Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1400830
S E P T E M B E R 2 0 2 1 5 Site Lines Penn State was the perfect stopping-off point for Joe Moorhead. While he was here, he had some of the best skill players in the country to work with. Joe was the right guy at the time, but he can thank Barkley, Gesicki, Godwin, Hamilton, McSorley, Blacknall and Juwan Johnson for helping him get a head coaching job. In his two years at Mississippi State, without the above-mentioned, his teams failed to average 30 ppg. Last year, the Ducks averaged 31. Those numbers won't work this year. IMO, Ricky Rahne made several tweaks to Joe's offense that helped us maintain fairly productive offenses as those players filtered out of the program. I look forward to watching Mike Yurcich's offense, but while I expect it to be similar to JoMo's in concepts, it will be dressed in a much prettier outfit. —jack66 IMO, the one thing that REALLY stands out along the way in all of Mike Yurcich's stops is his ability to adapt what he does to what material he has at hand. Simply stated, he's not one who tries to force a square peg into a round hole. He coached Mason Rudolph, Justin Fields and Sam Ehlinger, all with a degree of success. And for each guy, Coach Y had a specific formula for success, tailored to their specific talents. I expect him to do the same for Sean Clifford. Really dumb coaches rigidly try to force THEIR offense on whatever talent they have that year. Really smart coaches tweak their offense to fit the talent available to them at the time. Mike Yurcich is a smart coach. —SJLuvsLions Listening to Yurcich for the first time, I came away believing he is truly the real deal and a key piece of the operation we've been waiting for. JoMo was good; Yurcich is going to be better. Franklin's hires the past 1.5 years have been excellent. —schoolie I am elated to hear Coach Yurcich will be on the field. IMO it is important for a QB to have his coach on the sideline to talk to between series. I know they can get on the phone and talk to the coach in the box, but Cliff in particular seems like a guy who will benefit from that one-on-one communication. —Ceasar I just wish for Sean to have a big year. He deserves it after all the flak and numerous offensive coordina- tors. Also, to shut everyone the hell up. I pray a lot of folks have to eat crow. Raw crow. —Hotshoe I believed Tyler Elsdon was a key recruit, and it appears I may be right. I sure hope he is ready and is as good as I hope he is, because we do not have super depth at linebacker. I'm curious as to how good Jesse Luketa is at defensive end. —psykim All the cracks in last year's team were amplified by other circumstances. I'm getting the feeling that this year, those cracks are being cemented shut. Players and coaches are working together in remarkable ways. This is the stuff that makes exceptional years happen. Phil Steele may have something, i.e., we are his No. 1 turnaround team for 2021. —BobE SEPTEMBER 2021/VOL. 37, NO. 1 MANAGING EDITOR Matt Herb CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Ryan Tice, Mark Panus WEBSITE EDITOR Nate Bauer STAFF WRITERS David Eckert, Greg Pickel RECRUITING REPORTER Ryan Snyder FOOTBALL ANALYST Thomas Frank Carr CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Phil Grosz, Lou Prato PHOTOGRAPHY Bill Anderson, Steve Manuel, Mark Selders COVER PHOTO Mark Selders/Penn State Athletics (Inset photo: Kadir Caliskan/ United World Wrestling) DESIGN Jeanette Blankenship, Chris Miller F F F PUBLISHER Stu Coman BUSINESS MANAGER Linda Autry MARKETING Michelle DeLee-Hamilton 877-630-8768 CIRCULATION MANAGER Beverly Taylor CUSTOMER SERVICE Cathy Jones, Laura Thornton 800-421-7751 ADVERTISING SALES Fran Fisher and Sons fisherjeff13@gmail.com BLUE WHITE ILLUSTRATED (USPS 742-550) is published monthly, except June, by Coman Publishing Company, 905 W Main St, Ste 24F, Durham, NC 27701-2076. A one-year (11 issues) subscription is $59.00. First-class, digital and foreign rates available on request. Periodicals postage paid at Durham, NC 27701 and additional mailing offices. Printed by The Papers, Milford, Ind. POSTMASTER: Please send address corrections/changes to BLUE WHITE ILLUSTRATED, PO Box 2331, Durham NC 27702-2331. For advertising or subscription informa- tion call 1-919-688-0218 or write BLUE WHITE ILLUSTRATED, PO Box 2331, Dur- ham NC 27702. The Blue and White faithful have overwhelmingly high expectations for first-year offensive coordinator Mike Yurcich. PHOTO BY RYAN SNYDER