OklahOma State’S fOOtball cOaching Staff

Chief among

those were additions to the defensive and offensive coordinator positions, Glenn Spencer and Mike

Yurcich

Spencer has been an OSU coach since 2008 and takes over for his predecessor, Bill Young. While Spencer is known, Yurcich is new to the c owboy family.

The 37-year-old came to OSU from Pennsylvania’s s hippensburg University, a Division II school. Yurcich has been calling plays for more than a decade. He had his first coordinator job at an NAIA school, the University of s aint f rancis in Indiana, when he was finishing a master’s degree in education.

Their backgrounds couldn’t be more diverse. But spencer and Yurcich share one trait. t hey relish a challenge.

They will have that in spades. Both men will lead a team’s two halves that have Been among the nation’s Best since 2009. Spring ball kicked off in April and three of the Big 12’s top returning quarterbacks are in Stillwater. While he hasn’t had much of a chance to evaluate players, Yurcich’s first season will start off with a three-headed monster of a quarterback quandary, trying to figure out who will start out of the three who started last season due to injuries.

Meanwhile, on the defensive side in 2013, the conference’s vaunted offenses will likely remain the yardage gobbling machines to which we’ve all grown accustomed. Spencer has his work cut out for him, as well.

The two coaches recently sat down with P osse to talk about the upcoming season.

C All Him F Rank

Spencer perches his 6-foot 5-inch frame on the edge of his seat in his Boone pickens stadium office, his legs bouncing up and down as he talks. h is message is this: oklahoma state fans will see an aggressive defense in 2013. their c owboys will be trying like hell to pressure quarterbacks and receivers. opposing running backs won’t be spared either. they’ll likely face run blitzes from osU’s talented linebackers and safeties, led by seniors Caleb Lavey and Daytawion Lowe.

“BY sit Uation,” Spencer says. “By down and distance. By your personnel on defense. That will dictate how aggressive you can be … You have to affect the quarterback.” he wants offenses reacting to him. He also wants his guys to be fundamentally sound enough to change what they do on the field when the offense adjusts at the line of scrimmage before snapping the ball (as the Big 12’s spread offenses are wont to do). He wants them to do that without indicating to the offense they’ve changed anything, thus disguising their coverage.

“ people have no idea the mental challenges of plaY ing against spread teams,” Spencer says.

On the order too are subtler changes fans may not notice, such as techniques per position.

“You’re going to do things your own way. And then all the criticism is on you, and you realize that. But there are just technique issues we’ve looked at. alignment. assignment. steps. Just fundamental stuff that we as a defensive staff feel strongly about that are going to make us better on defense.”

Spencer came to OSU in 2008 to coach the defensive line, part of the resurgence of osU football that culminated in 11-2 and 12-1 seasons in 2010 and 2011. That was the most successful stretch in the school’s history and included OSU’s first BCS bowl win

OSU’s defense was frequently the press’s whipping boy, Spencer recalls, despite banner years in scoring allowed. That practice — abusing the defense — probably won’t change, no matter how many games OSU wins.

“The few interviews I’ve done since I’ve been here, it’s all about what’s been wrong. I’m like, ‘Yeah, i’m a Big BoY. I can deal with that. And we’re going to get those things corrected.’ That’s the world I live in.” d efense is a taller order these days with increased foci from the NCAA and the medical community on player safety. In fact, given those issues, and changes making the game more fast paced (favoring offenses), it’s hard to imagine why anyone would want to be a defensive coordinator these days, especially one for OSU, whose defense logged nearly 80 plays per game in 2012.

“Am I on the wrong side of the ball? Probably,” Spencer says. “But in reality I’m not because the challenge is good. I’ve got the opportunity to do something about our defense and that’s it. i’ve got the opportUnit Y to pUt the most effective prod U ct on the field that we can. ”

In his matter of fact tone, Spencer talks in general terms about the horrors in store for his defense before the first game, m ississippi s tate, kicks off aug. 31 . He believes in putting his players through hell to breed toughness and camaraderie that will show itself in onthe-field play. Defense is going to be all about team — players playing for each other, rather than fear of him.

“That’s the philosophy I want them to have. That’s what we’re trying to develop here in the offseason. And that will be a main emphasis in spring ball. Because i ’m going to take them places where the Y ’re going to saY, ‘this is ridicUlo Us.’ i’m going to take them places where everY thing in their BodY is going to saY, ‘i want to shUt down.’ ”

Like Louisiana in July?

“The demands we’re going to have from them, effort-wise. If it’s not there, they’re all going to have a piece of it, and they’re all going to get discipline from it, not because they’re going to be afraid of me, but because they have to think they can’t let what happened happen again.’”

It’s a group accountability that, in its purest form, requires no spittle-flecked, vein popping, Bear Bryant or Henry Ibalike excoriations to motivate players. It’s also the kind of motivation that will last, he says.

“Yo U ’ve got to p U t plaY ers throU gh the fire. Yo U’ve got to test them. if YoU’re never tested, YoU never know where the trUe effort is. YoU never know where the trUe motivation is. if the Y ’re not tested in life, the Y ’ll never know where the trUe love is.”

