Minnesota OC Kirk Ciarroccca leaving for same position at Penn State
Interesting development here for Fleck's staff, since Ciarroccca had been with PJ since their WMU days.
In case you were wondering, Ricky Rahne is leaving PSU to coach ODU.
Minnesota was really starting to gain traction on the recruiting trail, especially on the offensive side of the ball, so will be curious to see how they close this cycle in light of this news.
December 26th, 2019 at 10:35 AM ^
Looks like Penn State got an upgrade. Our division will continue to be very strong.
December 26th, 2019 at 1:21 PM ^
That program is PJ Fleck. The assistants can come and go.
December 26th, 2019 at 1:57 PM ^
Except for the fact that PJ is a CEO type HC who relies heavily on his coordinators for the X's and O's. He's one bad coordinator hire away from looking very mediocre.
December 26th, 2019 at 1:59 PM ^
Good thing Minnesota just locked him into a long term contract.
December 26th, 2019 at 2:25 PM ^
It's PJ Fleck to the extent he can keep hiring top notch assistants. We'll see how well he does that.
My guess is that he'll be fine because he's going to recruit above his weight class which makes assistants look good but they can't pay top dollar (I don't think?) for established guys.
He'll have to keep identifying up and comers.
December 27th, 2019 at 11:54 AM ^
Ciarrocca was very much responsible for the 2016 13-1 season at Western. His offense was dynamic. It wasn’t just throw it to Corey Davis. He also had a 3 man stable of backs. Fleck is a great motivator, charismatic and energetic. But that doesn’t always equate to winning. He does know how to surround himself with competent coaches. It’ll be interesting to see how Minn does following this.
December 26th, 2019 at 10:39 AM ^
I haven’t watched Minnesota a lot this year but it seemed like they were a very run heavy offense. I wonder how that will fit with PSUs current offensive personnel.
December 26th, 2019 at 11:02 AM ^
They had 2 receivers with over 1000 yds receiving.
December 26th, 2019 at 11:21 AM ^
Two first team All B1G wide receivers.
December 26th, 2019 at 11:17 AM ^
it seemed like they were a very run heavy offense
...
I haven’t watched Minnesota a lot this year
Yeah I can tell.
December 26th, 2019 at 12:36 PM ^
Triple option, if I recall correctly.
December 26th, 2019 at 2:17 PM ^
It depends on how you judge offensive balance.
If you look at the number of passing plays attempted versus the number of running plays attempted, Gentlemen Squirrels is 100% accurate in saying that Minnesota was run-heavy.
From the BIG website stats section on Minnesota:
Passing attempts: 293
Rushing attempts: 515
Only one team in the conference had fewer pass attempts during the season: Rutgers
Only four teams in the conference had more rushing attempts than Minnesota: OSU, WI, NEB, NW
What was notable about Minnesota's passing game was how insanely productive it was on a yds per catch basis: 10.3 yds, which led the entire conference.
https://bigten.org/confstats.aspx/2019-20/fb/confldrs?path=football
December 26th, 2019 at 2:59 PM ^
Yeah but you have to look at the context. Run-heavy implies they relied on the rush as their primary way of moving the ball. I disagree. They were RPO based, they had so many attempts rushing in order to keep opponents focused on the R so that they could actually make their hay with the P.
I wouldn't dispute calling it a chicken or egg argument, but I think the point of what they were trying to do is pass and they used the rush to set it up really well with their RPO system.
December 26th, 2019 at 3:00 PM ^
My guess is this is entirely an artifact of blowing a lot of teams out and having such an explosive passing offense that they scored quickly on few pass attempts because that's all they needed.
Upon quick look at their losses, they passed about twice as much as they ran in their losses to Iowa and Wisconsin.
December 26th, 2019 at 11:36 AM ^
Marion Barber and Laurence Maroney graduated a few years ago.
December 26th, 2019 at 12:50 PM ^
tradition never graduates
3 yards + cloud of rubber pellets
also: 7-5
December 26th, 2019 at 4:16 PM ^
+1 for modernizing an old saying to suit today's game.
December 27th, 2019 at 7:07 AM ^
They’ve still got Lawrence Maroney back there, IIRC
December 26th, 2019 at 10:42 AM ^
It will be interesting to see how that offense works at Penn State without having two dominant outside receivers.
December 26th, 2019 at 10:48 AM ^
I think PSU has recruited well enough to have solid WR play. However their QB play is super hit or miss and relies a lot more on the QB being runner than Tanner Morgan ever did.
