By Derek Levarse [email protected]
Penn State’s overhauled coaching staff got to spend just enough time together during the offseason to have some disagreements.
And for Kirk Ciarrocca, that’s a very good thing.
The Nittany Lions’ new offensive coordinator is one of four new assistant coaches who was hired over the winter, with Ciarrocca the first to come aboard just after Christmas. He was followed by offensive line coach Phil Trautwein, wide receivers coach Taylor Stubblefield and defensive line coach John Scott Jr.
Ciarrocca is thankful that they all got to sit down and hammer some things out with Lions boss James Franklin and his staff before the coronavirus pandemic sent the country into isolation.
“I think it would have been a lot more difficult if this crisis would have started Jan. 4 and we would’ve been in a remote learning situation right then,” Ciarrocca said Tuesday in a video call with reporters. “We had some time together, to get to know each other a little bit and to feel comfortable enough with each other to say what’s on our mind.”
That means even the new guys haven’t been afraid to speak up about what the program needs to be ready to compete for a spot in the College Football Playoff next season — whenever that might be.
“(Franklin) has a culture here where people are gonna speak up, and he wants everybody’s opinions,” Ciarrocca said. “So once you come in and become part of this family here, you’re immediately comfortable with giving your opinion and speaking your mind. That’s what he wants, so that he can have all the information to make the best decisions moving forward for the program.
“Usually when you go somewhere new, there’s an adjustment period where guys aren’t really comfortable giving their feelings or how they really feel about something. There are usually two schools of thought. There’s one where everybody is trying to tell you exactly what they think you want to hear. Or if I said it was red, they’re gonna say it’s blue. But that wasn’t the case at Penn State.”
Ciarrocca is a Pennsylvania native, hailing from Lewisberry, but he has worked at several different stops across the college football spectrum. Most notably, he ran the offense for Delaware’s 2003 FCS national championship team and then sparked a breakthrough last fall as Minnesota’s coordinator.
That included handing the Lions their first loss of the season in November, as Ciarrocca’s offense was one of the few to give Penn State problems during a strong 11-2 campaign.
His job now is to blend that scheme with Penn State’s, as the two already share some some of the same fundamentals. Adapting to different personnel — Minnesota had neither one of the country’s top tight ends nor a mobile quarterback — will be one key.
“Everybody’s on the same page,” Ciarrocca said. “And when you’re looking at a system like we’re building here, that’s needed. I said before that we’ve got as good assistant coaches as anybody in the country. I feel like we’ve got the best group of guys I’ve ever worked with.
“So as we’re putting this system together, Penn State’s offensive system, we’ve been all working together and all contributing together. It’s definitely not my system, it’s our system.”
The tricky part during this period of national lockdown is teaching it to the players.
Ciarrocca, who also serves as quarterbacks coach, was supposed to be getting his first hands-on work with returning starter Sean Clifford and backups Will Levis, Ta’Quan Roberson and Michael Johnson Jr. right now during spring practice.
None of that happened, as the team shut everything down the week before practices were set to begin.
Like the rest of Penn State’s coaches, Ciarrocca keeps in contact with his players, mostly through video calls.
“There are limits,” Ciarrocca said. “Right now we have eight hours a week that we’re allowed to meet with them. Because I have only four quarterbacks, I meet with them all together. And then usually I’ll talk to each one of them individually at some point during the week to see how they’re going, No. 1, and then No. 2, they always have a question or two for me about something else in a one-on-one fashion.”
Unable to work with them in person on mechanics, Ciarrocca’s main teaching tool is a quiz for the players after meetings to reinforce concepts and new terminology.
“We’re really pleased with what we’ve been getting back from the players from a quiz standpoint,” Ciarrocca said. “So they’re obviously grasping new material. As we’re approaching this, we’ve got to make sure our players understand execution is about alignment, assignment, technique — and then doing it. You gotta be able to do it to execute something.
“So right now, we’re focused on … making sure they understand the whys. Why is it this way? Why is this better? This way, when they get back here and we start practicing, now we can focus. They already know the alignment, assignment and technique. Now we can focus on those little details.”