Spencer is used to meeting challenges. When he was at Duke , he took a non-contender in football and helped bring in one of the best recruiting classes in the nation

He never shrank from a challenge as a player, either. spencer was a defensive tackle in college at g eorgia tech , a feat the then undersized 275-pounder accomplished through technique, skill and sheer hard work. That’s the sort of thing he relies upon as a coach, dating back to his first coordinator position at West g eorgia in 1997 (he was head coach there from 1998 to 2000).

He and his staff will spend spring football, the series of practices leading up to the orange and white scrimmage in April, fixing technique issues, alignment issues, et cetera. Big emphases will be finishing games and tackling , he says.

It’s the latest chapter in a long career for Spencer who, since he came to OSU, has turned down many offers to coach other teams i am here to coach. And there’s a big difference between those two roles.”

“i t’s b E caus E i E njoy this placE,” he says.

“However, ’mi not here to nsel.Uco ish unique background as a licensed school counselor is an asset.

“It helps with being able to listen to all players, coaches, et cetera,” Yurcich says.

With spring ball looming, much of what Yurcich will do early at OSU includes -fig uring out what makes his players tick, making sure everyone is “assignment sound,” preaching the message of ball control and emphasizing playing fast.

You leave some. It helps mold who you become. You’re never going to be somebody else. You can never try to be. lla of those sUYg ’vei worked for have had their imprint on me. ”

“You listen to philosophies. You take some.

YodB stJU a little it,”B Yurcich says.

U“Yo get encedUinfl BY -Yever

Other formative experiences came later thanks to other coaches. At Indiana from 2003 to 2004, they came from then-coach

“It doesn’t surprise me he ended up at Oklahoma State,” he says. “I’ve had a lot of outstanding young coaches through the years. I’ve got one who’s an offensive line coach with the Houston Texans. I’ve got one who’s a linebacker coach with the Arizona Cardinals. So much of it is -get ting a break … UYo and rUoY c YoBow fans are going to get to know him prett Y .YicklUq e’llh get the allB moving. ” that if Yurcich got a break, something would work out. Donley says Yurcich fits well with U’sos offensive philosoYph of getting players the ball in space, or as the coach calls it, “go where he ain’t — not where he is.” then surprises his mentor. He always knew g erry Di n ardo , today a college football analyst for the Big 10 Network, and a l Borges , today the offensive coordinator at the University of Michigan. Later, there was Lou eppert at Edinboro and m ark m aciejewski at Shippensburg.

Nothing about Yurcich’s success since

“I’m not going to give anybody that responsibility (to call plays) if they can’t do it,” he says. “He was very, very capable with it. He did extremely well. Probably better than I did.” d onley says Yurcich always had good opinions and “good ndUso allBfoot ideas.” A degree in psychology made him “a unique guy,” as well, who had major input in what the team did. history, came to St. Francis in 1997 and hired Yurcich, a 23-year-old education graduate student in 1999. A few years later, Yurcich was calling plays as the offensive coordinator.

Donley, the winningest coach in NAIA

I think you can improve your skill. You can learn the game. When you have the X factor, you just have an edge. You just know what to do.” says Donley, of his former protégé. “ omes people have it and some don’t. ikem stJU had the X factor,”

“ a year in which the team made the -play offs, too. His offenses there ranked among the country’s best in points scored. At s hippensburg , his team led the nation in total offense and was second in -scor ing in 2012. He has worked for a host of coaches, but his biggest influence was the first guy who hired him, Kevin Donley, at the University of s aint f rancis . Yurcich was Donley’s starting quarterback when Donley coached at Pennsylvania’s California University

With him leading the offense, the school had nine-win seasons in 2008 and 2009, e dinboro in 2005. He was an offensive coordinator stepping in to an established system with a quarterback who won allconference honors the year before he arrived. to do the same thing when he arrived at the players bigger as well as faster, he had

While the stadium may be bigger and

This isn’t his first time being in such a situation.

“That’s the most important thing any coach can do at any level, and I don’t know of any other way to earn their trust, he says.” het biggest thing for him now is to earn their trust, he says. He’ll do that by being sure what he tells them will help on the field. That will make them listen to him.

“We’ve got three quarterbacks who each passed for over one thousand yards in the Big 12. We’ve got five of our top pass catchers coming back. We’ve got Jeremy Smith at tailback who has just been really outstanding in all the workouts I’ve seen him perform in.” as big plusses. notes the offensive line has two stalwart seniors, Parker graham and Brandon Webb . He says it all starts with them. He mentions the quarterbacks, returning receivers and tailback Jeremy s mith

Yurcich likes what he sees on paper. He

“That’s my role. To be organized. To get us moving in a direction. As far as the system, I just have to get used to it, learn it, become an expert at it, and then my role can grow. tUB for now i have to eB more of a learner. ” i“ think there are a lot of similarities,” he says. “Obviously, the student population is one of them, but it’s a bigger university. i think there’s a iggerB sUfoc on athletics here. ti causes a bigger stir. Just a bigger stage.”

Yurcich was hired last January after a long search for the replacement of oddt m onken . Much like Monken, who led OSU’s offense for two years, Yurcich took the helm of an established system that eats up records as much as it does yardage. And, much like Monken did when he started, Yurcich says he’ll spend much of his time early on learning the system and listening to his players. He says he’s the new guy so he has to be flexible. He has to be a good listener.