The Mike Yurcich Experience, Texas 2020
Former Texas OC Mike Yurcich’s Lone Season in the Lone Star State Resulted in a lot of Points, a Pink Slip, and Perhaps Some Perspective of What to Expect This Season at Penn State.
Sponsor: It’s us, For The Blogy. Join our 2021 FTB Donors Club – the best way for you to show your support and keep this train rolling – and receive a free FTB gift! Sign up HERE.
If Mike Yurcich is a man of his word – and thus far, we have no reason to believe he’s not – members of Penn State’s keyboard crew (like us) apparently got carte blanche to wildly speculate, spew half-truths and do it while not wearing pants.
Because Penn State’s new offensive coordinator DGAF about any of that…even though his stern, frustrated tone kinda suggests he does.
Confused? Just watch this Yurcich press conference toward the end of last season when the cyber sharks were circling Texas head coach Tom Herman:
Actually, wait…rewind that. Did Yurcich say he COULD care less??!?!?! Ugh, come on, man. So he DOES give a rip about what we type and how clothed we are while typing it? Sigh…well, great. Give us a second to find another noteworthy anecdote from Yurcich’s 51 weeks on Herman’s coaching staff at Texas.
Let’s see here…
…noteworthy, noteworthy…
…gosh, there’s not much.
From the outside looking in, Yurcich’s decision to leave Ohio State after serving as QB Coach/Passing Game Coordinator for one season almost felt like a career course correction move for a guy who meteorically rose from the PSAC to the Power 5 and made his mark/money because he’s an innovative, out-of-the-box play-caller. In theory, Yurcich’s proven ability to produce high-octane offensive output would lessen Herman’s game-planning burden and afford the head coach the necessary time to patch neglected cracks throughout Texas’ program – namely recruiting and player development. Unfortunately for Tom (but fortunately for James Franklin) Texas’ power suits annulled this Yurcich-Herman arrangement in late December 2020, well before anyone could know whether it’d fully blossom into something transformative down the road.
Perhaps the main takeaway Penn State fans should keep in mind from Yurcich’s ‘Grand Opening, Grand Closing’ bite-sized tenure at Texas is that his offense’s performance DID NOT get Herman fired. Quite contrary. Despite inheriting the same COVID-related crap PSU’s Kirk Ciarrocca dealt with – no spring ball, split-squad fall practices, virtual meetings, lack of one-on-one, hands-on instruction – Yurcich and his 2020 Texas offense blew the 2019 Texas offense out of the water in pretty much every statistical category worth a damn.
Total yards per game increased from 465 to 475. Points per game shot up a full TD+PAT from 35.2 to 42.7. Yards per play: 6.4 in 2019, 6.6 in 2020. Interceptions and sacks allowed per game dropped. Conversely, in those same categories just listed, the only stat Kirk Ciarrocca’s 2020 Penn State offense bested Ricky Rahne’s 2019 Penn State offense was Total Yards per Game – 430 compared to 411.
Contrary to what was forced down our throats all last season re: Ciarrocca’s offense stumbling out of the gate (and to sooth those PSUers worried about a repeat with yet another new OC this season), Yurcich’s short stint at Texas proved the learning curve in grasping a totally new offense doesn’t HAVE to be painful or prolonged.
To better comprehend the Longhorns’ season-long offensive growth/progression under Yurcich, we purposely spaced apart the three games featured in this scout: Texas’ early-October overtime loss vs. Oklahoma, a late-October close win vs. Baylor, and a December 5th mauling of Kansas State.
LOTS OF MOTION
By far, the most noticeable and significant progression/evolution in Mike Yurcich’s attack from Oklahoma State to Texas – at least in the games we scouted — was the increased use of pre-snap movement.
| 2017 Okla State vs. | Plays w/ Motion | Total Plays | Motion % |
| Pitt | 8 | 54 | 14.8% |
| Oklahoma | 19 | 95 | 20% |
| 2020 Texas vs. | Plays w/ Motion | Total Plays | Motion % |
| Oklahoma | 31 | 82 | 37.8 |
| K-State | 27 | 53 | 50.9 |
That motion – more specifically the VARIETY of that motion — will be the most noticeable aesthetic difference between the 2020 Penn State offense and the 2021 Penn State offense for those either watching on TV or sitting knee-to-back at Beaver Stadium in six weeks (felt good typing that, btw).
