Kirk Ciarrocca is (objectively) a Great hire

[Ash_Hole]

We all know our forum has a little cadre of extremely pessimistic posters.

Schiano could have named Sean Payton the OC, and they'd still find a way to attack it. Bear Bryant could have risen from the dead, and they'd moan "what's with his stupid hat, something must be wrong with him."

As a fanbase, it's embarrassing. Every single time -- the Sky is Falling! The Sky is Falling! And yet, these are the same people who nonsensically thought Jason Garrett (and other moonshots) was a realistic option for OC. And also raved about random positional coaches who have never been an OC. SMH.

But when you step back and reevaluate this hire, it's about as good as we could get -- especially knowing Schiano.

WE JUST TOOK A FELLOW BIG TEN OPPONENT'S OC

Let that sink in -- and ya'll complaining?

Minnesota fans and sports media are extremely bummed, and flummoxed about why we're not ecstatic.

Here's an example from one of the biggest Minnesota pundits, utterly confused by our forum:



Check out social media, you'll feel better. They loved Kirk. They did NOT want him to go. We just have a bias because it's not a splashy hire. Because it's a Schiano guy. That, and some of our fans are never happy about anything. Frankly, I didn't think Kirk could even be available. He was in his 1st year OC with Minnesota and in zero danger of losing his job.

Here's the things that are great about this hire

-- Kirk is known as a QB guy, exactly what we need right now
-- He has been an offensive coordinator at freaking 5 programs (Rutgers, Penn State, Delaware, Western Michigan and Minnesota)
-- Most of which he did fairly well at. Sure, he lost his job at PSU after 1 year, but it was COVID 2020 and his total offense was still #2 in conference (430 yards per game).
-- His Offensive lines have performed well, and has sent many WRs to the NFL
-- He's a good recruiter
-- He developed Joe Flacco, Tiquan Underwood, Kenny Britt, Corey Davis, and Tanner Morgan (who set most of MN's records), among many other NFL players
-- He turned Western Michigan's Zach Terrell into a QB who threw for 33 TDs to 4 ints. Turned Joe Flacco into a successful NFL QB
-- in 2019, he was a semifinalist for the Broyles Award (best assistant in all of college football)
-- His Minnesota offenses and QBs have set multiple school records

Kirk is stable, experienced and has had a lot of success. That's why Minnesota wanted to keep him.

Kick only makes the jump because of his relationship with Schiano. And let's face it, Schiano is a guy who's at his best with 'his people'. Loyalty and relationships are very important to him. So if he was in any way limited by wanting someone from his orbit (after failing with an unknown in Gleeson) -- is there really anyone better than Kirk who would have even entertained this job?

So cheer up, Rutgers fans. Don't let the small vocal minority of Debbie Downers shape this hire. We just took Minnesota's OC!

 

[Yeah Baby]

Well said. You have some haters, some people who are never happy and then you just get the bandwagon social media idiots who read stuff on social media and believe it to be true therefore I shall also complain about xyz even though I have no clue what xyz means. I sit at games and listen to fans moan in both sports and realize some people just like to complain about any mistakes the kids make. Every play the coaches call. Winning helps because Football has more whiners right now but we still have whiners over on the hoops board and at hoops games. Imagine spending money on season tickets and only whining all game long? RU just trashed MD and I hear stupid whining over the handful of mistakes behind me and just cannot fathom people being so unhappy. At least at the Hoops games the positive fans drown out the whiners. That was true in Football but it’s been a long time.

 

[e5fdny]

#LFG!

 

[MADHAT1]

this is a Rutgers board, expect many posters claiming a bad hire after whining about no hire. 😆

 

[RU#1fan]

Good hire !

 

[Plum Street]

It’s an underwhelming hire . We wanted a home run and got a single.

 

[MADHAT1]

It’s an underwhelming hire . We wanted a home run and got a single.

the amount of time it took to find one problem left the home run hitters out of the picture and just getting on base became the goal.

 

[RUforlife]

This is not a homerun hire, but it is the best we could have expected from Schiano at this point in time, so yes, overall positive development. I know that is not what the Schiano fans want to hear, but that is reality.

 

[bac2therac]

And so it begins

 

[RU-05]

It’s an underwhelming hire . We wanted a home run and got a single.

