Refresher Course on the Ciarrocca Offense

[nitwit248]

All-22 from Minn O vs Penn State 2019

 

[BilldGopher]

Welcome nitwit to GH...

Thanks for posting. Major trip down memory lane already...

 

[Some Day...Maybe]

All-22 from Minn O vs Penn State 2019

Problem for PSU was that Franklin was too stupid and didn’t keep him. FYI, the athletes at Penn St aren’t much better than that 2019 Minnesota offense.

 

[nitwit248]

Appreciate it, Billd. As a Penn State fan I've always enjoyed the banter on this site on the rare occasions we're crossover opponents.

Of course, the irony about Ciarrocca's time at Penn State is that statistically his 2020 offense blew the 2021 offense run by Franklin's Golden Boy Mike Yurcich out of the water. Points, Time of Possession, Yards, Balance -- not even close. Ciarrocca was just plagued with an offense that couldn't stop turning it over.

It's pretty obvious he got a raw deal here, because in the second half of the season, you saw major growth at Penn State.

 

[Marooned]

Good watch except for the “the athletes of Penn State are WAAAAAY better than the athletes of Minnesota” comment at the end while also showing videos of two NFL receivers, one of which was a first rounder. Dotson is good, but I’d still take Bateman or TJ over him.

 

[matt]

Great stuff, this is getting me excited. Here are two more refreshers from BTN's heyday when they had Urban and Mason on the staff.

 

[Gophergrandpa]

The Urban Meyer analyses are great. Does make me yearn a bit for KC to come back. Tanner in 2019 made changes (run or pass) on his own based on the defense. In general, we didn’t run into stacked boxes; we passed. And we ran when the defense played two high safeties (or when outside zone blocking looked advantageous, based on DL). It was about counting helmets and/or neutralizing opponent strengths. Tanner made play changes at the SOL, based on a pre-set RPO strategy, but there wasn’t as much last minute running around like a chicken with its head cut off, because there appears to have been a lot less last second micromanagement by the OC.

Under KC we had a simple strategy with players who could execute it. Under Sanford, we seemed often to run a play that should have been nixed based on helmet count. And the run-pass mix (which was different from PJ’s mix at WMU or Minnesota under KC) was tilted so much toward runs that it seems as though the passing game got rusty and out of sync. If a new OC means that we get back Tanner as an on-field decision maker, I really look forward to it. We still have a cadre of very good WRs (Dylan Wright could blossom)… and a TE receiving threat as well.

 

[alchemy2u]

Great info...

 

[CoMn]

All-22 from Minn O vs Penn State 2019

Great Post...thank you!

 

[CoMn]

Good watch except for the “the athletes of Penn State are WAAAAAY better than the athletes of Minnesota” comment at the end while also showing videos of two NFL receivers, one of which was a first rounder. Dotson is good, but I’d still take Bateman or TJ over him.

I noticed that too. Where is the Liberty Bell trophy these days?

 

[USAF]

Other teams watch film and know what the Gophers are trying to do, too.
This year's offensive problems were mostly when teams would lure Sandford/Morgan into thinking one thing, but then find a way to change that thing once MN finally snapped the ball.
Need to fix that, which I'm confident Ciarrocca can do.

 

[Fan of Ray Christensen]

The Urban Meyer analyses are great. Does make me yearn a bit for KC to come back. Tanner in 2019 made changes (run or pass) on his own based on the defense. In general, we didn’t run into stacked boxes; we passed. And we ran when the defense played two high safeties (or when outside zone blocking looked advantageous, based on DL). It was about counting helmets and/or neutralizing opponent strengths. Tanner made play changes at the SOL, based on a pre-set RPO strategy, but there wasn’t as much last minute running around like a chicken with its head cut off, because there appears to have been a lot less last second micromanagement by the OC.

Under KC we had a simple strategy with players who could execute it. Under Sanford, we seemed often to run a play that should have been nixed based on helmet count. And the run-pass mix (which was different from PJ’s mix at WMU or Minnesota under KC) was tilted so much toward runs that it seems as though the passing game got rusty and out of sync. If a new OC means that we get back Tanner as an on-field decision maker, I really look forward to it. We still have a cadre if very good WRs (Dylan Wright could blossom)… and a TE receiving threat as well.

As Bob and others have pointed out, Sanford's offense did not seem to play to Tanner's strengths.

I recall that when PJ was hired he said he wants QBs who are "decisive," i.e., don't hesitate with the pre-snap read, and don't hesitate when making your throw, which hopefully sets your WRs up for making yards after the catch.

I expect Tanner will have a good if not great year next year.

 

[FormerFatOL]

Watching that 2019 recap, it's interesting how decisive Tanner was in getting the ball to the receiver in a very small window of time he's open. Especially across the middle. This year, it seemed like he held the ball too long many times where that short window opened and closed.

