Q: What went into the decision to hire Mike Yurcich and how quickly did that all play out.
A: Yeah, so as you saw that process how it played out, it obviously happened really fast. Yurcich is the guy that I've been in contact with and communicating with for a long time. I think at the end of the day, it was a very tough decision. But philosophically, I felt like it was the right thing for us to do to get where we want to go and play a style, on offense, that that I think is going to be important for us to play in a lot of different ways. You know, a lot of different ways. Whether it's our team, what we're going to have to do to be successful in terms of explosive plays, turnovers, and then obviously, you know, scoring points. Those things are the three most important things you're going to do on offense. How that impacts our locker room, and how that impacts recruiting, all of it. So combination of all those things that are very tough, tough decision, but something that I felt like the right thing for us to do moving forward.
Q: Does bringing in a fourth offensive coordinator in five years hinder player development?
A: Well I think in a perfect world, you'd love to have continuity. I could also state a number of examples of where that's not happening in college football. That's kind of the nature of the beast now. And don't get me wrong, we want as much continuity as we possibly can have. There's going to be turnover in college football. I think for us that one of the things that's a little bit different is to of our situations that I would deem as positive movement got head coaching jobs. But yeah, I think you're going to want as much continuity as you can possibly have. I don't know if that is realistic in today's college football.
Q: How much communication was there with Sean Clifford and the quarterbacks? Will there be room for a possible graduate transfer quarterback?
A: To your second question, we're going to be as aggressive as we have to be at every position to help our football program. And if there's something that makes sense and clearly makes us better, than we're going to look at. And that's a responsibility that we have to have for our entire organization. And for every position. It is obviously very different, college football very different now, with what's going on started with the grad transfers. And now where the transfer portal has gone, so that that is different. But we're going to make sure that we do our homework at every position, and make sure it clearly is the right decision for our program. I have had a number of people to reach out to us at every position. And we're going to do our homework to make sure it makes sense for us. When you talk about communication ahead of time, I always want our players whenever possible to hear any news from us first before it's on social media or being reported. That is harder than it's ever been to do. So the team and the quarterbacks, they were able to find out before it was released publicly, but there was there was no other conversations with the quarterbacks or the team before that.I did get a number of messages from people, you know, there wasn't any rumors, it wasn't in speculation about this before it happened. Again, which is hard to do in our current environment.
Q: What was it like to see your family?
A: It was obviously a really good time. I had to take two tests, a PCR and antigen test the day after our season ended. And then I had the quarantine for five days, and then took the test as well, antigen and PCR. I felt like based on our daughter's doctor, that was the best way to make sure that that I was going there and was safe. So by doing that I was able to get to see them on Christmas Eve. They didn't know I was coming. So it was a pretty cool surprise to show up and surprise my family. So that was great. We spent the last couple weeks with each other 24 hours a day. My family has not left the property, essentially in eight months with groceries delivered, and all those types of things. So it was really good. For my daughters, it's also good for my wife, it allowed her to have a break for a couple hours of the day. The next step is not a whole lot has changed. So when it comes to COVID right now, and not a whole lot has changed in our country, and specifically in Central Pennsylvania. So our next hurdle is when are they going to be able to come here. Because I don't see that happening anytime soon. The other issue is depending on where we get with the vaccine, from all the reports and all the studies and all the people we have talked to, children have not been cleared for the vaccine yet. So that's part of it. And the other thing you don't know is that even if you get vaccinated, there's not a whole lot of information on if you could still be a carrier. So right now, there's not a whole new in terms of making sure that my family, and specifically my daughter, is protected from this. But we have talked about that. If they do come, I think, you know, I could stay separate from them. We have a little room above the garage, that maybe I would stay there separate from them and not have any contact with them. So that's the next hurdle for us is to try to figure out how we can get back together as a family. But they're doing well. They're doing school online, and that's been good. You know, they haven't played with anybody. They haven't been able to do any of those things for a long time. So, I think they're driving each other crazy, my two daughters. They love each other, but only so much. You can only take so much your sister and you can only take so much your mom. They were really excited to see me for the first couple days. And by the end, they were ready for me to go back to work. But, I appreciate you asking. That the next step is how can we figure out how to get back together as a family.
Q: Can you address Jahan Doton's decision to come back? How important is it for other players in the receiver's group to step up?
