James Franklin to meet with Penn State OC candidates hours after blowout win

Penn State football closed out the 2023 regular season in dominant fashion, blowing out Michigan State 42-0 at Detroit’s Ford Field on Friday night. With several days until bowl prep starts in earnest, the Nittany Lions coaching staff now embarks upon one of the busiest periods of the entire calendar year. Added to the list for this year is finding someone to replace Mike Yurcich, the now ex-Penn State offensive coordinator. James Franklin will get down to brass tax on this issue sooner rather than later, as the Penn State football coach said he will meet with potential offensive coordinator candidates mere hours after the Nittany Lions blowout win.

James Franklin to meet with potential Penn State offensive coordinator candidates this weekend

If you didn’t know it, you’d think the Penn State offense was a strength all year by its performance Friday night against Michigan State. The Nittany Lions looked unphased by its season-long struggles and turmoil at the offensive coordinator position, putting up 586 yards and 42 points in a blowout win.

But as we all know, that is not the case. James Franklin now sets out to make perhaps the most important hire of his tenure at Penn State, after firing Mike Yurcich two weeks ago. While the wheels had been set in motion since Mike Yurcich was fired following the Michigan game, the search begins in earnest now.

On top of a busy schedule of recruiting, bowl prep, transfer portal evaluations, and player meetings, James Franklin noted last night that he will begin meeting with prospective Penn State offensive coordinator candidates this weekend.

“In-house, we’ll watch a ton of recruiting film and get organized for going on the road and how we’re going to balance the schedule,” he said after the Michigan State game. “All the bowl schedules are already set. We already have the calendars all set for where we would go and who we would play. The obvious thing is, I’m going to be in — Saturday and Sunday — zooming with a ton of prospective offensive coordinator candidates.”

“Then, we’ll spend, I think we have three days scheduled to meet with every single player on the team by position coach, and then I’ll meet with some guys as well,” Franklin continued. “And then, obviously, we’ll start getting into some practicing and then kind of go from there.”

“But meeting with our players is a priority. Watching recruiting film and getting organized, where we’re going and how we’re going to finish this class up the right way, also the transfer portal. We got to be all over those things. And then, with technology, now I can sit in my office and get 90 percent of the work done on Zoom, which I think makes the most sense.”

What are the Nittany Lions looking for in next offensive coordinator?

While expectedly, James Franklin has been silent on who he is looking at to be the next offensive coordinator, the Penn State football coach went into great detail this week about what he is looking for in potential candidates.

“Our [offensive] numbers are pretty good,” Franklin said, in part, on Tuesday. “But we got to make sure that we put ourselves in the best position based on the teams that we need to beat. And have the data to back it up, and evidence to back it up, and the experience to back it up. So, that’s really the biggest difference.”

Although last night he said he was meeting with “a ton” of potential offensive coordinator candidates, earlier in the week, Franklin noted that the actual candidate pool is much smaller than you’d think.

“I think the perception out there, whether it’s an offensive coordinator, defensive coordinator, special teams coordinator, position coach, or a head coach, there are less options out there than I think people think when you really dig into it,” Franklin said. “There’s a small sample size.”

Franklin has previously expressed that he’d like to have a hire in place before the Nittany Lions’ bowl game. Penn State football will find out that bowl destination next Sunday following conference championship weekend.

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