But many were claiming we had already struck out.

This sounds like a solid hire to me.

 

[Plum Street]

But many were claiming we had already struck out.

This sounds like a solid hire to me.

Well, yeah if you were expecting the hs coach to continue to call the plays. This is Mike martz and the greatest show on turf hire

 

[rucoe89]

We all know our forum has a little cadre of extremely pessimistic posters.

Schiano could have named Sean Payton the OC, and they'd still find a way to attack it. Bear Bryant could have risen from the dead, and they'd moan "what's with his stupid hat, something must be wrong with him."

As a fanbase, it's embarrassing. Every single time -- the Sky is Falling! The Sky is Falling! And yet, these are the same people who nonsensically thought Jason Garrett (and other moonshots) was a realistic option for OC. And also raved about random positional coaches who have never been an OC. SMH.

But when you step back and reevaluate this hire, it's about as good as we could get -- especially knowing Schiano.

WE JUST TOOK A FELLOW BIG TEN OPPONENT'S OC

Let that sink in -- and ya'll complaining?

Minnesota fans and sports media are extremely bummed, and flummoxed about why we're not ecstatic.

Here's an example from one of the biggest Minnesota pundits, utterly confused by our forum:

View embedded media

Check out social media, you'll feel better. They loved Kirk. They did NOT want him to go. We just have a bias because it's not a splashy hire. Because it's a Schiano guy. That, and some of our fans are never happy about anything. Frankly, I didn't think Kirk could even be available. He was in his 1st year OC with Minnesota and in zero danger of losing his job.

Here's the things that are great about this hire

-- Kirk is known as a QB guy, exactly what we need right now
-- He has been an offensive coordinator at freaking 5 programs (Rutgers, Penn State, Delaware, Western Michigan and Minnesota)
-- Most of which he did fairly well at. Sure, he lost his job at PSU after 1 year, but it was COVID 2020 and his total offense was still #2 in conference (430 yards per game).
-- His Offensive lines have performed well, and has sent many WRs to the NFL
-- He's a good recruiter
-- He developed Joe Flacco, Tiquan Underwood, Kenny Britt, Corey Davis, and Tanner Morgan (who set most of MN's records), among many other NFL players
-- He turned Western Michigan's Zach Terrell into a QB who threw for 33 TDs to 4 ints. Turned Joe Flacco into a successful NFL QB
-- in 2019, he was a semifinalist for the Broyles Award (best assistant in all of college football)
-- His Minnesota offenses and QBs have set multiple school records

Kirk is stable, experienced and has had a lot of success. That's why Minnesota wanted to keep him.

Kick only makes the jump because of his relationship with Schiano. And let's face it, Schiano is a guy who's at his best with 'his people'. Loyalty and relationships are very important to him. So if he was in any way limited by wanting someone from his orbit (after failing with an unknown in Gleeson) -- is there really anyone better than Kirk who would have even entertained this job?

So cheer up, Rutgers fans. Don't let the small vocal minority of Debbie Downers shape this hire. We just took Minnesota's OC!

An added bonus is Kirk still has indirect ties with the university - Kirk's daughter was a key member of the Rutgers Women's Soccer team a few years back.😎

 

[Rokodesh]

1.5M for a C+ hire after a 3 month search, of course fans are going to be disappointed

For 1.5M you're paying for elite coaching

 

[RUtrumpet92]

I'm not upset by the hire. Let's see how things go. I expect a lot of improvement but that is a low bar from this past season.

 

[GoodOl'Rutgers]

I'm not upset by the hire. Let's see how things go. I expect a lot of improvement but that is a low bar from this past season.

Yes.. let's see how things go. Minnesota could move the ball and score in the Big Ten. That would be an improvement if he can do that here.

 

[Shelby65]

We all know our forum has a little cadre of extremely pessimistic posters.

Schiano could have named Sean Payton the OC, and they'd still find a way to attack it. Bear Bryant could have risen from the dead, and they'd moan "what's with his stupid hat, something must be wrong with him."

As a fanbase, it's embarrassing. Every single time -- the Sky is Falling! The Sky is Falling! And yet, these are the same people who nonsensically thought Jason Garrett (and other moonshots) was a realistic option for OC. And also raved about random positional coaches who have never been an OC. SMH.