A: Yeah, I think that's a good point. And I think that's also part of what I talked about philosophically, you know, I want to get more guys involved. I want to get more guys touches. I want to get more guys hands on the ball. I think it makes you more difficult to defend when the ball can go to a number of different people, a bunch of people and get a bunch of different people involved in the program. So yeah, having Jahan back helps. I think, you know, I feel like I got a really good relationship with Jahan and his mom and dad, and we had some very direct, honest, transparent conversations with just the three of us that they wanted to have. And I thought that went well. I thought that went well. At the end of the day, I'm going to support whatever decisions these guys make. I want to make sure that make an educated decision and have as much information to be able to do that but having Jahan back, I think it's really important for us. It gives us a really good building block and there's a number of other guys. Obviously, Parker did good things as the season went on. KeAndre, we got a bunch of other guys. Cam Sullivan-Brown you know, we had some injuries this year that limited a number of guys that we're going to need to step up. And we need to have two-deep at the receiver positions that we feel good about and try to get as many of those guys involved as we possibly can. And so we'll see how that all plays out but I do think having Jahan back and the decision that he made, that it was really important. I will tell you one of the things that was kind of interesting for me, and I get why you guys did it, but I just thought it was interesting, though there media you know, announcing a senior that was leaving, you know, I guess they had to do it when everybody got an extra year. But it just seemed like usual to me. You know, when a fifth-year senior was
Leaving, the media, not just Penn State, nationally was covering it like they're going to the NFL, where in our mind, we were still approaching it very similar that had been in the past and the guy decided to come back and as a bonus. So we're excited about Jahan being back and obviously there was a lot of question marks at that position coming in this season. And obviously with Jahan coming back and more of the production coming back, there's less question mark going into this season, at that position.
Q: Will there be any offensive blend between last year and Mike Yurcich's offense?
A: I guess what I would say is a few years ago, we were running the spread and mixing in tempo and had a bunch of success. Obviously, with the decision that we made the last hiring cycle, that was a little bit different than his background. That's where we felt like the blend had to happen, so that we can balance those two things in making sure that we still were running a similar offense to what we ran in the past. So this hopefully is going to get us a little bit closer back to what we want to be and what our philosophy is on offense. Tempo will be a part of that as well.
Q: When you look at the overall turn over of your roster, with transfers and guys making their pro decisions, are you comfortable with how that played out?
A: I don't know if I would use the word comfortable. College football has changed dramatically over the last five years and the reality is, whether you like it, whether you agree with it, whether it's what you're used to or not, you have to embrace it and move forward. You have to understand what the current model is and you've got to study it in detail and you've got to evolve. That's kind of where we're at with this. This is college football and it's not going to go back to the way it was. It's not just college football, this is how it's going to look.
From what I see and understand from an NCAA perspective, a Big Ten perspective, a legal perspective and from a lawsuit perspective, this is how it's going to be. What we're trying to do is embrace it by understanding the best we can to educate our student-athletes and then also do the same thing with the student-athletes that are in the transfer portal.
So, I wouldn't necessarily say anybody is comfortable with it, but it is where we're at and we embrace it and move forward and that's what we have done.
I'm very pleased with how our players have handled it. I'm very pleased with how my staff has handled it. A lot of conversations that have happened with players and their parents in our program, when players leave our program, whether it's going to the NFL or deciding to enter the transfer portal, and then same thing with the players that we're going to bring in. Again, this is us embracing the new model of college football and finding a way to make the best of it. That's what's right for Penn State.
The only other thing I would tell you is that probably I am a little uncomfortable with, is the college football that I got involved with, every decision that was made from an NCAA level and the universities I worked with, every decision started with these were educational decisions. I see less of that right now and that's concerning. You know, every time a guy transfers, his likelihood of graduating goes down. They lose credits through the transfer process and I worry about that. You don't even see that being discussed anymore. These are football decisions being made and that's just very different than the college football that I got involved in and I think most of my generation or older got involved with.
It's very different and I think that's going to be one of the challenges for the NCAA, all these conferences and all these institutions is how do we make sure that we're still doing that job, which is to make sure that these guys get a great education and it's going to be interesting to see the impact on graduation rates and APR, things like that, they're going to be affected. So that's something that I'm very passionate about and why I got into the business in the first place. They're interesting discussions that I'm having on some of these committees that I've had with the NCAA, with the Big Ten, and making sure that we're not losing sight of that, because I hope it's still a huge part of what we're doing here.
Q: You had mentioned you wanted to be as aggressive as you could in the transfer portal and finding players at every position. Is the top priority at this point the defensive line and all the losses you've suffered there?
A: I think the position that we're still open, whether it's high school or a transfer would be defensive end. That's probably the area. That and defensive back are still priority areas for us to finish this recruiting cycle up, if that's what you want to call it. I don't really know how to describe it. It's not just a signing day, it's more than that. So that's probably the area that we're focused on as much as anything. But again, I think we've done a pretty good job of handling it so far, you know, that there's still some options out there and there will continue to be options out there. That's probably our focus moving forward, though.
I think you guys have followed it closely enough. You know some of the transfers we've already gotten, we've gotten two at that position, one at defensive end and one at defensive tackle that we feel good about.
