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Updated Jan
28; Posted Jan 29
Gallery: Euclid native Mike Yurcich named Ohio State's new passing game
coordinator/quarterback coach
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- No one is surprised that Mike Yurcich
is a football coach.
As a player at Euclid High School, he always had the
demeanor and the football IQ of someone who’d one day roam the sidelines.
What’s surprising, however, is how quickly he’s risen through the coaching
ranks.
It’s been exactly
20 years since his career began and he’s already built a reputation for
coaching record-breaking offenses, most recently at Oklahoma State over the
last six years.
Now he brings his style to Columbus as Ohio State’s
passing-game coordinator under new head coach Ryan Day.
He’s found success at the college level much quicker than
anyone expected him to -- especially his high school coaches Roy Pignatiello
and Tom Banc.
“I think anybody would be,” Pignatiello said. “Mike got
the opportunity and he was prepared for it.”
Yurcich is a 1994 graduate of Euclid High School, where
he was a standout athlete in three sports. He earned seven varsity letters in
football, basketball and baseball, but it was on the football field where he
was one of the best players in the Greater Cleveland Conference. At 6-foot-1,
170 pounds, he led the Panthers to a 20-3 record in two years as the starting
quarterback under Banc. He graduated as the school’s all-time leader in career
passing yards (2,209) and touchdowns (22). In 2009, he was inducted into the
Euclid High School Sports Hall of Fame.
Though Yurcich would continue his playing career at Mount
Union College and California (Pa.) University, Banc always knew he would
eventually take the path of a coach. Even in high school, Yurcich displayed a football IQ that sometimes
outshined his own coaches. He’d often complain that the Panthers didn’t
throw the ball nearly as much as they should have. He still feels the same way
today.
“I had some great running backs,” Banc said. “When he
would come back to Euclid to recruit when he was in Pennsylvania, he told me
that he wasn’t happy that we didn’t throw the ball. But now that he’s an
offensive coordinator, he appreciates the running game.”
Yurcich’s coaching journey took him first to Division II
Edinboro in 2005, where he began to build his reputation for prolific passing
attacks. With Yurcich as the Fighting Scots' quarterbacks and wide receivers
coach, the offense ranked second in the country and Edinboro made the playoffs
in 2009. Edinboro lost in the second round but set a Division II single-game
playoff record with 630 passing yards.
That game against West Liberty would set records for
combined points (147) and yards (1,394) as Edinboro quarterback Trevor Harris
-- now playing for Ottawa in the Canadian Football League -- completed 50 of 76
passes with five touchdowns.
Less than 15 years later, Yurcich returns to his home
state as a key assistant for one of the country’s biggest college football
programs.
“I think he’d still be coaching at Edinboro if nothing
else had panned out,” Pignatiello joked. “That’s how much he loved it.”
Euclid has developed its fair share of Buckeyes, as well
as nine NFL players. Robert Smith, the first player to twice win the Mr. Ohio
Football award, is certainly the most famous. Yurcich is the first Panther to
have the opportunity to coach in Columbus. Pignatiello admits it will be
strange cheering for a coach. More than just wanting him to do well, he hopes that
the players Yurcich coaches reach their potential.
“Any time you see that kind of success coming out of your
community, your community is going to be proud,” Pignatiello said. “Mike is the
first guy who’s gotten to this level of coaching, so it’s a little different.
You’re not watching him, you’re watching what he’s put together.”
Pignatiello isn’t surprised. As a quarterback in high
school, Yurcich’s role wasn’t much different than that of an experienced NFL
quarterback. He was given play options and would choose one based off what he
saw at the line of scrimmage.
More often than not he’d make the right decision.
“He was always a
student of the game, and I gave him a lot of leeway (in high school),
Pignatiello said. “I would give him a play and he had to go up to the line,
read the defense and make a play call. Even back then, I could never remember a
time when he misread it. In fact, I think he read it better than I did. He was always into that. He would sit down and go over
coverages and recognize things, especially his senior year.”
Yurcich’s career
so far has been defined by taking an under-the-radar quarterback and turning
him into a high-caliber player. He is responsible for four of Oklahoma State’s
10 best offensive seasons in school history. Over a six-year span, the Cowboys
averaged 38 points and 478.3 yards per game. They scored at least 40 points 35
times, 50 points 15 times and 60 points three times.
In 2018, he took Taylor Cornelius — who arrived in
Stillwater, Okla., as a walk-on — and turned him into one of the top 10
quarterbacks in the country statistically. Cornelius finished the 2018 season
with 3,978 passing yards and 32 touchdowns.
In 2018, Urban Meyer and Day opened the Buckeyes' offense
up with the help of an NFL-caliber quarterback in Dwayne Haskins. Not every
quarterback who comes through Columbus during Day’s time will be as good as
Haskins, but there is at least an understanding of what he wants from Ohio
State’s offense:
Day wants a player with an NFL arm and an offensive
coordinator unafraid to use it.
“At Oklahoma State, it was like a wide-open attack,” Banc
said. "I know Day likes to throw the football, so Mike will fit in well
with Day’s offensive philosophy.”
Everywhere he’s
been, Yurcich has led an offense that has broken records. Now he’ll coach a level of quarterback talent he hasn’t
previously experienced. When spring practice begins, former five-star recruit
Justin Fields, a transfer from Georgia, will be the most talented quarterback
Yurcich has ever coached.
“If a player like Fields is willing to listen to Mike, I
think he’s only going to make him better,” Pignatiello said. “He’ll take that
talent that he has and use it in the best way possible.”
“Everywhere he’s
been his quarterbacks have set records. Whether it was at Division III,
Division II or at Oklahoma State. So any quarterback that wants to listen to
him is going to set records.”
Pignatiello and Banc once allowed Yurcich to have control
over a Euclid offense as a teenager and it led to success. Mike Gundy did the
same at Oklahoma State at got historic numbers in the return.
Now Day brings him to Columbus hoping for a similar result.
Mike Yurcich’s coaching timeline
·
1999: Saint Francis (IN) running backs coach
·
2000-01: Saint Francis (IN) quarterbacks coach
·
2002: Saint Francis (IN) offensive coordinator
·
2003-04: Indiana graduate assistant
·
2005: Edinboro quarterbacks and wide receivers coach
·
2006-10: Edinboro offensive coordinator
·
2001-12: Shippensburg offensive coordinator
·
2013-18: Oklahoma State offensive coordinator
