan 15, Ohio State 12 (27 total)
20. That nine-overtime, 2018 loss against Illinois Beaver Stadium in 2021 certainly did not help Yurcich’s cause. Neither did Ta’Quan Roberson’s stat line against Iowa the game before Illinois: 7 of 20 for 34 yards, with two interceptions. Trust me: James has a long memory.
21. And what of Drew Allar? What does he think? His family has not been shy in saying publicly that Allar picked Penn State in large part because of his relationship with fellow Ohio native Yurcich, which dates back to Yurcich’s time at Ohio State (2019) and Texas (2020). O’Brien, who sits alongside Allar on the Penn State bench during games when the defense is on the field, is key here.
21a. Other than his four TD passes against Maryland and that last-second strike against Indiana, Allar has mostly regressed (or, at least, hasn’t improved very much) this season — which can’t help his NIL pocketbook. Allar is already 20 games and 10 starts into his college football career. After the 2024 season, he is eligible to declare for the NFL Draft — a notion that seems unlikely at this point in time, but certainly was a strong possibility when he committed to Penn State (and Yurcich).
21b. Allar’s combined stat line vs. Ohio State and Michigan (#Yuck):
Pass: 26 of 64 (43.8%), 261 yds, 2 TDs, QB ratings of 87.2 and 30.4 . Run: 17-26, 1.5 ypc., 1 TD
22. After Penn State’s loss on Saturday, it looks like the gap between Penn State and The Big Two that Franklin faced in Year 1 is exactly the same as the harsh reality of Year 10. That 2014 season was five — going on six — offensive coordinators ago. Common denominator: James Franklin.