But I think, here's the only thing that I would say is, it's not just about the people that you're bringing in, it's also about how they fit on your current team and the impact that it's going to have on your current team. It's not just about the addition, it's about, you know, the addition and how that person compliments what you already have or the impact of the decision, bringing them in, the impact of what that does as well. You have to look at all of it.
Q: Will the offense you run next year be a hybrid combination of what Mike brings to the table and what you have now? What excited you about him since you've had your eye on him for a while? What excited you about his coaching style?
A: To answer your first question. It's going to be back to who we were the previous three or four years. It's going to be spread. It's going to be tempo. It's going to be an emphasis on explosive plays. Obviously, we're still working through those types of things. But philosophically, me and Mike and have been talking for a long time and we're all on the same page in what we want to do and how we want to do it. Mike has lived in that world.
I think the things that excite me is kind of that stats that I threw out. It's you better be able to protect the football and you better be able to create explosive plays. Those are two areas that we were not as successful at this past year. You've got to protect the football and you've got to create explosive plays. But obviously, his yards-per-play, his scoring. There haven't been too many offensive coordinators that have been able to average 40points in the five previous years that he's been an offensive coordinator. So, it's points, close plays, ball security, yards-per-play. It's being multiple when it comes to tempos, multiple when it comes to personnel groups. We want to be able to put people in conflict and make people uncomfortable and make people defend the field.
There's a lot of different ways to be balanced. Balanced is run-pass, the ability to run or pass in multiple situations, the ability to run a traditional-style running game with your running back and be able to do that with your quarterback as well. But the other part of balance is getting everybody involved and getting a bunch of people touches, so that defensive coordinator can't sit there and say, 'this guy, this is the guy they're trying to get the ball to', they have to defend the whole field. That is horizontally, that's vertically and that's also the number of people involved in getting touches as well. It's all of those things and I think this gets us back philosophically to where we want to be.
Q: Going back to your response earlier, is there still a possibility that spring practice doesn't happen? What is still uncertain? What is known at this point about what you guys are going to do moving forward?
A: What I'm say is nobody has really come out and said it either way. And I guess what I'm saying is, what 2020 has taught me and I think has taught us all is that you're going to have to be prepared for what comes, especially when you're dealing with a pandemic. You know, all those things.
I think, obviously, after going through a season, it's easier to say that we can pull off spring ball and do it the right way after already being through a season. But no one has said anything either way. I know how this is and I still see basketball programs opting out, people canceling their seasons. I think a few women's basketball programs have opted out and things like that. So, it's just hard to tell. It's hard to tell how the Big Ten's going to handle these things, how the NCAA's going to handle these things. But we're moving ahead and prepared and planning on doing it all. But, this has taught me a valuable lesson that I'm going to have to be prepared for whatever comes and we have to be flexible. Right now, we're planning today through training camp like we normally would until someone tells us differently.
Q: How did you assess your quarterbacks after the season?
A: I think when you look at the metrics in terms of touchdown-to-interception ratio, completion percentage, third down, wins and losses, the most important one out of all those things, I wouldn't say that we took a step in the right direction. I wouldn't say that we have built on the year before. That's where there was change. We had different starters, different rotations. There's a number of reasons for that. But, I think that's another big part of this is getting back to that position playing at a higher level and even taking the next step playing really high-level football. I think we all know, whether it's NFL, college or high school, that position is critical to your overall team success. That position critical to your offense's success, specifically.
I think we feel good about the guys that we have. Sean [Clifford] obviously has done some good things. He was a part of us winning 11 games the year before. I think Will Levis has shown us he has the ability to be a high-level player as well. And then it's going to be important for us to get a better understanding of where Ta'quan [Roberson] is at in his development. Obviously, Christian Veilleux joins us as well, seeing where he's at. We need to develop that third quarterback. But we have to take the next step and I'm not telling you anything I haven't already spoken with Sean. Sean and I have had a number of conversations. Me and Will Levis have had a number of conversations. As well as their families. So we all understand that.
Q: Would you have been comfortable going to a bowl game? What were the positive and negative impacts of not going?
A: It's hard to say about being comfortable, because I wouldn't say anything about this past season was comfortable, it's hard to put into that category. I think the challenges are a lot of the challenges we saw with other people.
So you decide to go to a bowl game, do you send your guys home for a couple days for Christmas or not? We saw some programs do that and then they came back and the bowl game got canceled because they came back and had a spike in COVID cases. Or do you keep your team up over the holidays and the opponent you're playing doesn't, you make all those sacrifices and then the game gets canceled and you kept everyone up. That's the challenge.
We were already paper thin at some positions. Now if you have a couple players decide to opt out and go to the NFL, which is something that we've all been dealing with in college football, not just this year, not just because of COVID. That's something that can happen anyway, that was going to create some challenges as well. So, I wouldn't necessarily say comfortable is the term I would use.
