Penn State players react to Mike Yurcich's dismissal, new Nittany Lion play callers

Change is a part of life, whether it’s in college sports or anything else. Penn State is dealing with that reality on offense this week as it prepares to play its penultimate game and final home contest of the season on Saturday against Rutgers (Noon ET, FS1). Some adjustments cause chaos. But, after hearing three players speak on Tuesday morning, the team, and the especially affected unit, is preceding as normally as it possibly can in the wake of Mike Yurcich’s Sunday ouster, which, of course, led to head coach James Franklin installing running backs coach Ja’Juan Seider and tight ends coach Ty Howle as the team’s interim play callers.

Or, that’s the party line, at least, after a Sunday filled with practice and meetings before Monday’s off day ahead of Tuesday’s return to the practice field.

“I think the big thing is, regardless of our record, or how things might have changed, our standard as a team hasn’t changed,” tight end Theo Johnson said. “We take pride in being a Penn State football team and what that means. Just because we lost two games doesn’t mean that standard can change or needs to change. It’s just making sure regardless of how we’re feeling that we’re living up to the standard every day.”

Sunday was a mostly normal day

Penn State cornerback Johnny Dixon is unique in that he is one of the few, if not the only, member of the roster who has experienced any kind of coaching change during the regular season. South Carolina moved on from Will Muschamp with games still remaining in the Gamecocks’ season back in 2020. His perspective on dealing with that then is the same as it is now.

“At first it’s just shocking because players probably find out around the same time as everyone else,” Dixon said. “It’s shocking at first, but then you come to terms with it and get back to work.”

Johnson and center Hunter Nourzad, while not using that exact phrasing, spoke similarly about what Sunday was like. Penn State players were not only coming to the building to correct mistakes from the week before, of course, but also to learn about the new plan of attack on offense.

“I think the big thing, obviously, Coach Yurcich wasn’t there,” Johnson said. “But other than that, it was business as usual. We showed up to meetings, had Coach Howle and Coach Seider run the meetings on the offensive side. Obviously, a tough loss, have a lot of stuff to clean up, but it wasn’t anything out of the ordinary.”

Added Nourzad:

“The mood on every Sunday is kind of the same. We want to fix things from Saturday and then move on. We were all nose to the grindstone and ready to work hard and get better.”

Penn State players have confidence in their new play callers

Franklin has yet to explain how the play calling will work moving forward. Both Howle and Seider will have a role, he said on Monday. What that operation will look like in practice, however, remains to be seen. But, the players who spoke Tuesday have little doubt that it will work as intended as they try to finish the season on a two-game winning streak.

“I’ve said in the past that I think Coach Howle is one of the hardest working coahes that we have,” Johnson said when asked specifically about Howle. “He’s always going the extra mile for the tight ends to make sure we’re prepared in every way. He does a great job of preparing and hasn’t left anything uncovered and that’s a trait that’s going to carry over well for him when it comes to calling plays and making sure our offense is ready to go this weekend.

“So far, they are two coaches that everybody has a lot of respect for in our program and on our offense. Ty has called plays in the past. Everyone has a lot of confidence in what they’re going to do. The big thing is continuing to do the things we did well and put a lot of our focus on that. Everyone’s got confidence in the two guys who will be calling plays.”