Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1512721
2 2 J A N U A R Y 2 0 2 4 W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M When Mike Yurcich was dismissed as Penn State's offensive coordinator in mid-November, the move brought an end to the longest tenure of any OC during James Franklin's reign as head coach. Yurcich had been in charge of the Nittany Lions' offense for 36 games. The average of the four coordinators who preceded him was 21.3 games. Here's a look at the coaches who have held PSU's offensive coordinator title on a full-time basis since 2014. John Donovan | 2014-15 One of eight holdovers from Franklin's staff at Vanderbilt, Donovan arrived at Penn State just as its offensive line was being hollowed out by the scholar- ship penalties the NCAA had imposed two years earlier in response to the Sandusky scandal. The Lions were so thin up front that they had to convert two defensive linemen — Brian Gaia and Derek Dowrey — to the offensive side of the ball in spring practice. Gaia ended up starting all 12 games that year, while Dowrey started one. Combining an undermanned offensive line with a classic dropback passer in Christian Hackenberg, Penn State's offense never had much of a chance to excel. The Lions surrendered 83 sacks during Donovan's two seasons as coor- dinator. He was let go one day after PSU wrapped up its 2015 regular season with a 55-16 loss to Michigan State. Donovan spent the next four seasons on the Jacksonville Jaguars' staff. He returned to the college game in 2020 as Washington's offensive coordinator but was fired at midseason the following year. Donovan is currently an of- fensive analyst at Florida. Joe Moorhead | 2016-17 If Donovan's timing was unfortunate, Moorhead's could hardly have been better. By the time he arrived in State College from Fordham, where he had spent four seasons as head coach, the Lions had started to replenish their of- fensive line with future NFL players like Connor McGovern and Ryan Bates. A stable of elite skill players was also in place, the most notable being running back Saquon Barkley, tight end Mike Gesicki and wideout Chris Godwin. In addition, Moorhead had a dynamic dual-threat quarterback to run the show in Trace McSorley, a three-star prospect coming out of Briar Woods (Va.) High who would go on to vastly outperform his recruiting grade. Using Moorhead's RPO system, Penn State averaged 37.6 points per game in 2016, an improvement of more than two touchdowns per game over its average the previous season. The Lions fared even better the following year, producing 41.1 points per game. Following a 66-3 thrashing of Maryland in the 2017 regular-season finale, Moorhead left to become head coach at Mississippi State. He went 14-12 in two seasons with the Bulldogs, then spent two years as OC at Oregon before being named head coach at Akron in 2022. Ricky Rahne | 2018-19 Like Donovan, Rahne had come to PSU from Vanderbilt. He was the team's quarterbacks coach his first two seasons but was switched to tight ends so that Moorhead could work directly with the signal-callers. When Moorhead left, Rahne's patience was rewarded, and he was put in charge of the offense. With Barkley and Gesicki gone, the Lions weren't as successful as they had been during Moorhead's tenure. Still, they found some new playmakers in receiver KJ Hamler, running back Miles Sanders and tight end Pat Freiermuth. The Nittany Lions averaged 33.8 points in 2018 and 35.8 the following year with Sean Clifford taking over for McSorley at quarterback. Following the 2019 season, Rahne left to become head coach at Old Do- minion. He has gone 15-22 in three seasons with the Monarchs. Kirk Ciarrocca | 2020 Ciarrocca had been on the job for a little over a year, so his dismissal three weeks after the conclusion of Penn State's 4-5 campaign came as quite a sur- prise. The Nittany Lions had posted their lowest scoring average since 2015 (29.8 points per game), but their struggles had been due in part to a series of health problems that decimated their backfield, and also to the effects of the pandemic, which prevented Ciarrocca from developing a normal working relationship with the players he had inherited. Following his ouster, Ciarrocca resurfaced as an offensive analyst at West Virginia and later spent a season as offensive coordinator at Minnesota, returning to the post he had left in December 2019 to join Penn State's staff. He's currently the OC at Rutgers. Mike Yurcich | 2021-23 In the news conference that followed Penn State's 24-15 loss to Michigan in November, Franklin grumbled that the play calling hadn't been good enough. "We've got to do a better job of calling a game to allow our quarter- back to get into rhythm," he said. That comment offered a hint of what was to come in the next 24 hours. Yurcich was dismissed on Nov. 12, bringing an end to a three-season stint during which Penn State showed flashes of high-scoring potential but strug- gled in its biggest games. The Lions averaged 25 points in 2021, 35.8 in '22 and 37.7 in their first nine games this season. But over that same span, they averaged 22.3 points against Ohio State and 16.3 against Michigan. That's not a formula for longevity at a place like PSU. — Matt Herb James Franklin's Offensive Coordinators Joe Moorhead presided over an offensive resurgence at Penn State in 2016-17. The Nittany Lions improved by 2 touchdowns per game in his first season as coordinator. PHOTO BY STEVE MANUEL