Entering his third year with the program, Penn State offensive coordinator Mike Yurcich is set to call plays from the booth, a change for the longtime play caller who spent the previous two seasons calling the Nittany Lions’ offense from the sideline.
Yurcich’s move to the booth marks the fifth full-time or interim offensive coordinator under Franklin at Penn State to call games from up on high, with Joe Moorhead the only one to call every play of his tenure from the sideline. John Donovan started the 2014 season in the booth before heading to the sidelines midway through the year then returning to the booth in 2015. Ricky Rahne called his two seasons from the box, as did his interim replacement for the post-2019 Cotton Bowl, Tyler Bowen. Kirk Ciarrocca was also a self proclaimed “booth guy” during his one-year stint as PSU OC.
According to Penn State coach James Franklin, the continued emergence of offensive graduate assistant and former offensive analyst Danny O’Brien has helped make that move possible.
“Danny now spending over a year with Mike, knowing how Mike wants to do things. Danny playing for me, coaching for me. There’s a lot of alignment there,” Franklin said on Tuesday. “Built a ton of respect with our quarterbacks. So I think that’s played a big part in it. It’s probably one of the things I’m most excited about. As an offensive coordinator specifically, there’s no better place to call the game than in the booth. Controlled environment. You got your notes out. You can see it all. You’re not relying on somebody else to echo information to you that maybe you can’t see across the field. The corners’ alignment, the far safeties’ alignment. You’re able to rely on your vision and your information. Still going to be people up there helping him.”
As Franklin noted, Yurcich won’t be alone, in fact he will be joined by tight ends coach Ty Howle while offensive assistants Ja’Juan Seider (running backs), Phil Trautwein (offensive line) and Marques Hagans (receivers) will take charge on the sideline. Not to mention the budding wisdom of O’Brien.
“I also think it’s Mike’s respect for our staff and our assistant coaches that there are strong voices, including Danny on the sideline, to manage that. But I think it’s ultimately Mike saying, Where can I be the best offensive coordinator? Where can I call the best game? It’s from the booth,” Franklin said. “It’s not like we talked about it and then he came back to me. He came to visit with me about it. He said, This is what I’m thinking, what are your thoughts? I was onboard because as an offensive play-caller, I don’t think it’s even close. I think it’s the best place to call the game from.”
For the sake of crediting consistency, Franklin gets points here having said nearly the exact same thing in 2020.
As for Moorhead, who forged his legacy on the sideline at Penn State? Well even he started his career in the booth, and called games at Oregon following his time at Penn State from up there as well. All the same, he learned to love being near the game itself.
“I was surprised by how much you can see from down there,” Moorhead once said. “I like doing it from down [on the field]. I also like the presence of being down to look the quarterback in the eye and talk to the offense as a group. It also depends on who you have up there, can they be a good set of eyes in the booth.”
To each their own, and as long as Penn State is scoring points, it’s not like fans will notice the difference anyway.