December 26th, 2019 at 10:56 AM ^
You can only row a boat for so long......
December 26th, 2019 at 10:58 AM ^
Man overboard!
December 26th, 2019 at 11:00 AM ^
Interesting. Minnesota's offense hasn't exactly been fancy, but it's hard to know how much of that is the OC and how much of that is a choice by the staff to best use their personnel; I've favored the latter explanation. They are extremely RPO-heavy, with the occasional well-designed and well-timed change-up sprinkled in to exploit defensive tendencies.* I've admired their offense this year in part because Minnesota is very good at knowing what they are and executing.
This seems like a smart move by PSU. We'll see if it works.
*Last year was similar to this one, but with freshman QBs and more injuries. I went to the game Indiana played at Minnesota, and basically every pass Minnesota threw was a slant, usually to Tyler Johnson, generally with RPO action... until the last one. It was a brilliant chess move: a tie game, with Minnesota gagging away a three-score lead by turning the ball over and grinding down on offense, they took the ball over in meh field position with two minutes to go. They sent out the personnel for their wildcat package, telegraphing a running play and an effort to get to overtime. Instead, they had the QB take the snap and throw by far the furthest downfield pass they had thrown all day, to Bateman single-covered in the slot, for a 70-something yard TD to win the game.
December 26th, 2019 at 11:08 AM ^
They’ve been very simplistic this year, in a good way. As you said, they don’t try to outsmart themselves. They know what they’re good at and they run that. A valid criticism of Rahne was that he tried to get too smart or too cute at times. This hire, while not flashy, addresses that.
December 26th, 2019 at 11:06 AM ^
Minnesota has recruited a huge oline, strong run game 174ypg, 34ppg, with a good down field passing attack. Not quite spread offense, but still a potent attack. It is interesting to see how row the boat hires or promotes.
December 26th, 2019 at 11:06 AM ^
Meh. Good hire, not great. They’ll stay the same: top twenty five SP+ offense, not top ten.
December 26th, 2019 at 11:21 AM ^
That’s not shitty at all to do it a week after kids sign...hopefully they were transparent with recruits.
December 26th, 2019 at 11:28 AM ^
Stan Drayton approves.
December 26th, 2019 at 11:39 AM ^
Penn State got a great new OC.
December 26th, 2019 at 11:47 AM ^
I hope there are high transition costs for all parties involved.
December 26th, 2019 at 11:47 AM ^
For me, this will be very interesting. Will Minnesota or PSU be better? Franklin couldn't stop Minnesota's offense nor could he stop Michigan's without a fortuitously called or no-call penalty.
Given the comments above, I wonder if Fleck's magic is simplicity and execution more than scheme or talent.
December 26th, 2019 at 12:03 PM ^
Keep
It
Simple
Stupid
December 26th, 2019 at 12:38 PM ^
I feel indifferent. It's neither a negative or positive for either team.
December 26th, 2019 at 3:32 PM ^
I think it will go one way or it will go a different way.
December 26th, 2019 at 1:08 PM ^
Smart move before Auburn crushes the Gophers in their Florida bowl game. The Tigers are going to eat the Gophers. That match up is as bad as Bama vs Michigan.
December 28th, 2019 at 12:20 AM ^
I’m not sure that you watched the same post-Tua ‘Bama that I watched.
December 26th, 2019 at 3:47 PM ^
Ciarroccccccccccccca!
December 26th, 2019 at 4:15 PM ^
Ciarrocca did a lot of really good things with Minnesota's offense. Sure, Bateman and Johnson are terrific receivers and Williams, Brooks and Mohamed a really good trio of running backs, but none of those guys are big stars without the system working as a whole.
I don't know how much better he makes Penn State's offense, but at least I'm pretty sure they won't decline.
December 26th, 2019 at 4:30 PM ^
It'll be interesting to see how he steps into the Moorehead/Rahne offensive system. On paper it seems like a good match, but at least some of Minny's success this year was having two high-quality WRs and, frankly, playing a lot of mediocre teams. They finished the regular season with the #7 offense per SP+, but it was a bit unbalanced on a per-game basis. For example, they couldn't crack 100 yards on the ground against Purdue or Georgia Southern but completed 80-ish percent of their throws for 7 TDs, then runs for 300+ yards against Illinois and Nebraska while barely completing 55% of their passes. So it will be interesting to see how PSU's offense looks next year under his run, as it was reasonably balanced this year but was also reliant so much on KJ Hamler and Freiermuth for anything downfield.