It’s not that Kirk Ciarrocca never used pre-snap motion. He did. But it definitely wasn’t a pillar of his offense. In the season opener vs. Indiana, Penn State ran motion on 18 of 94 total snaps, most of which were these benign ‘bring-backs’ of a flexed tight end. Wide receivers never went in motion.
Compare that to the pre-snap movement in Yurcich’s system…it’s like Dorothy bolted black-and-white Kansas for the full color of Oz.
So what’s the purpose of pre-snap movement?
Glad you asked, lazy transition device.
For those who lived through the early-2000s TV Poker bubble, pre-snap movement is kind of like those surface-level lipstick cameras that revealed every players’ cards to the audience. Sending a tight end/running back/wide receiver in motion helps the quarterback/offensive coordinator decode coverage concepts while the ball rests in the center’s gross, sweaty grasp, thus simplify, or in some cases completely answering, the “option” portion of RPO plays. To us, the less Sean Clifford has to decipher during the actual play, the better.
On the first play of the Kansas State bludgeoning, Texas unveiled this clever RPO concept featuring orbit motion that Yurcich ran over and over and over because the Wildcats never stopped it…well, never stopped it after this first play, that is.
Technically, senior QB Sam Ehlinger has 3 choices here: 1. Give to the RB on a wide zone run. 2. Pull the ball and run. 3. Flip the ball to the orbit WR in the flat. That’s a ton to figure out in a few fractions of a second, right? Right…but the pre-snap movement really simplifies the decision-making process for Ehlinger by eliminating 1 or 2 of those choices before the play begins.
Let’s rerun that first play from scrimmage:
The fact that Kansas State didn’t follow the shifting tight end or the WR in motion pre-snap reveals they’re not playing man coverage – meaning the pass option of this RPO is still in play (as you’ll see later when Texas saw man coverage during orbit motion Ehlinger automatically spit on the WR flat concept). OK, we got zone coverage. Knowing that, Ehlinger’s eyes now go to KSU linebacker 55-Cody Fletcher. If Fletcher hangs in the box (which he does here) Ehlinger hits the flat receiver because – assuming the other Texas WR blocks the corner (which he doesn’t here) – only the deep safety remains since Fletcher has committed to stopping the run.
Fletcher knows this SHOULD have been a 10-15 yard gain. But when one guy doesn’t execute, the entire play design falls apart. That’s football. Still, showing Kansas State this concept set up boatloads of future success for Texas.
For instance…eight plays later:
EXACT SAME PLAY. Fletcher juuuust saw this, and knows a whiffed block bailed him out, so now he’s going to try and be a hero. Notice Fletcher cheating out of the box toward the orbit motion, thus removing himself as a run defender. Ehlinger sees this pre-snap, then sees the unblocked DE doesn’t crash, so it’s an easy handoff to the RB for 20 yards.
Next Orbit Motion RPO:
Oh look, man coverage! The Kansas State hybrid shadowing the orbit WR removes a playside defender on wide zone. Texas has numbers – white 5 hats blocking 5 silver hats with Ehlinger occupying the unblocked DE. The choice is obvious…automatic handoff.
Next Orbit Motion play, Kansas State goes back to zone:
Linebackers cheat toward the orbit motion, again. DE crashes but he’s lined up too wide to chase down the RB. 5 white hats blocking 4 silver hats: advantage Texas. Granted, the Longhorns right tackle almost screws this up with a subpar block but 5-Bijan Robinson is the best running back in college football, so it’s cool. Strike up the band.
For those wondering, not every use of orbit motion was attached to an RPO. On some plays, orbit pre-snap movement was simply eye candy for the defenders and not an integral part of the play design…like on this fairly old-school RB screen.
