Kirk Ciarocca a Possibility for the Texas OC job

Donate To GopherHole
There’s been good and bad. 3rd down efficiently....very good! 1st down? Nope! Some of that has to be attributed to play calling and blocking schemes.

89LAp1o.png
 


PitinoFan said:
There’s been good and bad. 3rd down efficiently....very good! 1st down? Nope! Some of that has to be attributed to play calling and blocking schemes.

89LAp1o.png
Click to expand...
Thanks for sharing...that's super cool.

TFL. Holy cow, that's abysmal.
 

howeda7 said:
Wouldn't he be pretty high on our list if Fleck ever leaves? Might be a reason to stick around.
Click to expand...
KC would be like hiring Claeys as HC IMO. I don't see him becoming a P5 HC.
 

Looks like Ohio State Passing game coordinator is the leading candidate from Football Scoop.
 


MplsGopher said:
Quite obviously: it has been the best offense in forever ... because we threw the ball a lot, we had an incredibly accurate QB, and very good WR.

I don't agree that KC gets credit for that, per se. Anyone can call a passing play. Did KC routinely scheme just the right routes to call, that helped our players make the play? Or were Morgan, Bateman, and TJ just able to make play after play, no matter what routes were dialed up, no matter what coverages were called?


Mainly the problem I had was the narrowness. When our running game got shut down ... we had no other types of running plays to try. Zone, zone, zone. How about some power? How about some sweeps? Traps? There are other ways to run the ball than zone!

The whole year, when the running game didn't happen, it didn't matter, because Morgan & Co. would make some outstanding play in the air. That's great. But we need a strong running game.

Again, hate me all you want, but I like Iowa and Wisconsin's offensive philosophies more. We could move more that direction, while still choosing to throw the ball more often.
Click to expand...
KC is too conservative, but you like Iowa’s scheme much more. Ok.
 


MplsGopher said:
Not conservative. I never used that word once.

The word is flexible.
Click to expand...
Sorry I was probably conflating your posts with others I’ve seen on here saying that same thing. Do you think there’s a possibility the offense will open up next year as we get another year older on that side of the ball or is it basically WYSIWYG?
 

MplsGopher said:
Quite obviously: it has been the best offense in forever ... because we threw the ball a lot, we had an incredibly accurate QB, and very good WR.

I don't agree that KC gets credit for that, per se. Anyone can call a passing play. Did KC routinely scheme just the right routes to call, that helped our players make the play? Or were Morgan, Bateman, and TJ just able to make play after play, no matter what routes were dialed up, no matter what coverages were called?

Mainly the problem I had was the narrowness. When our running game got shut down ... we had no other types of running plays to try. Zone, zone, zone. How about some power? How about some sweeps? Traps? There are other ways to run the ball than zone!

The whole year, when the running game didn't happen, it didn't matter, because Morgan & Co. would make some outstanding play in the air. That's great. But we need a strong running game.

Again, hate me all you want, but I like Iowa and Wisconsin's offensive philosophies more. We could move more that direction, while still choosing to throw the ball more often.
Click to expand...

FWIW, the running game did change as the season progressed from a very vanilla inside zone in the first few games (only marginally successful) to much more outside zone and off tackle power/traps from the H-back position using the tight-ends (Paulson's injury hurt the Gophs there as he is a good trap blocker). It would be tough for the Gophs to go to a pure power blocking scheme because that requires a fullback - while the Gophs focus on running the RPO from the sing-back pistol set which is a huge strength.
 



Jeshurun said:
Sorry I was probably conflating your posts with others I’ve seen on here saying that same thing. Do you think there’s a possibility the offense will open up next year as we get another year older on that side of the ball or is it basically WYSIWYG?
Click to expand...
I don't see why KC would change his philosophy at this point. Fleck seems to love it. And they'd obviously had success together. It's based on the QB throwing the ball to the WR. We don't even send TE's out on routes, to take away targets from the WR's. Fleck loves his WR's. He was one.

We do try to run the ball, of course. You can't be pass only. Even Leach's air raid runs the ball out of 10 personnel, a fair amount. But the run blocking schemes are too simple for my taste. Zone everything. I like different types of run plays. Zone is good, if it's in a mix.
 

Panthadad2 said:
FWIW, the running game did change as the season progressed from a very vanilla inside zone in the first few games (only marginally successful) to much more outside zone and off tackle power/traps from the H-back position using the tight-ends (Paulson's injury hurt the Gophs there as he is a good trap blocker). It would be tough for the Gophs to go to a pure power blocking scheme because that requires a fullback - while the Gophs focus on running the RPO from the sing-back pistol set which is a huge strength.
Click to expand...
Thanks for this post. I hope to see more of that, then. Doesn't need to be, and probably shouldn't be "pure power" or a purely Wisconsin type system, where massive OL are pulling most of the plays.
 

MplsGopher said:
Quite obviously: it has been the best offense in forever ... because we threw the ball a lot, we had an incredibly accurate QB, and very good WR.

I don't agree that KC gets credit for that, per se. Anyone can call a passing play. Did KC routinely scheme just the right routes to call, that helped our players make the play? Or were Morgan, Bateman, and TJ just able to make play after play, no matter what routes were dialed up, no matter what coverages were called?


Mainly the problem I had was the narrowness. When our running game got shut down ... we had no other types of running plays to try. Zone, zone, zone. How about some power? How about some sweeps? Traps? There are other ways to run the ball than zone!

The whole year, when the running game didn't happen, it didn't matter, because Morgan & Co. would make some outstanding play in the air. That's great. But we need a strong running game.

