Correspondent photo / Robert Hayes New Youngstown State offensive coordinator Mike Yurcich (back, center) oversees a play during the Penguins’ spring practice on March 15 at the Watson and Tressel Training Site in Youngstown.

YOUNGSTOWN — New Youngstown State offensive coordinator Mike Yurcich’s coaching journey has taken him to some of college football’s preeminent programs.

He’s coached at Oklahoma State, Ohio State, Texas and Penn State. Yet, this winter, Yurcich found his way to Youngstown to join head coach Doug Phillips’ staff to coach the quarterbacks and oversee the offense.

“He’s had success wherever he’s been … finding ways to move the football, finding ways to score points,” Phillips said. “He comes with a resume unlike most coaches that normally come down to the FCS. So for us, we’re fortunate.”

A Euclid and northeast Ohio native, Yurcich’s first interactions with the Penguins began last spring when he spent a couple days on campus to take in spring practice.

He liked what he saw and felt like Phillips’ and the program’s ideals and values aligned with his own. Plus, it helped that his wife, Julie, is a Youngstown native and South Range alum.

“When you walk around and see a team practice, I think you get a really good feel for the culture. So I was attracted from the outside looking in, but also to me, this is a lot about family and being back home,” Yurcich said. “I’m staying with my in-laws right now, and they’re absolutely wonderful people. They’re committed to this community. It’s a wonderful place, and I think it’s a hidden gem, I really do.

“For me, being from Euclid, it’s like coming home. My wife’s from here, so for us to be able to raise our children in a great town like Youngstown makes all the sense in the world. Then on top of it, the tradition here, the ability to compete for a national championship and also to play in arguably the most competitive conference in the country. It’s a challenge, but it’s a dream for me to be able to have the best of everything that’s important to me in my life, which is football and family.”

Yurcich brings an “adaptable” offensive system to YSU that allows the Penguins to be multiple and versatile in their scheme with different personnel groupings.

He and the rest of the coaching staff plan to tailor their approach based on the players’ strengths. Phillips said he expects the Penguins to be “more multiple” in the run game than they’ve ever been.

“We want to be experts in ball security, we want to score a lot of points, and we want to be explosive,” Yurcich said. “So finding multiple ways to do that, whether we spread it out, whether we get bigger and muscle up formations or whether we change tempos, those are all pieces of it. But our identity is that we’re a very physical offense that scores and looks to score and be aggressive. We want to have that aggressive mindset, and that’s what we’re trying to instill in our guys now.”

In the past, Yurcich had success with various different styles of offensive attack and personnel.

At Oklahoma State, Yurcich’s teams were mostly pass heavy, but they still had a solid run game most seasons, while at Ohio State, Texas and Penn State, his offenses were fairly balanced with their passing and rushing attacks.

“We want to make it really difficult on a defense and stress them, and you can do it in a multitude of ways,” Yurcich said. “Everytime we touch the ball, we’re looking to score touchdowns and not have any hesitation.”

When Yurcich was at Oklahoma State, the Cowboys leaned on the arm of future NFL quarterback Mason Rudolph. Yurcich’s best season in Stillwater came in 2017 when Oklahoma State was second in the FBS in total offense (571.3 yards per game) and first in passing (389.2 ypg.). The Cowboys scored 45.0 points per game that season.

He then landed at Ohio State for a season in 2019, where he was passing game coordinator and quarterbacks coach for a Justin Fields-led Buckeyes team that was third in scoring offense (46.9 ppg) and fifth in total offense (529.9 ypg).

In 2020, Yurcich spent a season overseeing the offense at Texas, where he coached Sam Ehlinger, and helped the Longhorns rank eighth in scoring offense (42.7 ppg) and 19th in total offense (475.4 ypg)

Both Fields and Ehlinger were dual-threat quarterbacks, which is exactly what the Penguins have in returning starter Beau Brungard, who threw for 2,141 yards and ran for 998 yards last season.

“We’re still learning each other, but I can tell you this, Beau is locked and loaded,” Yurcich said. “He’s mentally ready. He’s one of the sharpest guys I’ve been around, and from an athletic standpoint, he might be the most dynamic guy I’ve ever had. I look for him to have a huge year — he’s a special player.”

So far during spring practice, the Penguins have worked to install and rep Yurcich’s playbook.

As of last week, YSU had all of their run plays and packages installed, and is working through finishing installing their passing plays this week.

The conclusion of Tuesday’s practice marked the halfway point through spring for the Penguins, which means YSU has seven more practices left leading up to the annual Red-White Spring Game on April 12 at 11 a.m.

“We want to get really good at what we feel can effectively beat the defense,” Yurcich said. “When you look at installation, you have to be really careful with going too much and then your players are really confused. But you still have to get it all in to make sure you have good film to study during the summer and you have a good supply and inventory of plays, a variety of plays, so you can teach from and your players can get better. So there’s a balance within that.”