James Franklin must make these key changes to get Penn State Football back on track

James Franklin must allow his coordinators to do their job

When talking about this one, I am mostly referring to offensive coordinator.

Mike Yurcich’s first season as the offensive play caller for Penn State Football was very underwhelming, scoring just 25 points per game (90th nationally), 376.4 total yards per game (82nd nationally), and a 78.6% red zone scoring percentage (97th nationally).

For reference, in 2020 as offensive coordinator at Texas, Yurcich’s offense scored 42.7 points per game and gained 475.4 yards per game. Prior to that, in his final season as offensive coordinator at Oklahoma State in 2018, the Cowboys scored 38.4 points per game and gained 499.4 yards per game.

The stereotype is that “the Big 12 doesn’t play defense”, and while there may be some truth to that compared to defenses of the Big 10, those points per game and yards per game averages are still significantly worse at Penn State. Not to mention the fact that they scored just 37 points against Ball State and 38 points against Villanova, who certainly have defenses worse than those of the Big 12.

That is not exactly what us fans expected last winter when Franklin let go of Kirk Ciarrocca after just one season, and brought on a highly sought-after Yurcich.

While Yurcich certainly was limited by a sub-par offensive line, which led to one of the worst rushing attacks in the Power 5, the play-calling was still not what it could have been.

Although each offensive coordinator has brought a few of their own wrinkles, tendencies, and formations to the offense, they have all looked very similar under James Franklin, raising the question of how much Franklin has his hands over the offense and how much freedom the coordinators have to call their own game.

As a former quarterback himself, and someone who has been an offensive coordinator and/or positional coach on the offensive side of the ball at all but one stop along his coaching journey, Franklin may want to have a lot of say and control over what goes on offensively, rather than taking a step back and allowing Yurcich a chance to prove his worth.

Defensively it seems to be a little different, as James Franklin has no experience as a defensive play caller in his career, so he knows he shouldn’t overstep his boundaries on that side of the ball and allows his defensive coordinators complete control. After the hiring of Manny Diaz, Franklin even said that he wants Diaz to be the “head coach of the defense”, suggesting that Franklin will allow his new defensive coordinator freedom and will mostly stay out of the way from an X’s and O’s standpoint.

It makes sense that Franklin feels like he should have some control over the offense, but he needs to realize that it limits the offense’s potential. He needs to loosen the reins on Yurcich in 2022 and allow him to be the “head coach of the offense.”