James Franklin discusses lessons learned from Mike Yurcich firing

There is always a larger lesson to be taken away from every scenario in life. For Penn State football head coach James Franklin, he just went through one himself. In the two biggest games of the 2023 season, he had the wrong play-caller on the coaching staff. Let’s be honest every away game besides Maryland has been a challenge for the Nittany Lion offense this season. But the offensive struggles against Michigan were the straw that broke the camel’s back. On Sunday James Franklin fired offensive coordinator Mike Yurcich.

James Franklin discusses lessons learned from Mike Yurcich firing

Mike Yurcich was a big hire for James Franklin. After one season under offensive coordinator Kirk Ciarrocca whom Penn State football ironically will battle this weekend, Franklin moved on. He brought in Mike Yurcich who was supposed to take the offense to the next level.

But after watching it in 2023, many believe Sean Clifford was responsible for making the offense look good on the field before this year. James Franklin was asked about his takeaway from the firing of Yurcich.

Franklin said, “For us to win, at the very highest level every single unit needs to be producing and working at the highest level year-round, 365 days a year. And there’s been a lot of hurdles and battles to overcome to get there. Since we arrived on campus, to be honest with you. And the reality is we cannot afford not to be thriving in every single one of those areas to be able to beat the people we want to beat on a consistent basis.

So, for us, the most important thing we can do outside of all of the things we talked about is get the right people into the building. Thar is staff and that is players. Then, be able to give them all of the support that they need to be successful on a consistent basis. But the most important thing you do is, we are the people business, we have to get the right people at State, that believe in Penn State and what we can do, and where we can go. And then, give them all of the support and all of the resources they need to produce at the very very highest level.”

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