Kirk Ciarocca taking OC job at Penn St

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Penn State went full Dan Monson/Jerry Kill. 'He beat us ...he must be amazing!'
 
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Franklin hires the architect of the offense that beat him. There are going to be happy WRs in Happy Valley. Will he use TEs solely as pass blockers? Super TE Pat Freiermuth won't be happy with that.
 

GridironGus said:
Ok, I'll start it. Hopefully the new OC puts in plays that throw the ball to the TE and RB.
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I'm sure Ciarocca's PSU job offer will be rescinded today when they learn about this...
 

Go Gophers Rah said:
Yeah, I noticed that too. The IT guy in the football program is elite.
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Having worked for the Vikings and Broncos years back as a web consultant, you often hear about the big (potential) transactions like the Randy Moss trade a day or two in advance, so site changes are ready to go. It's the only time I ever had sorta-insider sports information.
 


ROCK said:
I am also sure KC thoroughly counseled with Fleck about the move.
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I agree with most of your post, but I doubt that Kirk went to PJ for counseling on this decision. I can't see going to your boss, who just negotiated your raise, to get advice on whether to take a job within the conference. PJ may well understand why Kirk left, but I don't think he found out about the decision until it was made.
 

John Galt said:
I'm sure Ciarocca's PSU job offer will be rescinded today when they learn about this...
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Kind of a childish retort. Have you always been against throwing to the TE and RB, or just when it’s convenient?
 





Go4 said:
ugh, tough loss, and to a big ten school no less
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Penn State is a pretty irregular foe for us for the short and medium term, as we only play them in 2022 (road) and 2025 (home). By 2025, he'll be 60, and probably moved on again. Outside of any potential B1G Championship match-ups, this is probably as harmless of a move within the conference as one can get. Still a tough loss, nonetheless.
 

Have there been any direct quotes from KC in the press as of yet? I believe what he says will be very telling regarding the true reason why he left Minnesota. If he sticks to the “I’m a Pennsylvania guy, going home, closer to family” script he gives PJF a ton of latitude to spin the PR around it in a way that minimizes any collateral damage among the team, future recruits, etc. This then feels to me like a somewhat unavoidable and planned move that PJ, CK and Franklin all had eyes wide open on the situation. If it becomes more about opportunity to win championships, working for a top tier B1G program... That becomes a difficult narrative to manage going forward. And could cause lasting issues (even if PJ finds a suitable replacement — which is no certainty). It will be really interesting to see how this plays out. Big test for PJ and the program.
 


alltimetwinsfan said:
Penn State is a pretty irregular foe for us for the short and medium term, as we only play them in 2022 (road) and 2025 (home). By 2025, he'll be 60, and probably moved on again. Outside of any potential B1G Championship match-ups, this is probably as harmless of a move within the conference as one can get. Still a tough loss, nonetheless.
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+o4
 



PitinoFan said:
Kind of a childish retort. Have you always been against throwing to the TE and RB, or just when it’s convenient?
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Are you always critical of OC's that just had 2 1000 yard receivers for the first time in school history?
 

Some guy said:
Yeah. If you’re a PA guy it is hard to believe OC at PSU isn’t a dream job. If the offense looks good next year and Franklin bailed to Texas or USC he’d probably be in a better spot to be PSU candidate if he is already there. No idea if he wants to be a head coach.
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As another poster mentioned, he has been an assistant coach for 20+ years, so he most likely would have made that move already.
 

John Galt said:
Are you always critical of OC's that just had 2 1000 yard receivers for the first time in school history?
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Yeah but we certainly would have gone undefeated had we mixed in the TE and RBs. We’d also be attracting high end TE prospects.
 

GridironGus said:
Ok, I'll start it. Hopefully the new OC puts in plays that throw the ball to the TE and RB.
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Why not just start a whole new thread on this subject? It's barely talked about out here.
 


John Galt said:
Are you always critical of OC's that just had 2 1000 yard receivers for the first time in school history?
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No.

Can you honestly look back on each game and say certain things couldn’t have been better? I’m sure even Kirk, himself, would acknowledge that.
 

2nd Degree Gopher said:
I agree with most of your post, but I doubt that Kirk went to PJ for counseling on this decision. I can't see going to your boss, who just negotiated your raise, to get advice on whether to take a job within the conference. PJ may well understand why Kirk left, but I don't think he found out about the decision until it was made.
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It's a different world now. All staff should are different, but many staffs and head coaches know guys are looking to go and would rather be in the loop. pj seems likes the type where his assistants can be open and honest with him.
 


PJ Fleck probably knew from last year when Kirk turned down the WV lateral move that he was trying to be closer to his family, his kids. So there were difficult but necessary conversations long before it became public.
 

Funny to read the spin like everything will be just fine. KC was the head coach of the offense. PJF relies way too much on coordinators with no system of his own. He’s hired one OC, so there is no way to know he will make a “great” hire.
 

Spoofin said:
I think KC was a great OC. I also think his game-plan against Wisconsin was awful.
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It was the same game plan as we had used all year: make an attempt to run the ball, and if that doesn't go well, then rely on our QB and top WRs to make tremendous plays through the air.

And that worked all year. Except for the first half at Iowa, and the final three quarters vs Wisconsin.
 

Spoofin said:
I think KC was a great OC. I also think his game-plan against Wisconsin was awful.
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Agree. I’m not here to piss all over Kirk, but I don’t think it’s unreasonable to point out that his scheme tends to be on the simplistic/conservative side. Think back to every TE target you can recall. Notice how wide open they were every time? I know Paulson dropped the sure TD against Nebraska, but the WRs dropped their share of easy balls too.

There were also many games where we had a really difficult time running the ball, including Rutgers.
 

Ozzy&Ray said:
Funny to read the spin like everything will be just fine. KC was the head coach of the offense. PJF relies way too much on coordinators with no system of his own. He’s hired one OC, so there is no way to know he will make a “great” hire.
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We he also hired Patterson who was an OC/QB/HC at a lower level, he knew KC was not going to be here long if offers came. Simon seems to make the most sense however. We'll see.
 

Ozzy&Ray said:
Funny to read the spin like everything will be just fine. KC was the head coach of the offense. PJF relies way too much on coordinators with no system of his own. He’s hired one OC, so there is no way to know he will make a “great” hire.
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Those are silly, uninformed takes. Kirk runs the offense but does so in a way that is approved by the HC. By all accounts PJ is involved with the offense and he has stated numerous times what his philosophy's are on that side of the ball. A HC does not need to be a coordinator. Same reason why a company president has a CFO. Whoever is hired will be hired to run the type of offense PJ wants ran at least philosophically. Not to mention it's been speculated for quite a while that some of our O staff is being groomed to be an OC since it's been clear for a while KC wasn't going to be here for the long term after he talked about wanting to get back East at some point
 

We will be fine. Losing someone of KC’s caliber sucks, but it’s clear from the quotes he gave in the press release that being closer to home and coaching for the team he grew up rooting for were the primary factors.

It’s also notable that he didn’t do a lot of recruiting. The message we’re sending is that we can recruit great offensive talent, now we just need an OC who can take advantage of it.

We have Simon and Patterson as internal candidates. I hope we take a hard look at Charlie Frye from CMU.
 


Good riddance, he’s been shopping himself around for two years! Find someone who wants to be here and appreciates the great UofM!
 

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