CBS Sports: Penn State Football a bounce-back team | 3 reasons they’re right

Mike Yurcich getting the Nittany Lions back to being an elite offense 

Head coach James Franklin made one of the bolder moves of the offseason when he let go of offensive coordinator Kirk Ciarrocca after just one season.

Many figured that even after a rocky first season where the offense seemingly struggled to gel, Ciarrocca would get a pass due to the strange Covid-19 season and offseason, but Franklin had seen enough.

He went out and got former Oklahoma State and Texas offensive coordinator Mike Yurcich, a guy Franklin admitted he had been enamored with for some time now. The two seem to be on the same page in terms of offensive philosophy.

Yurcich will get Penn State Football’s offense back to playing a more up tempo, spread attack, one that more so mirrors the offense we saw under Joe Moorhead back in 2016-2017 which resulted in some of the best offenses in the country.

The new play caller will be tasked with fixing quarterback Sean Clifford who showed some regression in his second season as the starter in 2020. Clifford never looked comfortable, especially early in the season and struggled with accuracy issues stemming from poor mechanics.

If Yurcich can get the offense back to where it was back in 2016-’17 than Penn State Football can compete with the Buckeyes in the Big Ten East.