Losing Ciarrocca for the Bowl Game - Better, Worse or No Change?

Ciarrocca gone for Bowl Game. How will the Offense do?

  • Better - Play calling will be different and give Auburn problems.

    Votes: 29 25.0%

  • Same - Culture keeps everything the same

    Votes: 36 31.0%

  • Worse - No one can replace Ciarrocca this late.

    Votes: 48 41.4%

  • I am from a neighboring state so I have no opinion

    Votes: 3 2.6%
  • Total voters
    116
  • Poll closed .
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Rescooter

Rescooter

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Ok Gopher Fans, what does losing Ciarrocca mean for the Bowl Game?
 



One less mind to take on a tough Auburn defense ain't good. Hard to see how the Gophers aren't a little worse from it. Still, there's plenty of folks in the building who can carry forward the game plan. It's fairly likely they promote from within given how the team and offense have been performing, so understudies on the staff should be hungry to have a great showing and seize the job.
 





Can't be considered a positive. Unless the interm coach throws some aggressive play calling into the mix. Too bad that KC couldn't stick around for the bowl game.
 

Do we know that KC will not be coaching the bowl game?

EDIT: Nevermind, I just read the Pioneer Press article. Sounds like he's already gone :-(
 



The interim OC is interviewing for a job. Will he play it safe or make a statement? Making a statement only requires a few bold plays and the play of the OL.
 

Bittersweet moment. They grew up as coaches together. I am sure PJ Fleck is thankful for his friend Kirk Ciarrocca who helped his head coaching career.

There are pluses for taking the PSU job. Most prominent are he is from Pennsylvania close to family, and coaching for a storied program in his backyard.

PJ tried to keep him long term by bumping his salary. PJ is a genuine quirky good guy. He will be if not already well respected in the coaching business.

I wish Kirk luck.

This is both an opportunity and risk for a new start in an even more wide open offense. Will he promote from within and he give Apple Valley's Matt Simon a chance? He is MN born and bred and is familiar with the Gophers Offense. As have been said, make a bold hire from elsewhere? IMHO, it is all about cultural fit and coaching chemistry. Maybe the next coach will employee TE play more in the Gophers scheme.

In the meantime, Matt Simon will be auditioning in the Bowl Game.
 


Patterson ran prolific offenses in his prior post. A little more wide open. Given that Patterson has been here a year, and seen Big Ten play, he might be a good thing. He likes tight ends! (Originally typed "Callahan"--meant Patterson)
 
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Simon and Callahan were already passing and running game coordinators this season. Probably means they did a lot of game-planning for the opponent's defense, while KC did more of the overall play calling. KC could've said "OK 2nd and 4, Brian give me an outside running play" or "3rd and long, Matt what route do you want?".

I predict those two will be calling the plays for the Outback Bowl. That is a wild guess. We'll see how the game goes and then go from there. Could get some very interesting candidates if they decide to open it up to applicants from outside the program. Or they could just go with the internal guy.
 

hungan1 said:
Bittersweet moment. They grew up as coaches together. I am sure PJ Fleck is thankful for his friend Kirk Ciarrocca who helped his head coaching career.

There are pluses for taking the PSU job. Most prominent are he is from Pennsylvania close to family, and coaching for a storied program in his backyard.

PJ tried to keep him long term by bumping his salary. PJ is a genuine quirky good guy. He will be if not already well respected in the coaching business.

I wish Kirk luck.

This is both an opportunity and risk for a new start in an even more wide open offense. Will he promote from within and he give Apple Valley's Matt Simon a chance? He is MN born and bred and is familiar with the Gophers Offense. As have been said, make a bold hire from elsewhere? IMHO, it is all about cultural fit and coaching chemistry. Maybe the next coach will employee TE play more in the Gophers scheme.

In the meantime, Matt Simon will be auditioning in the Bowl Game.
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Huh?
 


Auburn is now scheming for ghosts, right? There is no way to do that well. Big advantage for the Gophers!
 


The offense playbook/scheme will be the same. I would not call that scheming for ghosts.

The only thing that will change somewhat is the "personality" of the play calling.
 


Might use WILDCAT Green a bit more creatively AND effectively.

All in all the dude answered his phone, packed a change of clothes and is gone. Nothing new. Any and every college coach answers the phone when it rings. Some fans say they hate that...BUT it is a fact of life.
Good luck to that dude. The players executed really well in 2019. That great tight end PSU has should probably push hard to get out of dodge in happy valley though IF he hopes to see the ball very much during the 2020 BT season though.

This will give PJ a great opportunity to show the conference that the GOPHER won’t miss a beat just because some OC dude takes a hike.

AND: in a way, you have to feel a little sorry for this former GOPHER offensive coordinator dude. With tOSU, the corn blues, and even Sparty In the mix every year, how often will PSU be playing for the championship of the BT Eastern Division? You know it won’t come easy....

Love ‘em and let ‘em leave GOPHER. Life rolls right on along and tomorrow brings more fun. Sometimes change is the BEST!!!
 

MplsGopher said:
The offense playbook/scheme will be the same. I would not call that scheming for ghosts.

The only thing that will change somewhat is the "personality" of the play calling.
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This is exactly right. There may be a few plays that are available that might be called that Coach Ciarrocca wouldn't call but not much will change.
 

nsmike said:
This is exactly right. There may be a few plays that are available that might be called that Coach Ciarrocca wouldn't call but not much will change.
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I would like to hope that KC would've been willing to open things up a bit and throw out a few wrinkles that we hadn't show or shown much in the season.

To beat a program like Auburn, we'll have to do that regardless, I think.

But you could be correct that Simon/Callahan will be more willing to "do whatever it takes" to win, at least on the offensive side of the ball.
 


As others have mentioned, the playbook won't change and the game plan is in, so the only real difference should be the personality of the play caller. Perhaps PJ will insert himself more with a new guy than he would have with Kirk. Getting plays in on time and making adjustments at the line has seemed to be a problem off and on through the year. My biggest concern is any change in coaching assignments that exacerbates that issue.
 


2nd Degree Gopher said:
Perhaps PJ will insert himself more with a new guy than he would have with Kirk. Getting plays in on time and making adjustments at the line has seemed to be a problem off and on through the year. My biggest concern is any change in coaching assignments that exacerbates that issue.
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Agree. But I don't see PJ inserting himself in the play calling any more than in the past. He should be unchanged in that field general role.

Ski-U-Mah!
 

nitramnaed said:
Agree. But I don't see PJ inserting himself in the play calling any more than in the past. He should be unchanged in that field general role.

Ski-U-Mah!
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Could be right. My thought is that, given the length of time that Ciarocca and Fleck have been together, Kirk would almost always know what PJ would want to do, while with a new playcnaller he might need to verbalize more of that.
 

I think its potentially a big positive. Although the team didn’t have as glaring of tendencies as the Kill era teams opposing defenses did know they didn’t need to cover the tight end, for example (has that been discussed here?). i don’t expect them to suddenly start incorporating a lot of misdirection and motion but the opportunity is there to spring a few bullets they may not be expecting.
 


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