Five areas where Mike Yurcich can improve Penn State's offense

New Penn State offensive coordinator Mike Yurcich will take over a Nittany Lion offense that struggled at points last season, producing the fewest points per game of any Penn State team since 2015.

Below, we've listed five areas where the Nittany Lions struggled on offense in 2020, followed by Yurcich's track record in that specific aspect of the game.

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We’ll start by getting the obvious out of the way here. Turnovers were among the biggest storylines of Penn State’s season. The Nittany Lions turned the ball over 15 times in total in just nine games, and had at least two turnovers in four of their five losses to open the season. Only Michigan State and Nebraska had more turnovers among teams in the Big Ten. While the turnovers themselves were damaging enough, they also wreaked havoc on Penn State’s offensive plan, forcing the Nittany Lions to play very conservatively down the stretch and taking away the big play component that has defined Penn State’s offense for the last few years. Finding a way to correct this without taking the bite out of Penn State’s offense has to be at the top of the to-do list for Yurcich when he takes over

Yurcich’s track record:

At Texas last season, Yurcich’s offense had nine turnovers — six fewer than Penn State — despite playing in one more game than the Nittany Lions. However, his offenses at Oklahoma State frequently struggled with turning the ball over. In six seasons there, the Cowboys compiled at least 20 turnovers three times, and averaged 18.66 turnovers per 13 games.

The Nittany Lions left a ton of points on the board in the red zone last year, finishing in the bottom 25 nationally in red zone scoring success rate at just 76 percent. They scored only 19 touchdowns on 37 trips inside the 20-yard line this season. In total, the Nittany Lions left 51 points on the board inside the red zone even when you take PATs out of the equation.

Yurcich’s track record:

At about 86 percent, Texas’ red zone offense ranked in the top 50 in the nation in red zone scoring percentage last season. The Longhorns’ touchdown rate — which stood at 66 percent — was about 15 points higher than Penn State’s last year. During his six seasons at Oklahoma State, Yurcich never had an offense that ranked outside of the top-27 nationally in red zone percentage, and had a red zone scoring success rate above 90 percent in three seasons.

Penn State has built a strong reputation for its development of running backs under Franklin, and all signs point to another strong room next season with a handful of young backs who showed promise in 2020, along with the addition of transfer John Lovett and the presumptive return of Noah Cain from injury. Kirk Ciarrocca largely decided against getting his backs heavily involved in the passing game last year. Keyvone Lee led the Nittany Lions' RBs with 13 targets last season — a far cry from Purdue’s Zander Horvath, who led the Big Ten with 32 targets. That’s a bit more surprising when you consider that Lee had the second best receiving grade among Big Ten RBs according to PFF — despite an admittedly limited sample — with 12 receptions on 13 targets and no drops. His 66 receiving yards ranked 14th in the conference among running backs. In fact, Penn State hasn’t had a running back inside the top-10 in the Big Ten in receiving production since Saquon Barkley led the conference in that category in 2017.

Yurcich’s track record:

Lead back Bijan Robinson had 15 catches for 196 yards and a pair of touchdowns last season with Yurcich calling plays at Texas — a mark good enough for sixth in the Big 12. In his final five seasons at Oklahoma State, he always had one running back in the top-7 among Big 12 running backs in receiving yardage, with Tyreek Hill — then deployed as a running back — amassing the biggest total of receiving yardage in 2014 with 266.

An issue that might have gone a bit under the radar last season was that Penn State’s quarterbacks were sacked more than any other team in the Big Ten last season, with the opposing defense getting to the quarterback 28 times. It’s a number might seem worse than it actually is, considering the Nittany Lions attempted more passes than any team in the conference besides Rutgers. Even so, Rutgers only allowed 21 sacks last season while playing the same number of games as Penn State, tied with Ohio State for the second-highest total in the conference. Eliminating some of that pressure and perhaps finding a way to get the ball out of the quarterbacks’ hands quicker will likely be high on the list of priorities for Yurcich.

Yurcich’s track record:

Texas dealt with some sack problems this season as well, with the Longhorns allowing 23 of them in 10 games last season. That was nowhere near the top of the Big 12 this year, though, because Kansas allowed an astonishing 47 sacks in just nine games. At Oklahoma State, Yurcich’s offense surrendered the most sacks in the conference twice — in 2014 and 2016 — but also allowed the fewest total in 2013.

If you read any of James Franklin’s comments from his end-of-season press conference last week, you’ll know that this is probably the most important item on this list, and one of the major reasons that Franklin decided to make a change at offensive coordinator in the first place. Penn State was 83rd in the country in yards per play last season at 5.3. That’s well off the 6.4 yards per play mark that the Nittany Lions boasted in 2016 and 2017, when an extremely explosive offense led them to a Big Ten title and an 11-win season the following year.

Yurcich’s track record:

Yurcich’s offense at Texas last season ranked 17th nationally in that all important yards per play metric — averaging the same 6.4 yards per play total that helped the Nittany Lions to so much success. In his last four seasons at Oklahoma State, Yurcich’s offense had yards per play averages of 6.1, 6.6, 7.3 and 6.1, though it should be noted that his offense wasn’t quite as explosive in his first two seasons with the Cowboys, with yards per play averages of 5.9 and 5.1.

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