 

[MaroonShaft]

I don’t mean this to be a hot take, but, I thought I remembered hating the offense under him too, except a handful of games. Including 2019.

am I way off base here?

 

[MplsGopher]

Appreciate it, Billd. As a Penn State fan I've always enjoyed the banter on this site on the rare occasions we're crossover opponents.

Of course, the irony about Ciarrocca's time at Penn State is that statistically his 2020 offense blew the 2021 offense run by Franklin's Golden Boy Mike Yurcich out of the water. Points, Time of Possession, Yards, Balance -- not even close. Ciarrocca was just plagued with an offense that couldn't stop turning it over.

It's pretty obvious he got a raw deal here, because in the second half of the season, you saw major growth at Penn State.

And poor QB play during the first half, if I recall correctly.

Also things got off on the wrong with, as the IU outcome was silly. Penn St won the game.

 

[MplsGopher]

Didn't watch much of the OP video, though it looks very well done.

On the first pass play he's diseccting .... just can't help but notice ........ Bateman is wide open for an easy TD ... except Tanner doesn't have the arm. Bateman has to slow up almost to a stop to wait for the ball to get there.

 

[matt]

I don’t mean this to be a hot take, but, I thought I remembered hating the offense under him too, except a handful of games. Including 2019.

am I way off base here?

That depends. Do you like good offenses? Because if not, your take makes sense.

 

[AtTheLibrary]

Kirk got a massively raw deal at PSU. Implemented an offense off typical schedule due to all the issues with COVID in the 2020 season. Didn’t have any non-conf cupcakes to get the players comfortable with the system. Week to week inconsistency with personnel with all the testing requirements. Fired before any semblance of a normal year in 2021

 

[MplsGopher]

Kirk got a massively raw deal at PSU. Implemented an offense off typical schedule due to all the issues with COVID in the 2020 season. Didn’t have any non-conf cupcakes to get the players comfortable with the system. Week to week inconsistency with personnel with all the testing requirements. Fired before any semblance of a normal year in 2021

I think Franklin was feeling the heat, and had to give someone's head.

KC was the low man on the totem pole.

 

[Gophergrandpa]

I don’t mean this to be a hot take, but, I thought I remembered hating the offense under him too, except a handful of games. Including 2019.

am I way off base here?

If we had the 2019 team’s offensive play calling and numbers in 2021, we would have destroyed BG, Illinois and Iowa, losing only to OSU. I had some frustration with KC’s refusal to utilize TE passes, but that is small potatoes. He did run a great passing game. As between KC and Sanford, I’d take KC in a heartbeat.

In the 2019 seasons (13 games), we ran 560 times for 2323 yards and 25 TDs. In 2012 (12 games so far), we have run 551 times for 2326 yards and 25 TDs. Pretty similar.

But in passing, in 2019 our QBs (including Seth) attempted 323 passes, completing 212, for 31 TDs against 8 INTs. In 2021, our QBs (including Kramer) have attempted 244 passes, completing 144, for 12 TDs against 8 INTs. Very, very different from 2019.

Conclusions: we ran just a little more often in 2021 than in 2019 (modest difference will appear after 2021 bowl game). But we passed a lot less often in 2019. A lot less. As a result, we ran a lot fewer plays per game in 2021. Even with KC's somewhat slow TOP offense in 2019, we ran a lot more plays (statistically all of them passing plays). Thus, our 2021 "slow down" offense was actually much slower than our 2019 offense under KC. Also, you can see from the passing TDs in 2019 vs 2021 that in 2019 we attacked the end zone much more aggressively via the pass when we were in the red zone. I know we had Tyler and Bateman in 2019, but we have CrAB and Dylan Wright this year, both of whom are also match-up nightmares in the end zone. Bottom line: if we had run our 2019 style of offense in 2021 we would simply have kicked the crap out of BG, IL and IA. So, KC might frustrate you some, but not like Sanford frustrated so many of us this year. I guarantee it.

 

[swelna]

Just imagine if we had Kirk last year as well? Back to back west champions??? We definitely would've been 11-1 this year and who knows, maybe we could've pulled a fast one on OSU?

 

[btowngopher]

I don’t mean this to be a hot take, but, I thought I remembered hating the offense under him too, except a handful of games. Including 2019.

am I way off base here?

They hung 30+ on all but 3 opponents in 2019, hard to hate that.

 

[Wally]

I don’t mean this to be a hot take, but, I thought I remembered hating the offense under him too, except a handful of games. Including 2019.

am I way off base here?

Do you expect the Gophers to be like OSU this year?

Unless we become a helmet school and national power with the recruits that brings we aren't going to be doing that. We need to use the talent we have and take care of the ball. Maybe someday we will have Alabama problems...