Column: Mergers & Acquisitions

When Kirk Ciarrocca was announced as Penn State’s new offensive coordinator in January, one thought immediately popped into my head: If Minnesota’s victory over the Nittany Lions in November was any indication, this was a savvy hire by James Franklin. And indeed, when one looks at Ciarrocca’s track record and considers that the Lions offer more offensive talent than any of his previous programs, it’s easy to predict that his time in Happy Valley should be fruitful.

But upon taking a closer look at the numbers behind his seven seasons as a sole offensive coordinator – four with Western Michigan and three with the Golden Gophers – one glaring statistic jumps off the page. Over those seven years, his teams averaged only 14 receptions by tight ends per season. To put that into perspective, over the same period, Penn State’s top tight end alone hauled in nearly 36 catches per season. The Nittany Lions had nearly as many catches by tight ends in the past two seasons as all of Ciarrocca’s tight ends had in the previous seven seasons combined.

Furthermore, the talent pool at tight end right now appears to be as deep as it ever has been. Over two seasons, Pat Freiermuth has established himself as the nation’s most well-rounded player at that position, and, barring anything out of the ordinary, will be a surefire first-round pick in the 2021 NFL Draft. Behind him are three former four-star high school prospects: Zack Kuntz, Brenton Strange and Theo Johnson.

Penn State has recruited and developed that position nearly faultlessly under Franklin. So why hire a play-caller who seems to ignore tight ends? It’s simple: Now that he’s at Penn State, he won’t ignore tight ends.

“We’ve been fairly successful over the last number of years, and with different coordinators,” Franklin said. “So I don’t feel like we need to go hire someone, blow it up and start all over.”

It was important, he added, to find “somebody who says, OK, I’m really good at what I do, but also, I have enough flexibility that I’m not just going to come in and blow everything up and start all over when that’s not where we’re at as a program.”

In hiring Ciarrocca, Franklin is bringing in a coordinator who he believes will bring the best of what Minnesota had to offer and merge it with Penn State’s greatest assets – tight ends included.

“Ultimately, it’s about what do your players do best? Accentuate their strengths and limit their weaknesses,” Ciarrocca said. “That’s something I’ve always been able to do, no matter where I coached.”

With both Ciarocca and Franklin in obvious agreement that next season’s offensive game plan will be a mixture of multiple schools of thought rather than the byproduct of a single philosophy, it’s interesting to try to predict what the end product might look like.

Given the returning personnel in the backfield and the terrific success Penn State had on the ground in 2019, the running game should remain a cornerstone of the offense. However, Ciarrocca relied heavily on the run-pass option at Minnesota, which could affect how Penn State runs the ball. Whether that effect is positive or negative remains to be seen. However, having a tight end like Freiermuth could potentially open up the RPO game beyond what Minnesota ran. Last year, the Golden Gophers used the wideout almost exclusively in that role as the receiving option. But, because Freiermuth is an adept receiver and stellar blocker, the Nittany Lions could be able to use smoke and mirrors when creating RPO schemes.

Freiermuth can be moved around in the offense and be used as a lead blocker on a run, the intended target on a pass, or a block-and-release option out of the H-back role. With all of that versatility, some of the stress might be taken off a receiver group that has struggled over the past two years – an area Franklin acknowledged is in need of improvement – which would then, in theory, increase the team’s explosive play percentage, another area in which Franklin wants to see progress.

Plus, while the backup tight end role is still up for grabs, whoever fills it will have the athletic ability to be a quality receiving option with size that’s difficult to cover, which would allow for the Nittany Lions to use more 12 personnel. Ciarrocca has the players he needs to create situations in which he could hand it to one of Penn State’s impressive backs, create mismatches over the middle or exploit the deeper throw – all while masking the intention by mixing and matching personnel.

A lot of this hinges on the wide receivers improving under Taylor Stubblefield, but even if their struggles continue, the bottom line is that Ciarrocca has plenty of options.

One important caveat to this idea is that the numbers may be deceiving. If all goes according to plan, and the schemes are merged like Franklin and Ciarrocca say they plan to, the tight ends’ numbers should go down. While Freiermuth is undoubtedly a crucial part of the game plan, if his numbers are reduced or stagnant compared to last year’s, chances are it’s because the rest of the team is thriving under the new brain trust.

Sure, he’ll get his touches. But the sign of a truly functioning offense will be that players at every position are getting involved.

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