But if we decided to play, if everybody was on the same page, we would have found a way to make this work. And there was some real benefits to doing that. There was some real positives about getting another win. Keeping our bowl streak alive. Although I do feel like this year, in a lot of ways, it's going to have an asterisk for a lot of people when it comes to statistics and things like that. There were arguments both ways, but we have very little wiggle room left. Just didn't have a lot of flexibility left to solve some of the programs that may have come up. But it was truly a discussion that we had with the players. I actually started the conversation with the seniors the week before so that they were ready to have a conversation after the last game. I didn't want to make a decision before that, because I wanted our guys to focus on the task at hand. That also allowed me to have a conversation with our administration and make sure Sandy [Barbour] spoke with Eric Barron as well, to make sure we're all on same page. So there were no surprises there and everybody was comfortable with it and understood it. So, just trying to communicate as much as we possibly can. Same thing with our parents. The parents had a lot of questions about it as well, what it was going to look like.
Again, there wasn't anything comfortable about 2020. It was very different. But if we decided to play, could we have found a way to make it work? Yes, but there would have been even more challenges than what we were already dealing with based on some of the scenarios that I just described.
Q: You mentioned before that you were frustrated about not being able to get recruits on campus during the pandemic. What's that been like for you? Do you see an end in sight? It's tough to get kids up to Penn State.
A: I think that's an important point. It's different because of the type of school we are, where we're located. You have to have a very specific plan that you're coming to Penn State for that reason. It's not like a place you pass on the way to going somewhere and just stop.
I also think gamedays are significant here. You look at our team, how many players we've recruited, high-level players, that were at some of our whiteout games and those types of things. For the spring game, having 75,000 people at a spring game and getting to see that, experience that. You know, this town when all the students are here and you're walking around, there's a buzz in town. All those things have an impact.
I will say this. It also was magnified with a season that we already weren't taking a big class. That had an impact on it as well that you don't offer as many guys. But I do think, if you look at what we've done so far in the 2022 class, the same problems exist to the next class. I think we've adjusted and done what we've had to do, to be able to take our circumstances and find a way to overcome. So, I do feel good about that. This class isn't over yet. We still have another signing day coming up and we've got a little wiggle room, whether that is a high school players or transfers, we'll see how that all plays out.
Again, it is a frustration, but at the end of the day, we've got to find a way to get it done and those frustrations, they are what they are. Today, we've got to find a way to get it done on the football field, in recruiting and academics.
Q: You mentioned earlier when talking about spread offenses and what good defense is in relation to the increasing offensive numbers. What are some of the tenets of what you think a good defense brings to the table in this day and age? How close are you guys getting there?
A: I think we've done a pretty good job of that over our time. I think in my time, going back to Vanderbilt, we've done a pretty good job of that. I wouldn't say we fell into that category last year on offense, defense or special teams.
I think at the end of the day, it's very similar what we've talked about on offense. You have to limit explosive plays, probably more so now than ever, you have to limit the big plays. One of the ways you do that is by tackling well. We did not tackle as well last year as we have. That has shown up in previous years, but as the season has gone on, we've gotten better. But tackling is going to be a big part of that. An area that we have to improve that I wouldn't say has been a strength of ours is creating turnovers. Creating turnovers is a huge momentum swing. It's big for your offense and big for your defense. It limits their time on the field and then you have an opportunity to score on defense.
It's tackling, it's limiting explosive plays, it's creating turnovers and then I think it also, in today's college football, which is something we've typically been pretty good about, is making people kick field goals when they do get in the red zone and not scoring touchdowns. Again, over the big picture, we've been able to do a pretty good job of that.
I think the other thing is, being able to get pressure on the quarterback. Being able to make the decision maker uncomfortable in the pocket. Whether that's being able to do that with a traditional four-down rush, whether that's bringing pressure. We've gotten as many sacks as anybody over the last five years. We did not have that type of production this year and if you really look at us, you know a lot of our pressures on quarterbacks came from our pressures, not just our straight four-down rush. Whether that was defensive line sacks or linebacker pressures and sacks or defensive back pressures and sacks, we have to get back to that. We have to get back to making the quarterback uncomfortable in the pocket. Part of that is also how the games went. If you're up by three touchdowns, or two touchdowns, and your opponent feels like they need to throw the ball more to get back in the game and push the ball down the field, it creates more opportunities as well.
So, it's a combination of all those things and for the most part, we've done a really good job of those things in the past, but we've got to get back to them. I think we started out, we defended Indiana in game one, probably better than we've defended Indiana in the previous years, except the end of the game when it mattered most. Then I think as the year went on, we started to get back to doing that again, playing good defense.
So this is going to be a critical offseason for us in all three phases, but those things are going to be emphasized, like they always are and will again this Spring.