But when you step back and reevaluate this hire, it's about as good as we could get -- especially knowing Schiano.

WE JUST TOOK A FELLOW BIG TEN OPPONENT'S OC

Let that sink in -- and ya'll complaining?

Minnesota fans and sports media are extremely bummed, and flummoxed about why we're not ecstatic.

Here's an example from one of the biggest Minnesota pundits, utterly confused by our forum:

View embedded media

Check out social media, you'll feel better. They loved Kirk. They did NOT want him to go. We just have a bias because it's not a splashy hire. Because it's a Schiano guy. That, and some of our fans are never happy about anything. Frankly, I didn't think Kirk could even be available. He was in his 1st year OC with Minnesota and in zero danger of losing his job.

Here's the things that are great about this hire

-- Kirk is known as a QB guy, exactly what we need right now
-- He has been an offensive coordinator at freaking 5 programs (Rutgers, Penn State, Delaware, Western Michigan and Minnesota)
-- Most of which he did fairly well at. Sure, he lost his job at PSU after 1 year, but it was COVID 2020 and his total offense was still #2 in conference (430 yards per game).
-- His Offensive lines have performed well, and has sent many WRs to the NFL
-- He's a good recruiter
-- He developed Joe Flacco, Tiquan Underwood, Kenny Britt, Corey Davis, and Tanner Morgan (who set most of MN's records), among many other NFL players
-- He turned Western Michigan's Zach Terrell into a QB who threw for 33 TDs to 4 ints. Turned Joe Flacco into a successful NFL QB
-- in 2019, he was a semifinalist for the Broyles Award (best assistant in all of college football)
-- His Minnesota offenses and QBs have set multiple school records

Kirk is stable, experienced and has had a lot of success. That's why Minnesota wanted to keep him.

Kick only makes the jump because of his relationship with Schiano. And let's face it, Schiano is a guy who's at his best with 'his people'. Loyalty and relationships are very important to him. So if he was in any way limited by wanting someone from his orbit (after failing with an unknown in Gleeson) -- is there really anyone better than Kirk who would have even entertained this job?

So cheer up, Rutgers fans. Don't let the small vocal minority of Debbie Downers shape this hire. We just took Minnesota's OC!

You unknowingly admitted the problem when you noted “especially knowing Schiano”. That acknowledges it as a bad hire.

I bought a rusted 1977 Datsun B210 with more rust than paint and only two functioning pistons. It’s a great car ‘especially knowing I can’t afford a better one’.

See the problem now ?

 

[MADHAT1]

You unknowingly admitted the problem when you noted “especially knowing Schiano”. That acknowledges it as a bad hire.

I bought a rusted 1977 Datsun B210 with more rust than paint and only two functioning pistons. It’s a great car ‘especially knowing I can’t afford a better one’.

See the problem now ?

yea, you didn't think what you bought was any good so didn't work on a fix to have it do what you needed from it.
You might not have been able to afford better but you could have tried to make it work good enough to be an asset instead of a pile of junk to display.

Captain KirkC might not be the best of show, but if he's able to do enough tricks to make the O fetch instead of roll over, he'll be a good hire.

 

[Extra Point]

The reason for the doubts, and I have them too, is how little time he has stayed at any program. One year at Penn State. One year at WVU as an analyst. One year at Minnesota. And now at RU. Maybe he will turn out to be the best OC we ever had, but it's not a hire that makes one say "Wow!!"

 

[RUTGERS95]

It’s an underwhelming hire . We wanted a home run and got a single.

more like hit by a pitch

 

[RutgersSam]

This might be a good hire, but the problem is we still have a horrible head coach. You cultists are again declaring your love for GS far surpasses your support of RU football. It's misguided, sad and completely antithetical to this program's success.

Describing yourself as "optimists" is simply a self-righteous, egotistical statement. All you're doing is extending the downfall of this program by supporting an incompetent head coach. That's it. To argue his career resume is anything better than below average is absurd. Get over yourselves and try visiting those of us in the real world where objectivity trumps baseless hope.

 

[mildone]

I don't really understand why people feel so compelled to prejudge this sort of thing. I'm neutral about the hire and about GS's chances for success. The hire makes me feel neither optimistic nor pessimistic.