So Long, Cowboy
With all due disrespect to the no-neck, human cow-catcher ‘Cowboy Backs’ found on Yurcich’s Oklahoma State teams, Texas hadn’t wasted a single scholarship on those types of non-athletic athletes prior to 2020.
So when Yurcich showed up to town and opened the cupboards, he discovered a handful of neglected 3-star/low 4-star afterthought tight ends and, Yurcich being Yurcich, found ingenious ways to utilize their skillsets in RPO concepts, Red Zone situations, even as vertical threats…as you’ll see below.
Blown coverage. Still, Ehlinger’s pump fake pulls the single-high safety out of the middle of the field thus creating tons of space for Texas TE 18-Jared Wiley after the K-State linebacker releases him despite not having help over the top.
Here’s the same concept vs. Baylor: safety is forced to choose whether to cover the field-side receiver or the tight end.
In Goal-to-Go situations, Yurcich shifted out of an unbalanced look and brought his extra tight end into the backfield to run split zone – one of the few instances where a player other than the primary ball-carrier was lined up in the backfield. At Oklahoma State, more than 50 percent of the snaps we charted featured at least two backs in the backfield.
As you probably gathered from that last clip sequence, when it comes to blocking Texas’ tight ends aren’t in the same stratosphere as Brenton Strange and Theo Johnson — two multi-faceted athletes that we’re guessing turn out to be Yurcich’s most versatile and valuable chess pieces in 2021.
Vertically Challenged
Probably because he intended to stay in Austin longer than most disgruntled Californians do, Yurcich said all the right things when the media pressed him about inheriting Sam Ehlinger at quarterback…even going so far as saying, “he’s a big part of why I chose this position.”
Yurcich completed a sweet diagonal on his Coach-Speak Bingo Card that day by adding Ehlinger was “experienced,” “a proven winner,” “the total package,” and gushed over his “leadership ability.”
What Yurcich failed to mention was Ehlinger’s arm…or lack of an arm.
Easily, the most glaring difference when examining Yurcich’s 2017 Oklahoma State film and Yurcich’s 2020 Texas film was the regression of the vertical passing game. Frankly, it’s the main reason Yurcich now resides in Happy Valley, and why Ehlinger, currently in Indianapolis Colts camp, will be totting a rolling briefcase and buying lunch for doctors and nurses in four weeks.
Last season, on throws at or exceeding 20 yards, Ehlinger completed 19 of 69 passes for 673 yards with 7 TDs and 3 INT, good for an 83.4 Passer Rating. Compare that to 2017 Mason Rudolph: 42 of 90, 1,712 yards, 17 TD, 3 INT (118.8 Passer Rating)…and, well, there’s really no comparison.
Perhaps because COVID wrecked Texas’ spring and messed with its fall camp, it took Yurcich longer than you’d expect to figure out Ehlinger’s deficiencies. Because early in the season, Yurcich let Ehlinger tee-it-high-and-let-it-fly. And, as you’ll see in this sad 3-play montage (that really could have been a 23-play montage if we hated our editor’s guts), it just didn’t work.
Notice only clips from 2 of the 3 games we scouted were shown. Wonder why? Well, by the time the Longhorns traveled to Kansas State on Dec. 5 for their Big XII regular season finale, Yurcich almost completely ditched his beloved vertical passing game and settled for scoring 69 points the boring way – lots of runs and intermediate passing routes (yawn).
Against the Wildcats, Ehlinger’s average depth per target was 6.3 yards – nearly 5 yards below his season average of 11.0 – and his first throw of 20+ yards didn’t occur until late in the 3rd quarter when he stared down the RB on a wheel route and tossed this hopeless ball into double coverage.
Despite Square-Peg Ehlinger not quite fitting in Yurcich’s Round-Hole offense, Texas’ 475.5 total yards/game still ranked Top 20 in FBS and its 42.7 points/game ranked Top 10 nationally – lofty ratings that really illuminate Yurcich’s play-calling pliability. Like a chef who can whip up a 5-star dinner from the remnants of a dorm-room mini-fridge, Yurcich has proven capable of adapting on the fly and tailoring his offensive concepts to complement his given personnel.
