Texas Longhorns OC Mike Yurcich: 'To Win the Big 12 You've Got to Be Able to Score Around 45-46 Points a Game'
The Longhorns finished No. 15 in the country in points scored with 35.2 per game last season. By nearly all measurable accounts, that's a solid showing.
But it's not good enough for new coordinator Mike Yurcich.
While appearing on SiriusXM Radio, Yurcich stated his goal was to score at least 10 more points per game in 2020 than the already-explosive Texas offense did in 2019.
"To Win the Big 12 You've Got to Be Able to Score Around 45-46 Points a Game," Yurcich said. "I mean that's what it's been for the last decade."
The last eight Big 12 Champions have scored at least 42 points per contest. Those teams have scored an average of 46.3 points per contest. All eight of them ranked in the top six in the country in scoring.
During the Herman era the Longhorns have scored 29.5 points per game in 2017 (No. 47 in the country) and 31.1 points per game (No. 36 in the country).
While this number has gone up every season, 10 more points per contest would be a bigger jump than the three previous years combined.
So how does Texas plan on making that jump? Yurcich is working to establish a quicker pace and take full advantage of every potential matchup on the field.
"So you got to score a bunch of points," he said. "You better be playing with some sort of tempo. There's no question about it. You've got to be able to run the ball (and) you've got to be able to pass it. And how do you do you do that? By using your best players, and you get those players lined up against the best matchup they possibly can be. So if we need to put a receiver on the inside to get him safety, if we need to put them in trips to get them on nickel, if we have to put them in unbalanced - whatever. That's what we have to do."
While every team wants to tailor their game plan to each opponents' weaknesses, Yurcich also understands the limits on what he can install in a week's time at the college level. That's why he wants his offenses to look as complicated as possible for opponents while staying as simple as possible to operate.
"You have to make sure that you have an identity," he said. "That you have some core concepts that you have to be experts in - that you know it cold. You know it frontwards, backwards. And then you start to grow and be able to adjust, but it's gonna be the same concepts."
Many wondered just how much the offense would change under Yurcich and how much control he would have with Tom Herman still in the picture. While it's become clear that the Texas head coach will always have at least some input in what the team does offensively, it looks like Yurcich is getting enough room to add his identity to the Texas attack as well.
His aggressive style and lofty goals should excite Texas fans going forward.
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