It'll work out or it won't. No amount of optimistic hype or pessimistic naysaying is going to change the outcome in any way. We'll learn more in September.

 

[GoodOl'Rutgers]

... No amount of optimistic hype or pessimistic naysaying is going to change the outcome in any way. We'll learn more in September.

I took that approach with Rutgers Basketball after losing Geo and RHJ.. I think I saw more dire resignation than hopeful optimism.. until reports of these guys actually playing rolled in.

I actually think I am enjoying this basketball season MORE because I was not trying to predict anything.. not pessimistic nor optimistic.

Realizing this is about football and some here may have no idea just how good the basketball team looks (in most games with a few exceptions).. they turned out to be a legit power (IMHO).

 

[mildone]

This might be a good hire, but the problem is we still have a horrible head coach. You cultists are again declaring your love for GS far surpasses your support of RU football. It's misguided, sad and completely antithetical to this program's success.

Describing yourself as "optimists" is simply a self-righteous, egotistical statement. All you're doing is extending the downfall of this program by supporting an incompetent head coach. That's it. To argue his career resume is anything better than below average is absurd. Get over yourselves and try visiting those of us in the real world where objectivity trumps baseless hope.

I'm finding myself wondering how what you're doing here is helpful to this program's success. Please explain.

You are coming across as fairly delusional. Because you appear to think that what gets discussed here on this forum, or what opinions forum members (yourself included) have about the football program, positive or negative, has any actual impact on the state of the program.

It does not.

It seems like you might need to work on understanding that. You trying to tell other fans how to feel about any aspect of the FB program has no actual impact on the state of the program. Understand? No?

This is an internet forum that provides some information along with lots of entertaining discourse centered around RUFB. Almost nobody here is involved in hiring decisions or player recruitment or coaching or anything else that materially impacts the program. So our thoughts and opinions and predictions are meaningless beyond fueling fun discussions.

Maybe you should write a letter to Hobbs. Or cancel your tickets or whatever.

But trying to convince people online to wallow in misery like you isn't going to achieve anything useful at all.

 

[mildone]

I took that approach with Rutgers Basketball after losing Geo and RHJ.. I think I saw more dire resignation than hopeful optimism.. until reports of these guys actually playing rolled in.

I actually think I am enjoying this basketball season MORE because I was not trying to predict anything.. not pessimistic nor optimistic.

Realizing this is about football and some here may have no idea just how good the basketball team looks (in most games with a few exceptions).. they turned out to be a legit power (IMHO).

I'm with you. I really had no clue about what we'd see this season (with RUMBB), just hoped things would work out. And they are, far better than expected, I think, at least so far.

 

[yessir321]

yea, you didn't think what you bought was any good so didn't work on a fix to have it do what you needed from it.
You might not have been able to afford better but you could have tried to make it work good enough to be an asset instead of a pile of junk to display.

Captain KirkC might not be the best of show, but if he's able to do enough tricks to make the O fetch instead of roll over, he'll be a good hire.

Once rust starts forming on a car there is no stopping it. There are things you can do to slow down the spreading however the only way to truly fix the issue of rust is to replace the parts effected by the rust. It’s also critical to replace those parts as early as possible so that the rust does not spread into the frame, once that occurs the vehicle is a total loss…. This could actually be a pretty terrific parallel.

Now I’m willing to give Kirk C a shot of course, what choice do we have? But I did want to point out the flaw in your argument, and perhaps time will tell if Greg is ‘rust’ or just needed a new engine….

 

[chiphi80]

It’s an underwhelming hire . We wanted a home run and got a single.

lt's an extra base hit, if anything, and hopefully after 2023 season, he'll be rounding second. It's not out of the part, so he will have to earn it.

 

[RU#1fan]

It’s an underwhelming hire . We wanted a home run and got a single.

Too many are rushing to judgement.
Let’s wait until mid-season this year to make statements on the impact of this hire.

 

[rutgersguy1]

Too many are rushing to judgement.
Let’s wait until mid-season this year to make statements on the impact of this hire.

It's an okay hire to me but I'm actually a little surprised at how down some are. We'll see if he works out but he's definitely has a chance to, it's not a forgone conclusion he won't.

