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Lack of practice time forces Ciarrocca to adapt

To describe the level of cohesion necessary to build an offense capable of operating at a high level, new Penn State offensive coordinator Kirk Ciarrocca likes to draw his metaphor from the world of music.

An offense, Ciarrocca said, must function like a symphony. Every player is required to do what is needed of him on every play, or he risks ruining the show.

“If somebody's not doing their job, it sounds terrible,” Ciarrocca said during an interview with BWI in mid-May. “That's the way offensive football works. When you got 11 guys playing together, it is a beautiful thing to watch. But when you don't have 11 guys playing together, man, it's awful to watch. It's just awful. So that's how you tie in the trust and the accountability part into the philosophy.

“When somebody watches us play, I want them to say, this is clearly an offense that values the football, that has tremendous details, their execution is second to none, and they play really hard. They're relentless out there. If someone says that when they watch us on film or when they see us play, and they come away and they say that, that makes me smile. Because if you take those three core tenants, with nothing else, what do you have? Well, you've got a well-coached football team that tries hard.”

Still yet to lead an official, full-fledged practice since his hire last December, Ciarrocca will have to make his music on a deadline.

Photo courtesy of Penn State Athletics
Photo courtesy of Penn State Athletics
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The Nittany Lions began trickling back into State College in early June, but they’ve only been allowed on the field with members of the coaching staff since July 24.

What Penn State is permitted to do at the moment amounts essentially to a walk-through. Pads are still not allowed, but a football is.

It’s still not clear how much time Ciarrocca and the Penn State coaching staff will get with the players in full gear before the season begins — if it begins at all.

That has forced the Nittany Lions to depend largely on Zoom calls to learn and implement what Ciarrocca brings to the table. While the situation hasn’t been ideal, Penn State quarterback Sean Clifford is pleased by the progress the offense has made virtually.

“I think we’ve done a good job with Zoom calls, making sure that everybody’s staying accountable,” Clifford said in June. “Coach Ciarrocca’s done a great job of doing that within our room and within the offense. I’ve learned a lot to say the least.

Clifford said the types of meetings Ciarrocca holds vary by the day. Some are strictly film. Others are based on note-taking. He even threw in a game of virtual Jeopardy.

“Every meeting is very important to him,” Clifford said. “I see how hard he works every time he calls into us, and whenever I talk to him on the phone, there’s never a time where I’m not learning, I’m not growing, and I think that he uses his time extremely well.”

Despite not having the luxury of practice time, Clifford said Ciarrocca has already offered him plenty of notes that he can use to get better. For instance, Ciarrocca’s offense will ask Clifford to slightly alter some of his footwork, which Clifford hopes will improve his accuracy.

“I think that’s going to pay dividends throughout the year,” Clifford said.”I’m just really excited to get to work with coach Ciarrocca in person on that instead of sending him videos and talking it over in a film session.”


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