Penn State football’s offense is once again under new leadership heading into the 2021 season.

Earlier this month, the Nittany Lions brought in former Texas offensive coordinator Mike Yurcich to replace Kirk Ciarrocca in the same role. Penn State decided to move on from Ciarrocca after just one season, albeit an up-and-down one with many challenges out of his control.

Head coach James Franklin met with the media Monday afternoon via Zoom for his season wrap-up press conference. Franklin spoke about the “tough decision” to let Ciarrocca go, calling him a “total class act” and saying that he handled it well.

Franklin also delved into the decision to bring in Yurcich, who has 22 years of coaching experience under his belt, including 15 of them as an offensive coordinator.

“[Mike] Yurcich is a guy I’ve been in contact with and communicating with for a long time,” Franklin said. “I think, at the end of the day, it was a very tough decision, obviously, but philosophically it felt like it was the right thing for us to do to get where we want to go and play a style on offense that I think is gonna be important for us to play in a lot of different ways.”

Franklin explained the three things that make up Penn State’s offensive philosophy — explosive plays, scoring points, and limiting turnovers. He called them “the three most important things you’re going to do on offense,” especially considering the “current college football” where you may have to score 40 points on any given Saturday.

Franklin frequently spoke about getting back to the type of offense Penn State ran in the previous four years under Ricky Rahne and Joe Moorhead. He feels that the offenses back then differed from Ciarrocca’s background but thinks it’s more of a natural fit with Yurcich.

“[The offense] is going to be back to who we were the previous three or four years,” Franklin said. “It’s going to be spread, it’s going to be tempo, and it’s going to be an emphasis on explosive plays. And obviously, we’re still working through all those types of things. But philosophically, me and Mike [Yurcich] have been talking for a long time, and we’re on the same page in what we want to do and how we want to do it.”

Yurcich spent the 2020 season as Texas’ offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. His offense put up major numbers to the tune of 42.7 points and 475.4 yards per game. The former ranks No. 2 all-time in Longhorns history.

Previously, he spent six seasons as Oklahoma State’s offensive coordinator from 2013 to 2018. His offense helped lead the Cowboys to a 52-34 record with an impressive 38 points and 478.3 yards per game, as well as putting up 15 50-point games in that span.

Over his FBS coaching career, Yurcich’s offenses average 6.49 yards per play, which ranks No. 1 among offensive coordinators since 2013. All these eye-opening statistics have created some excitement and optimism moving forward for the Nittany Lions.

“The things that excite me is kinda the stats that I threw out,” Franklin said. “You better be able to protect the football and then you better be able to create explosive plays. Those are two areas where we were not successful at this past season…But obviously, his yards per play, his scoring — there haven’t been too many offensive coordinators who have been able to average 40 points in the five previous years that he’s been an offensive coordinator.”