Again, hate me all you want, but I like Iowa and Wisconsin's offensive philosophies more. We could move more that direction, while still choosing to throw the ball more often.
Click to expand...
If you run too many schemes you don’t get good at any of them.
 





MplsGopher said:
I don't see why KC would change his philosophy at this point. Fleck seems to love it. And they'd obviously had success together. It's based on the QB throwing the ball to the WR. We don't even send TE's out on routes, to take away targets from the WR's. Fleck loves his WR's. He was one.

We do try to run the ball, of course. You can't be pass only. Even Leach's air raid runs the ball out of 10 personnel, a fair amount. But the run blocking schemes are too simple for my taste. Zone everything. I like different types of run plays. Zone is good, if it's in a mix.
Click to expand...
Gophs averaged 175 yards/game. Offense is balanced and it can beat teams with the running game or the passing game. Three games over 300 yards rushing.
 

MplsGopher said:
Valid concern.
Click to expand...
I personally am not a big inside zone outside zone guy myself.
But I’ve found it extremely difficult to teach kids to block zone and non-zone concepts at the same time.
to be good at zone you need to rep it 10 million times.
 

PMWinSTP said:
Gophs averaged 175 yards/game. Offense is balanced and it can beat teams with the running game or the passing game. Three games over 300 yards rushing.
Click to expand...
How many yards did we rush for against Wisconsin?

Did we change up our rushing schemes against them, in an attempt to try to gain more yards in the ground?

Nothing and no one is perfect and fool-proof. I know that.
 



MplsGopher said:
How many yards did we rush for against Wisconsin?

Did we change up our rushing schemes against them, in an attempt to try to gain more yards in the ground?

Nothing and no one is perfect and fool-proof. I know that.
Click to expand...

Vs. Wisconsin, the Gophs only had 10 running attempts in the 1st half for 35 yards excluding sacks. This is one area where I thought the Gophs and KC were out coached. Wisconsin got creative on offense in the ground game especially when going into the wind and once the snow started accumulating. The Gophs kept trying to pass, even into the wind, and didn't change up their run game in the 1st half and early in the 2nd half to accommodate the weather. By midway 3rd quarter, they had to pass to try catching up.
 

MplsGopher said:
I don't care if I get skewered to death for this, this is absolutely the opinion I hold: KC is the least important piece of the puzzle.

I won't shed many tears if he leaves.

I think his offenses are very narrow in their philosophy. I think his offensive philosophy got us beat by Iowa and Wisconsin.


Flame away
Click to expand...
No problem with what you say. I disagree he had much to do with our l;losses. That was due to poor mental preparation and then a game where we just quit.
 

FWIW - when a program has success - as the Gophers did this year - it draws more attention. Other programs are going to say "what did MN do this year to be successful?" in some cases, that may extend to "let's hire one of the assistant coaches from MN to see if he can help us."

so - if the Gophers continue to have success, we will continue to see Gopher assistant coaches mentioned for other jobs - or the coordinators mentioned as HC candidates elsewhere. On that front, I could see Rossi as a HC candidate down the line.

And - after the big 1st-year buyout is off the books, we will continue to see Fleck mentioned for other jobs, whether it's legitimate or wishful thinking.

part of the cost of success. if you never want other teams to go after your coaches, there is a simple solution. Don't win.
 

MplsGopher said:
Quite obviously: it has been the best offense in forever ... because we threw the ball a lot, we had an incredibly accurate QB, and very good WR.

I don't agree that KC gets credit for that, per se. Anyone can call a passing play. Did KC routinely scheme just the right routes to call, that helped our players make the play? Or were Morgan, Bateman, and TJ just able to make play after play, no matter what routes were dialed up, no matter what coverages were called?


Mainly the problem I had was the narrowness. When our running game got shut down ... we had no other types of running plays to try. Zone, zone, zone. How about some power? How about some sweeps? Traps? There are other ways to run the ball than zone!

The whole year, when the running game didn't happen, it didn't matter, because Morgan & Co. would make some outstanding play in the air. That's great. But we need a strong running game.

Again, hate me all you want, but I like Iowa and Wisconsin's offensive philosophies more. We could move more that direction, while still choosing to throw the ball more often.
Click to expand...
Out of curiosity, who would you like to see as our OC?
 

The loss of Kirk would be a pretty big hit.


I hope we keep him for a long time.
 



A_Slab_of_Bacon said:
The loss of Kirk would be a pretty big hit.


I hope we keep him for a long time.
Click to expand...

I would tend to agree with you, but it would all depend on who his replacement is. As we learned from Brewster though, changing coordinators can often be a bad thing.
 

MplsGopher said:
How many yards did we rush for against Wisconsin?

Did we change up our rushing schemes against them, in an attempt to try to gain more yards in the ground?

Nothing and no one is perfect and fool-proof. I know that.
Click to expand...

God, I hope we wouldn't fold it right away.

We were beat up front by a better team. I'm not at all implying that WI was lucky (they weren't, they were the better team), but we were about 4-5 plays away from that being a completely different game.

As for the Iowa game, I really wish KC would have stopped calling those plays where the WR drops the ball. They never work.
 

It was so much better when no one wanted to hire away our assistants
 

HoustonTXGopher said:
Usually I would tell him to jump all over that Texas job, but right now that program continues to be a dumpster fire and isn't Tom Hermann supposed to be the offensive genius anyway?

It really boils down to what his career goals are and if his family is happy living steps aways form the North Pole. Austin is a nice place to live, can't say much for State College, PA.
Click to expand...

I think he is a Pennsylvania guy so he probably would see if somewhat differently.
 

You must log in or register to reply here.



Top Bottom