PISCATAWAY, N.J. — Kenny Britt spent one season with Kirk Ciarrocca in college and although their time together was brief, it was enough to leave an impact on the former Rutgers football wide receiver.
Ciarrocca, now in his first year back with Rutgers as their offensive coordinator, was the program’s wide receivers coach in 2008. Part of that wide receivers room, a big part of it, was Britt.
Then a junior, Britt would become a first-round pick of the Tennessee Titans that spring following a 1,000-yard receiving senior at Rutgers in 2008. He would play nine seasons in the NFL.
On Saturday prior to the ‘Scarlet-White Game,’ Britt spoke about the impact of Ciarrocca and what his former wide receivers coach now brings to the table as the Rutgers offensive coordinator.
“He brought a lot of energy, a lot of energy into the room,” Britt told Rutgers Wire.
“I know he’s the offensive coordinator now but when he was in the wide receiver room, he’d make sure that we have energy each and every day from the beginning no matter what time we got in and entered that room until we went to the football field. He’s a smart guy. A leadership guy -the guys responded to him.”
Ciarrocca would then become the offensive coordinator of Rutgers the following year, a role he would serve for two seasons. The highly-respected Ciarrocca was at Minnesota last year as their offensive coordinator, where he turned the Golden Gophers into a top-four scoring offense in the Big Ten.
[lawrence-related id=26534]
Britt said that the re-united of Ciarrocca with head coach Greg Schiano is all part of what he sees as the upward trajectory of the program. Rutgers is in the fourth year of a rebuild under Schiano.
The rebuild has been slow, in large part due to the need for Rutgers to build-up its talent level. Britt says that the slow and steady approach will pay dividends, not unlike Schiano’s first time rebuilding the program.
[affiliatewidget_smgtolocal]
“Just believe in the system. I’m a believer in the vision from coach Schiano for Rutgers nation,” Britt said. “And if the guys buy in, they’ll have no problem. No matter what, no matter what.”
[lawrence-related id=26531,26526]
[mm-video type=video id=01gzm8gpa6tqrrazptkv playlist_id=none player_id=01eqbvp13nn1gy6hd4 image=https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/video/thumbnail/mmplus/01gzm8gpa6tqrrazptkv/01gzm8gpa6tqrrazptkv-308816cacf1cbc8fa15880286432e77f.jpg]