The Rutgers Scarlet Knights and head coach Greg Schiano are banking on the value of Big Ten expertise this season.
What do we mean by that? The Knights and Schiano have hired an offensive coordinator who has coached at two other Big Ten schools before coming to Piscataway, N.J. That’s a substantial Big Ten knowledge base to draw from, one Rutgers hopes will pay dividends this fall and beyond.
Kirk Ciarrocca coached under current Minnesota head coach P.J. Fleck for several seasons, going back to the time when Fleck coached at Western Michigan. Ciarrocca has also worked at Penn State.
Nittany Lions Wire noted that when Ciarrocca was at Penn State, the COVID pandemic interrupted his ability to fully coach his players:
“Ciarriocca’s one season in Happy Valley was a challenging one. Unlike his successor, Yurcich, Ciarrocca did not get the luxury of getting to work a full spring football practice schedule with Sean Clifford, Will Levis, and the rest of the Penn State quarterbacks and offense. This was likely a part of the reason for offensive struggles to begin the 2020 season that contributed to a historic 0-5 start for Penn State. Things did get better later in the year as Ciarrocca seemed to get a bit more comfortable with what he had at his disposal and some younger players continued to develop.”
Ciarrocca is now at Rutgers. Kristian Dyer, the editor of Rutgers Wire, talked about Ciarrocca and the other new members of the Rutgers coaching staff on our USC Big Ten Tour podcast:
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