by Joey
Lovell
22 hours ago (July 5, 2023)
Don’t feel bad Kaytron Allen,
you’re not the only one at Penn State getting snubbed. In a recent article discussing the top 15 quarterback
developers in college, Penn State’s offensive coordinator/QB
coach Mike Yurcich was completely disrespected when he didn’t even make the
list. The level of bias towards Penn State knows no boundaries.
Who coached Jalen Hurts?
No fewer than three coaches
in this list were credited with the development of the current Philadelphia
Eagles signal caller. The article mentioned both Lane Kiffin and Steve
Sarkisian as helping with Hurt’s development in his time at Alabama, and then
when Hurt’s transferred to Oklahoma, he flourished under Lincoln Riley.
Jalen is an incredible
talent and I have no do whatsoever that he learned from each one of those men.
But using him as an example for three different coaches seems a little
excessive.
The System Makes the QB
Chip Kelly makes the list,
largely in part because of his incredibly successful system that took athletic
quarterbacks and had them producing video game numbers during his six seasons
at Oregon. He was credited with developing Dennis Dixon, Jeremiah Masoli,
Darron Thomas, and of course Heisman Trophy-winning Marcus Mariota. Both Dixon
and Mariota made the NFL, but Dixon threw 58 passes in three seasons (although
he did get a Super Bowl ring with the Steelers) and Mariota is still in the
league but has definitely failed to live up to his hype. Masoli is still
playing in the CFL and Thomas bounced around a little up there and the Arena
league.
Kelly attempted the NFL
challenge on his own, and after two moderately triumphant seasons during which
he gradually dismantled the team that Andy Reid had constructed over 14 years,
he was dismissed following a disappointing 6-9 performance in his third season,
not even getting the chance to finish the season. San Francisco took a chance
on him but quickly came to rue that decision when he managed a dismal 2-14
record. This serves as a reminder that college offensive systems don’t always
transition effectively to the NFL.
Bobby Who??
O.K., I admit, I know
exactly who Bobby Petrino is, although I confess I didn’t know he coached at
Arizona State when Jake “The Snake” Plummer was there. Yes, he did coach Lamar
Jackson when he won the Heisman, and he even coached the late Ryan Mallet while
he was at Arkansas, which oddly wasn’t acknowledged in the article. But does
that qualify him to be listed in the 11th position? I don’t believe so.
The biggest grievance of them
all
O.K., I’ll be the first to
admit, my feelings toward Ohio State are similar to my hatred of liver and
snakes. However, just as Wes Mantooth was telling Ron Burgundy when saving him
from the pit of bears “I pure straight, straight hate you…but G*^####&t I respect
you”, so goes my feelings towards the Buckeyes. I happen to think that Ryan Day
is a good offensive mind that has overseen some good collegiate play. For
example, in 2019, OSU’s QB
Justin Fields also put up video game numbers. The funny thing is, guess who was
the quarterback coach and passing game coordinator for that season? None other
than Mike Yurcich. So, who do you think had a bigger hand in the success
of that year?
Yurcich’s own resume
Besides the aforementioned job with Fields, he was
the OC/QB for the Oklahoma State Cowboys from 2013-2018. During his time there,
the Cowboys’ averaged scoring 38.0 points per game. Mason Rudolph, a 3-year
starter, left the program as the undisputed passing leader in every statistical
category, by wide margins. For his career, he threw for 13,618 yards with 92
TDs against 26 INTs.
After his one incredibly successful season in
Columbus, Yurcich went down to Austin during the Covid season to be Texas’s
OC/QB coach. Sam Ehlinger put up very solid numbers in a 10-game schedule,
finishing the year with a 150.7 QB rating.
Perhaps
the most validating example of Yurcich’s genius is what he accomplished while
at Penn State. When Sean Clifford came to Happy Valley, he was a
four-star recruit that much was hoped for. There were some glimpses of that
talent, but for the most part, he was average his first two years as a starting
quarterback for the Nittany Lions. In Yurcich’s first season as his play caller, Clifford experienced his
best year-to-date, throwing for over 3,100 yards. During his senior season, while
not as prolific in the yardage category (2,822 yards) every other metric
increased, most drastically. His completion percentage jumped over 3
percentage points. He reduced his INTs, albeit only by one, while increasing
his TD passes. His QB rating of 150.5 was the highest of his four years as a
starter.
The knock against him was he could never win the big
game. Yet, he was 2-2 against Michigan in his four seasons as the signal
caller. Sadly, while he never did beat Ohio State, in his final two games
against the Buckeyes he was 67-99 (67.7%) with four TDs and four INTs. Of
course, those were the first two years of Yurchich’s calling plays.
Perhaps the most maligned
quarterback ever at Penn State, he DID win the Cotton Bowl and the Rose
Bowl, not to mention Rose Bowl MVP. While it
remains to be seen what his pro career amounts to, the quarterback whose haters
“guaranteed” wouldn’t play past college, not only got drafted but went in the
fifth round.
Conclusion
So, while this list is a
good start, without including Mike Yurcich, it is widely incomplete. From working with players that
other coaches were credited with, to overseeing the development of two
programs’ all-time leading passers, Yurchich’s body of work speaks for itself.
Nevertheless, I sense that
in the upcoming years, his name will invariably come up whenever analysts
discuss Drew Allar’s potential destination in the first round of the 2025 NFL
Draft.