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The fans in Beaver Stadium demanded a head on a pike. On Sunday, they received one.
Penn State fired offensive coordinator Mike Yurcich after another disappointing performance from the Penn State offense against one of the two teams the program hasn’t been able to conquer in recent years. After looking hapless and ineffective in a loss against Ohio State a few weeks ago, the group didn’t look much better at home against the Wolverines. Somebody had to go.
This puts James Franklin in the all-too-familiar position of looking for a new offensive coordinator. Franklin brought John Donovan with him from Vanderbilt when he arrived in 2014. Now in his 10th season, Franklin is on the hunt for his sixth offensive coordinator in Happy Valley. However, that number deserves more context.
I tweeted this factoid on Sunday after the Yurcich move was announced. It produced a slew of responses implying that Franklin was the common denominator through all of those play-callers. Which, well, duh, that’s typically how it works. The problem is this line of thinking implies that Franklin keeps firing guys because it isn’t working out, and that’s not the case.
Joe Moorhead left after two very successful seasons to become coach at Mississippi State. He was replaced by Ricky Rahne, a member of Franklin’s Penn State staff from the jump. He also left after two seasons for a head coaching job at Old Dominion. While John Donovan’s first two years were an inarguable failure, Franklin replaced him with two consecutive successful offensive coordinators. After Rahne left, Penn State and Franklin wanted to hire Yurcich but lost out to Tom Herman and the Texas Longhorns. Then Herman was fired, and Yurcich was back on the market. Franklin and Penn State moved on from…
Source link : https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/big-ten-takes-picks-penn-state-replacing-offensive-coordinator-wont-cure-its-ohio-state-michigan-problem/
Author : Tom Fornelli
Publish date : 2023-11-14 16:22:48
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