Mike Yurcich coaching history: Notable records, stats and achievements of former Penn State OC explored

After Penn State lost to Michigan, the Nittany Lions fired Mike Yurcich from his position as the program's offensive coordinator amid struggles to show up offensively in big games.

The statistics were damning. In terms of yards per play (51.2), the Nittany Lions ranked No. 102 nationally and No. 130 in plays.

Penn State coach James Franklin explained why he fired Yurcich during his weekly news conference.

“I think you guys have heard me come in and talk about whether it’s openers, whether it’s third downs, whether it’s starting fast, all those things are things that led to lengthy discussions about and (we) had a plan for, but a lot of times when we got to the games either we did not call the games that way or we did not execute the games that way,” Franklin said.

The career of Mike Yurcich

Mike Yurcich was a quarterback at California University for three seasons before becoming a graduate assistant at Saint Francis in 1999.

Between 2000 and 2022, he transitioned from just the quarterbacks coach to both the offensive coordinator and QB coach at Saint Francis.

In 2005, Yurcich moved to Pennsylvania Western University in Edinboro to become the quarterbacks and wide receivers coach. A year later, he was promoted to the offensive coordinator's position.

In 2011, Mike Yurchich accepted an offer to become the quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator at Shippensburg University for a year.

His offense was the best in Division II in 2012, averaging 529 yards a game and 387 passing yards to become the best passing offense in the division.

Between 2013 and 2018, Yurchich held his longest O.C. job at Oklahoma State under coach Mike Gundy, where he also oversaw the quarterbacks.

At Ohio State, he was named the passing game coordinator and was also the quarterbacks coach in 2019.

The next year, Mike Yurcich departed for the same job at Texas, where he also only lasted one year before taking the O.C. job at Penn State in 2021.

The team struggled offensively this season even with the presence of talented quarterback Drew Allar, and the Penn State Nittany Lions showed no signs of being able to approach Michigan and Ohio State in terms of competitiveness.

With over a 20-year career as an offensive coordinator, there is little doubt that Mike Yurcich will soon find himself in a job, especially after an interview with The Athletic stating that he wishes to be a head coach back in 2021 resurfaced.