Turning Up The Tempo 

While Dissecting Mike Yurcich’s Offense, We Left Some Meat on the Bone Related to his Quick-Snap, Hurry-Up Attack…So Enjoy These Leftover Morsels 

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Word of caution for the Lead Directors and Lead Producers stuck in TV trucks outside Beaver Stadium this season: Penn State OC Mike Yurcich and his quick-snap, up-tempo offense aren’t slowing down for your dumb bits.

Sadly, the ESPN crew assigned to broadcast the 2017 Oklahoma State-Pitt seal-clubbing learned this lesson the hard way.

As someone who funds this non-credible written-word sports media enterprise through paychecks from a credible television sports media enterprise, I feel for the poor P.A. making 10 dollars an hour who scrounged up three women’s wigs on short notice after someone on staff thought it’d be brilliant (looking at you, Tom Luginbill) to rock mullets for a segment about Mike Gundy’s hair.

But, man, what a disaster. By the end of this comedic toe-stubbing , Dave Pasch sounds so relieved Oklahoma State scored I’m guessing he sent that same P.A. out at halftime to buy Yurcich a ‘thank you’ 6-pack for the flight home.

While eyeballing film for our two opuses published earlier this week on Yurcich’s six-year tenure at Oklahoma State and pit-stop at Texas, a lot of interesting notes and clips about tempo got left on the cutting-room. Instead of letting those leftovers go to waste, we decided to pound out this sidebar. 

Because when all pistons fire and 11 helmet-wearers reside on the same metaphysical wavelength, Yurcich’s signature quick-snap, pants-on-fire offense is a beautiful, chaotic symphony in cleats. 

And who are the on-field conductors of this beautiful, chaotic symphony?

Three dudes in khaki pants and pastel-colored hats, of course.

Unlike a lot of offenses – like Penn State under Joe Moorhead, Ricky Rahne, and Kirk Ciarrocca – Oklahoma State’s backup quarterbacks  weren’t used to signal-in plays to the starter. Instead, Yurcich assigned those duties to these three staffers – presumably one live, two dummies.

And unlike a lot of offenses – like Penn State under Joe Moorhead, Ricky Rahne, and Kirk Ciarrocca – in Yurcich’s system, the Oklahoma State quarterback was the only player looking toward the sideline pre-snap. Just him. Not the entire team. Therefore, it was (and we’re guessing still will be) the QB’s responsibility to ‘telephone’ the play to the other 10 guys on the field…which he does verbally AND through repeated hand-arm gestures, as you’ll see below.

Not sure why Yurcich chooses to relay information in this particular manner, because we did find instances when a faulty line of communication – namely the QB forgetting to pass along the play to the skill guys on the perimeter – messed things up and slowed everything down. Like here:

For fuller context, Oklahoma State QB Taylor Cornelius was absolutely CRUSHED at the end of the previous play. That’s why Cowboys WRs 2-Tylan Wallace and 13-Tyron Johnson both look back at Cornelius with their arms extended like they don’t have a clue what to do…because Cornelius forgot to do his little TikTok hand dance after his brain got shook like a spray-paint can.  

This ball SHOULD have been snapped with 27 seconds remaining on the play-clock, not 23 seconds. Those four wasted seconds let Texas’ defenders get set. When Yurcich goes up-tempo four seconds = an eternity. No room for hesitation. 

The other ‘give-and-take’ feature we noticed when scouting Yurcich’s up-tempo attack is that, yes, it does trap defenses in less-than-ideal personnel packages the offense can vigorously exploit…BUT because Oklahoma State’s roster wasn’t littered with Swiss-Army-Knife tight ends, tempo occasionally forced Yurcich’s ‘Cowboy Backs’ out of their safe space, too.

Watch this two-play sequence:

On the first play, Oklahoma State lines up in its bread-and-butter 3-wide, 2-back look. The two boundary-side receivers run the pass option of this RPO – a bubble/‘crawfish’ concept. The field-side receiver does as close to nothing as humanly possible. He’s ‘DEAD,’ like we discussed Tuesday. Toward that same side, Oklahoma State executes the run option of this RPO – a wide zone/outside zone concept. Oklahoma State ‘Cowboy Back’ 41-Britton Abbott blocks a defender, which is all Yurcich ever asked him to do, and, really, all he’s capable of doing. Abbot isn’t fast and he can’t catch. 

So why, on the next play, is he flexed out in a 2×2 WR Stack formation running a vertical route? Because he’s trapped in tempo like a Parisian mime inside an invisible box. West Virginia’s secondary doesn’t even bother covering Britton, knowing there’s a winning-the-lottery likelihood 2-Mason Rudolph would ever looks his way. 

Here’s another ‘Cowboy Back caught in tempo’ play. 41-Britton is the second receiver from the top. Again, he’s ignored. 

At Penn State, Yurcich won’t run into this ‘wasted player’ scenario as long as Theo Johnson and Brenton Strange  — two top-shelf Swiss-Army-Knife tight ends  –stay healthy. In limited playing time, both Johnson and Strange hinted at being better blockers than any of Yurcich’s old Cowboy Backs and way better receiving threats than the tight ends he inherited at Texas.  Like we wrote on Tuesday, those two TEs (along with 3rd string Tyler Warren who isn’t too shabby, either) will be Yurcich’s most versatile and important chess pieces this season. 

What won’t change (hopefully) when Yurcich brings this up-tempo element to Penn State will be the strain/tension a hurried pace puts on defensive coordinators and the 11  defenders they’re coaching. Get used to seeing opponents randomly collapse on the field like Chris Kyle just sniped them only to miraculously ‘recover’ 45 seconds later, because all four Oklahoma State games we looked at were loaded with fake-injury stoppages. 

And, honestly, after watching a ton of pre-snap fire drills like this one vs. West Virginia where every defenders’ eyes are locked on the sideline as Rudolph calls for the ball, I can’t really fault DCs for telling their guys to flop.

Another cool aspect of tempo is that Yurcich can turn it off and on like a light switch whenever he wants. In this sequence vs. Texas in 2018, Oklahoma State snaps the ball with under 10 seconds left on the play-clock on 3rd and 7, then ignites tempo on 1st and 10, then slows back down after a negative play, then when Chuba Hubbard rips off a 10-yard run Yurcich goes quick again on 3rd and 3 – OFF/ON/OFF/ON.

Finally, Yurcich added a 2-tailback/0-Cowboy Back wrinkle to his up-tempo offense in 2018 that we didn’t see the previous season. Every 2017 ‘20’ personnel package included a Cowboy Back. In this fast-paced sequence against Texas, both Justice Hill and Chuba Hubbard occupy the same backfield and split carries. Considering Penn State has a deep collection of tailbacks, it wouldn’t shock us to see John Lovett and Noah Cain, or Keyvone Lee and Caziah Holmes on the field at the same time.