Oh, it also doesn’t hurt to have a guy like Ehlinger who can pluck a rabbit out his helmet every now and then on 3rd and 9:
QB AS A RUNNER
In 2020, Kirk Ciarrocca dialed up 60 designed runs for Sean Clifford.
In 2020, Mike Yurcich dialed up 60 designed runs for Sam Ehlinger.
So to think Penn State plans to completely abandon using Clifford’s best appendages (namely, his feet) is preposterous – no matter how often James Franklin suggested otherwise during spring press conferences. And when Clifford does run next month, the concepts he’ll run out of probably won’t look much different than stuff Ciarrocca installed last season.
For instance, Ciarrocca ran this RPO RB Screen with a QB Draw attached roughly 40-50 times in 2020. Here it is vs. Michigan:
Here it is vs. Michigan State:
On this (these) play(s), Clifford reads the MIKE (vs. Michigan) and WILL linebackers (vs. MSU) post-snap. If those defenders don’t honor the running backs coming out of the backfield and stay in the box, Clifford dumps the ball out in the flat. If the defender leaves the box and follows the running back on the pass route, Clifford’s now got advantageous numbers in the box and will take off on the draw.
Though drawn up differently, Yurcich exercised the same general RPO premise at Texas, especially in the Red Zone. Here’s how that looked:
Whereas Clifford reads the conflict defender during the play, Yurcich’s RPO makes life a little easier on the QB by determining what to do before the snap. Stacked WRs and a TE Wing cause a third defensive back to shift boundary side. Ehlinger sets the RB in motion out of the backfield. The MIKE follows, signaling to Ehlinger pre-snap to keep – he’s got 6 guys blocking 5 box defenders.
Oklahoma’s Hybrid/Nickel Back tries to chip in, but the Texas TE handles him easily.
Two QB run wrinkles Yurcich flashed during his brief layover in Austin that are fairly foreign to Penn State’s previous playbooks are this QB Sweep concept:
And this Speed Option concept:
FAMILIAR FORMATIONS
Unlike Yurcich’s 2017 Oklahoma State offense, which featured a lot of ‘20’ and ‘30’ personnel, the packages and formations 2020 Texas threw out there weren’t really all that different than what Penn State fans saw under Ciarrocca.
To open up vs. Baylor, Yurcich and the Longhorns came out with an unbalanced TE twin look and ran inside zone.
On the first play vs. Michigan, Ciarrocca and the Nittany Lions came out in an unbalanced TE twin look and ran inside zone while true freshman 84-Theo Johnson took Carlos Kemp’s lunch money.
I don’t want to bore you with more examples to prove our point, just trust us…Yurcich’s alignments at Texas weren’t as exotic as his alignments at Oklahoma State.
QB UNDER CENTER ALERT!
Considering how bonkers the silver hairs go over re-implementing fullbacks into Penn State’s offensive attack, I briefly considered attaching an NSFW label to this section’s title because, for some of you, these next two clips will be absolutely titillating – yes, we found plays where Yurcich put Ehlinger under center.
All’s well that ends well, but this play action natural-pick-on-crossers concept was a bit of a mess since no one bothered to block the Baylor DT. Ehlinger pivoted against the designed flow of the play and made a harder-than-it-looked throw for 6.
Here’s one more under-center PA from around the same spot vs. Oklahoma. After surveying his options, and not liking any of them, Ehlinger just walks into the end zone.
Quick Hitters
- Tempo remained a big part of Yurcich’s system at Texas, but the Longhorns’ plays per game in 2020 (73.8) didn’t come close to what Oklahoma State ran in 2017 (78.9) and 2018 (79.2) – his final two seasons in Stillwater.
- Overall, Texas’ offense improved under Yurcich’s guidance. However, the Longhorns struggled on 3rd down, converting just 37.3% into first downs – 90th in FBS. The previous season, Texas converted 48.9% on 3rd down. In 2020, Penn State converted 42.1%.
