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OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCEFebruary 6, 2019Mike YurcichColumbus, Ohio Q. My understanding is that for the last several years you've had multiple opportunities to coordinate or coach elsewhere. What finally made Ohio State the pick for you? MIKE YURCICH: You know, Ohio State and why I came here, there's probably about 105 good reasons right now for me to talk about, but to really cut to the chase, it was part coming home and becoming -- or being part of something as great as Ohio State. I'm very humbled, and my family is very humbled to be a part of that. Q. When you look and sit down and talk offense with Ryan Day and Kevin Wilson, how similar are your ideas? What new things are you trying to bring to this offense? MIKE YURCICH: Well, for me right now, it's not bringing anything except past experience, maybe similar concepts and the knowledge I have about quarterback play and offensive play in general, but for me it's a time to learn. It's a critical time for me to develop and to learn what Ohio State does on offense. You know, that's what concerns me most, and there's a lot of similar concepts in football all together, whether it be NFL, college, Big 12, Big Ten. There's a lot of carryover, so there's a lot of similar concepts but there's a lot different, and that's what intrigued me most about this particular position is the dynamics of this offense and how comprehensive it is and how quarterback friendly this system is. And that's what I saw from the outside looking in, and you don't know until you start getting in the guts of it and really working it, but this is exactly what I had hoped it to be as far as the friendliness of the quarterback system and how comprehensive it is and complete. Q. When you look at what this offense achieved last season, just from a sheer numbers standpoint, but they did lose a lot of those guys, how do you plan to replace three wide receivers and a quarterback? MIKE YURCICH: I think it's really important as a coach when you're trying to develop an offense that you don't compare it necessarily one year to the next. I think you can be setting yourself up. What we have to do is take this group of guys and see where our strengths are, where our weaknesses are, where we can grow the most and try to become the best offense we can be in maximizing our personnel. That's what concerns us most, not necessarily dwelling on losses or inefficiencies, but more strengths, weaknesses, where do we need to grow the most, where do we need to improve the most. This time of year we're trying to figure those things out, and that will progress all the way into spring and into fall camp. Q. What's it been like growing a relationship with Justin Fields in the short time that you both have been here? MIKE YURCICH: Well, it's a process, and nowhere near where it needs to be, obviously. It takes time. It takes time, and it takes an investment on both ends and an openness and just trying to create a dialogue. For me as a quarterback coach, I have to try to learn how the quarterbacks learn the best, and everybody processes information a little bit differently. Everybody has a different mentality. Everybody has different emotions, and so for me, it's just a real great opportunity to take the time in this off-season to learn all those things about each individual, not just Justin but all the quarterbacks in the room and all the offensive players and all the coaches and everybody that's involved, everybody in this building. You're just trying to get to know everybody and develop those relationships. It takes a lot of time, and you can't just jump into a situation and pretend that you know everything about everybody. It takes a lot of time and investment. Q. You mentioned the quarterback friendly system. I don't know how much you got to watch what Dwayne was doing with Ryan Day last year, but how much did that influence you wanting to be here and work with the quarterbacks they have here now? MIKE YURCICH: Well, I think I partly answered that question earlier, and the fact that when you're watching college football -- we all try to study who's most productive when you're trying to develop your own offense and you're trying to be conscious of different teams and different schemes and whoever is leading the country, it seems to be the teams that you study the most. So obviously we try to peek at Ohio State film and look and see what they're doing cutting edge and developmental, and obviously from the outside looking in, it was very intriguing. A lot of high-efficiency offense but yet balanced, and that's very intriguing. Anytime you're looking at an offense from my mind, and so from the outside looking in, it's very intriguing, and then when you get inside it and you get to work it a little bit more and you get to have more discussions, more football discussions, you learn that what you had hoped it would be, it is. And so this is a great time for me to learn this offense, so I really hesitate to fully answer your question because I'm still learning. There's so much more football for me to learn, and I'm just trying to do my part, keep my head down and be the best quarterback coach I can be. Q. When Justin was on, I don't know how much you were around him during recruiting, did you notice that high efficiency output in his game? MIKE YURCICH: The film that I've looked at, I think he's very dynamic, and he hasn't practiced one snap with us, so I'm not going to give any evaluations because it would be unfair for me to go on one particular player and not the other. So I'd be more than happy to answer that question as spring ball progresses. I hope that answers that. Q. Bottom line is did you look at Matt Baldwin at all? Obviously he was the starting quarterback of a Texas 6A Division I team and went to the state finals. What do you remember about him from the recruiting process? MIKE YURCICH: Very accurate passer, very cerebral type guy. We were in Texas quite a bit at my previous stop, and Lake Travis is a heck of a program. I developed a relationship with his offensive coordinator, Michael Wall. I knew how well he was coached and I knew how efficient he was and how high-powered that team was, and especially on offense. Very aware of him. Q. And do you get the sense that everybody in the country would like to have a little bit of a Big 12 offense in their offense, and what does Big 12 offense mean