Not all spread offenses are the same and James Franklin’s vision for Penn State’s 2021 offense did not include a repeat of 2020.
Franklin, the Lions’ eighth-year head coach, made that pretty clear a number of times during his Monday news conference. And so Mike Yurcich is Penn State’s new play-caller and Kirk Ciarrocca is out after one season.
Penn State’s offense wasn’t feared last fall. The numbers were ordinary.
Franklin wants an offense that will create more big plays, score more points and limit turnovers.
Penn State finished third in the Big Ten in scoring last season, averaging 29.8 points per game. Ohio State, the conference champ, led the Big Ten in scoring at 41 points per contest.
The Lions turned the ball over 13 times during their five-game losing streak to open the season — seven interceptions, six fumbles.
“A few years ago, we were running the spread we were mixing in tempo, we were doing a bunch of those things and had it and had a lot of success,” Franklin said.
Penn State offensive coordinator Kirk Ciarrocca talks with quarterback Sean Clifford before their game against against Iowa at Beaver Stadium on Nov. 21, 2020. Joe Hermitt | jhermitt@pennlive.com
Franklin hired Ciarrocca, the former Minnesota OC, after the 2019 regular season. Ricky Rahne, the Lions’ 2018 OC, left to take the Old Dominion head coaching job.
“And then, obviously, with the decision that we made in the last hiring cycle,’' Franklin said, referring to the Ciarrocca hire. “That was a little bit different than than his background.
“So that’s where we felt like the (offensive) blend had to happen, so that we could balance those two things and making sure that we were still running a similar offense that we had run in the past.”
The merging of Franklin’s vision for the spread and Ciarrocca’s offensive philosophy, produced an offense that was a far cry from, say, Penn State’s 2017 offense run by Joe Moorhead. That 2017 Penn State group averaged 41 points per game and 6.6 yards per play. Penn State threw 32 touchdown passes, ran for 36 scores and averaged 4.9 yards per rush.
The number 40 appeals to Franklin when talking offense.
“In current college football, the way this thing is trending, there’s going to be games where you’re going to have to score 40 points,” Franklin said.
The Lions scored 35 in an overtime loss to Indiana, 25 against Ohio State, 19 against Maryland, 23 against Nebraska and 21 vs. Iowa.
Yurcich, who coached at Texas last season, previously coached offense at Ohio State and Oklahoma State.
In the Penn State release announcing his hiring, the program noted Yurcich’s offenses have averaged 6.49 yards per play during his time as an FBS offensive coordinator. And since 2013, Yurcich’s teams have scored 50 or more points 26 times and 40 or more points 51 times. The 2020 Longhorns averaged 42.7 points per game.
“We want to be able to put people in conflict and make people uncomfortable and make people defend the field and there’s a lot of different ways to be balanced,” Franklin said.
“It’s the ability to run or pass and multiple situations, it’s the ability to run a traditional style running game with your running back,” he continued.
“It’s to do that with the quarterback as well. But the other part of balance is, getting everybody involved and getting a bunch of people touches, so that the defensive coordinator can’t sit there and say … this is the guy they’re trying to get the ball.”