Penn State snags former Texas football OC Mike Yurcich

The now former Texas football offensive coordinator Mike Yurcich finds himself back in the same role in the Big Ten, this time with Penn State.

With the reshuffling that is currently occurring on the coaching staff for the Texas football program following all of the shifts on the coaching carousel within the last week, former assistants are on the way off of the Forty Acres heading into the weekend. Texas already saw their former first-year offensive coordinator Mike Yurcich take the same role at another Power Five blue blood program.

On the morning of Jan. 2, Texas announced it would be parting ways with now former head coach Tom Herman, and hiring Alabama offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian as his replacement.

Yurcich wound up getting hired by the Penn State Nittany Lions and head coach James Franklin to be their next offensive coordinator entering the 2021 offseason. To hire Yurcich as their next offensive coordinator this offseason, Penn State reportedly parted ways with now former offensive coordinator Kirk Ciarrrocca.

Penn State had actually hired Ciarrocca within the last two years to be their offensive coordinator, from his previous role in the same position with the Minnesota Golden Gophers. His stint with the Penn State program wound up being very short lived.

Moreover, Yurcich gets to return to a coordinator role in the Big Ten after one year removed. He was formerly the passing game coordinator under head coach Ryan Day with the Ohio State Buckeyes during the 2019 season.

Prior to holding the passing game coordinator role in his home state with the Buckeyes two years ago, Yurcich was the offensive coordinator under head coach Mike Gundy with the Oklahoma State Cowboys for more than five seasons.

The Texas offense wound up ranking eighth in the FBS during the 2020 season in points per game (42.7), and they averaged over 475 total yards of offense per game (6.6 yards per play). All of those marks were improvements from what the Texas offense produced during the 2019 season, under the direction of Herman and former offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach Tim Beck.

Meanwhile, Penn State ranked 54th in the FBS during the 2020 season in points per game (29.8). And they averaged just over 430 total yards of offense per game (5.5 yards per play). Yurcich could be a significant upgrade for their offense.

Yurcich was one of the big hires to the Texas coaching staff last offseason when athletic director Chris del Conte really opened up the checkbook to upgrade the staff. That ultimately didn’t wind up working out for Herman in the end.