to you when you hear that term? MIKE YURCICH: I think everybody wants to win games. I think that's the most important thing, and I think one of the best quotes was by Tom Brady recently; the most important stat is wins, and everything else really doesn't matter. It doesn't matter how many yards you throw for, it doesn't matter how many points you score, as long as you have more points than the opposition at the end of the day. And really that's what concerns us the most. What does Big 12 offense mean? You know, I think the air-raid was kind of mainstream in that conference, and it's branched off, and I think even the true air-raid guys have even developed into more of an RPO system, more of tight end play. Everything adapts, and everything changes, and you get more air-raid and then you get more drop 8 teams. You're starting to see more zero and four eyes and not the true tradition drop seven teams, which -- so that complicates things, and so the air-raid had to kind of develop. So I think it's morphed. It's all morphed, and it's bled in different areas, and it's bled into the NFL. So what is Big 12 offense? I don't think you can just point and click at it. I think it's more of a philosophy of spreading the field and throwing the ball down the field vertically and trying to create space more or less. But I think that that is now commonplace in different types of the country and at different levels. Q. How do you work with a quarterback in flux? Does it change at all when Justin doesn't know his situation for 2019, and how would that affect sort of the depth of the room? MIKE YURCICH: Can you rephrase that question, please? Q. With Justin Fields waiting on a 2019 eligibility waiver, does that change the way you approach the quarterback room and the depth you have? MIKE YURCICH: My job is to coach the quarterbacks, regardless of whether it's a walk-on, whether it's a scholarship player. If they're in the room, they're getting coached hard, and my job is to develop all their talents. That's what we promise our student athletes as we're recruiting them, our prospects as we're recruiting them. That's what we tell their parents, and that's what I'm going to do, and that's what my history has proven and our history and our philosophy is just to develop the person and the player here, and we're trying to do that with each individual. Q. He said he was sort of learning the offense along with you a lot over the past month or so. How has that process played out for you, and is it helpful to have someone next to you who's going through the same thing? MIKE YURCICH: Yeah, I think it is. I don't know if it's helpful, but I think you have to be aware of that situation. You can't pretend. You can't walk into a room and think you know everything. I mean, I'm learning the offense right with him, and it's open dialogue, and I probably ask more questions than they ask, and I'm not afraid to ask some stupid questions. So I'll ask the uncomfortable stupid questions because I don't care. I want the information to be processed, and I want us to have good football conversations, and I want us to develop the best we can in that room and to have the most knowledge that we can when we snap the ball from an information processing standpoint. And that's my job, and this is a very unique opportunity and a great opportunity for me to develop as a coach. But I have a huge responsibility in developing these quarterbacks, as well. Q. When you're making career decisions for you personally, how much do you weigh the opportunity to step into a situation where it's more of a revamp of the offense as opposed to stepping into a situation where the offense is more established and you're being brought into that, and how has that informed the decisions you've made throughout your career? MIKE YURCICH: That's a heck of a question. That is -- I think a lot of things factor into all those different types of situations. I think Coach Hafley answered it best when he said he decided to come here because it was great people, and that is a huge factor in everything. Our coaches, getting to know Coach Day through the process, and now that I'm here and able to establish relationships with the players, you're able to see that the person element, the human quality is awesome here, the character here is great, but all of those things factor in to your decision of whether or not to take a particular job. And so there's a comfort, and you have to be also very aware of that comfort because you don't -- as a coach and as any profession, and I'm sure in your profession it's the same thing, you don't want to become too comfortable. You want to get out of that comfort zone in order to improve. But you also want to set yourself up for success. So I think my answer to the question that was asked of me earlier is that I just wanted to be part of something great, and coming to Ohio State is kind of a no-brainer for me, and I'm very humbled to be in this situation. Q. When you talk to some offensive coordinators, they say the opportunity to call the plays and really put your fingerprint or thumb print on the offense, that's the fun part of it, and it seems like maybe you're giving up some of that to be a part of this, and I'm just wondering if that was a difficult conversation to have with yourself. MIKE YURCICH: Well, I think you're on to it, but I don't think it's very difficult to come to Ohio State, in short, and to be part of this program, this tradition, and to come home for me is a no-brainer. Q. Every coach is a product of who they've coached under. Mike Gundy, we see him a certain way. What did you learn from him? What do you bring to this place that you picked up from him? MIKE YURCICH: Well, what I've tried to learn from Coach Gundy is that he is himself, and you have to be yourself in this profession. I can't try to be Mike Gundy, and I'm damn sure not going to grow a mullet. But he's unique. He's got his own style. And I think that's the most important -- he's a genuine human being that cares about student athletes. That's probably the biggest take from Coach Gundy is how to treat people and to improve upon that every day. You know, it's about character at the end of the day. Recruit character, and that's what we do here, and that's why I wanted to join up with Ohio State is because there's such a common thread with that. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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