Former Penn State offensive coordinator Mike Yurcich has a new job lined up; where will he work now?
Former Penn State offensive coordinator Mike Yurcich has been out of work since the Nittany Lions fired him in November 2023. It took some time, and spinning of the proverbial coaching carousels, but now, the Ohio native has found his next landing spot. Football Scoop reports that Youngstown State is on the verge of adding Yurcich to its staff. He will presumably be the school’s offensive coordinator. It marks the ninth different stop in a career on the sidelines that dates back to 1999.
James Franklin elected to move on from a coordinator before the end of the regular season for the first time in 10 seasons when he announced on Nov. 12, 2023 that he was letting Yurcich go.
“This was my decision,” Franklin said at the time. “Obviously, I don’t do anything in a silo. I run things up the ladder and have conversations. … These are tough decisions that have to be made. The quarterbacks, the discussion was good. Met with them before [Sunday] practice and right after practice ended. And, again, tough conversations, tough decisions, but I think handled as well as you can under tough circumstances.
“Very difficult from a personal perspective, professional perspective, and then in terms of the timing, I just think for most people and most situations if you’ve gotten to the point where you feel like that’s what you’re going to do, I’m not great at faking it,” Franklin said. “I want to be as transparent and upfront as I can possibly be. When you get to the point when you feel like that’s the right decision, I think you make it. When you feel like that’s the decision, you don’t delay the decision as long as you feel like you have some internal options that can do it.”
Penn State lined up Yurcich’s replacement quickly
Penn State tight ends coach Ty Howle and running backs coach Ja’Juan Seider shared co-coordinator duties against Rutgers and Michigan State before also doing so in the Peach Bowl. Yurcich’s replacement, Andy Kotelnicki, got into town from Kansas on Dec. 1. That allowed him to be in town for all of the team’s postseason practices and its trip to Atlanta. He assumed the offensive coordinator role on Jan. 1 of this year. He does not coach a position. Instead, he and the program opted to let graduate assistant Danny O’Brien oversee the quarterbacks room.
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“There’s going to be three of us that are working quarterbacks: Myself, Coach Franklin, and [graduate assistant’ Danny O’Brien,” Kotelnicki said in December. “And I know Danny, who I’ve interacted with, has been there for the last couple of weeks [after Mike Yurcich was fired in November] and does a fantastic job.
“You have a chance for a guy who’s played professional football, the quarterback position, to interact with the quarterbacks. I think that’s a huge deal. And then Coach Franklin, being an offensive guy, to be involed, and then myself, I’ve coached quarterbacks in the past and have been able to see the whole big picture with them. So, it’ll be very NFL-like in terms of how we interact with those guys.”
Through 15 games in 2024, Penn State is No. 24 in scoring offense and No. 25 in total offense. It faces Notre Dame in a College Football Playoff semifinal on Thursday.