 

[jtung230]

Some on here just don’t understand reality. Prime examples are the names people were throwing out before hired Ash. Home run hitters also strikeout a lot. We need singles and doubles at this point.

 

[willisneverrana43]

We all know our forum has a little cadre of extremely pessimistic posters.

Schiano could have named Sean Payton the OC, and they'd still find a way to attack it. Bear Bryant could have risen from the dead, and they'd moan "what's with his stupid hat, something must be wrong with him."

As a fanbase, it's embarrassing. Every single time -- the Sky is Falling! The Sky is Falling! And yet, these are the same people who nonsensically thought Jason Garrett (and other moonshots) was a realistic option for OC. And also raved about random positional coaches who have never been an OC. SMH.

But when you step back and reevaluate this hire, it's about as good as we could get -- especially knowing Schiano.

WE JUST TOOK A FELLOW BIG TEN OPPONENT'S OC

Let that sink in -- and ya'll complaining?

Minnesota fans and sports media are extremely bummed, and flummoxed about why we're not ecstatic.

Here's an example from one of the biggest Minnesota pundits, utterly confused by our forum:

View embedded media

Check out social media, you'll feel better. They loved Kirk. They did NOT want him to go. We just have a bias because it's not a splashy hire. Because it's a Schiano guy. That, and some of our fans are never happy about anything. Frankly, I didn't think Kirk could even be available. He was in his 1st year OC with Minnesota and in zero danger of losing his job.

Here's the things that are great about this hire

-- Kirk is known as a QB guy, exactly what we need right now
-- He has been an offensive coordinator at freaking 5 programs (Rutgers, Penn State, Delaware, Western Michigan and Minnesota)
-- Most of which he did fairly well at. Sure, he lost his job at PSU after 1 year, but it was COVID 2020 and his total offense was still #2 in conference (430 yards per game).
-- His Offensive lines have performed well, and has sent many WRs to the NFL
-- He's a good recruiter
-- He developed Joe Flacco, Tiquan Underwood, Kenny Britt, Corey Davis, and Tanner Morgan (who set most of MN's records), among many other NFL players
-- He turned Western Michigan's Zach Terrell into a QB who threw for 33 TDs to 4 ints. Turned Joe Flacco into a successful NFL QB
-- in 2019, he was a semifinalist for the Broyles Award (best assistant in all of college football)
-- His Minnesota offenses and QBs have set multiple school records

Kirk is stable, experienced and has had a lot of success. That's why Minnesota wanted to keep him.

Kick only makes the jump because of his relationship with Schiano. And let's face it, Schiano is a guy who's at his best with 'his people'. Loyalty and relationships are very important to him. So if he was in any way limited by wanting someone from his orbit (after failing with an unknown in Gleeson) -- is there really anyone better than Kirk who would have even entertained this job?

So cheer up, Rutgers fans. Don't let the small vocal minority of Debbie Downers shape this hire. We just took Minnesota's OC!

I’m not sure I agree with all of this. I’m in the wait-and-see camp. But I have to say that this was a very well constructed post. Well done. It’s so much better than the nonsense available to read here from dudes who breathlessly spent their weekends at internet poster film school and emerged with even lengthier worthless posts. Again, well done.

 

[Plum Street]

Too many are rushing to judgement.
Let’s wait until mid-season this year to make statements on the impact of this hire.

Yep, like everything this hire will be judged by performance.
I am also a big believer that good coaching only helps so much at this level. It’s about the jimmy and Joe’s and not X’s and O’s.
kc will get his chance and his money . I hope he does well for us

 

[sct1111]

Many thought Gleeson was a home run, I did too.

This is a solid hire.

 

[rutgersguy1]

Many thought Gleeson was a home run, I did too.

This is a solid hire.

There are very few home runs imo. That term gets thrown out too often. For me it’s just who might/could have a chance to do some things. In reality, any one can succeed or fail but I do like to look a probabilities from what’s happening on the landscape.

Whomever the choice for whatever position, if it works then great and if not we try again. It’s not the end of the world.

 

[MADHAT1]

more like hit by a pitch

if after getting on base, can steal 2nd and get into scoring position, doesn't matter if a hit by pitch type hire. or HR. Because if his O helps make RU a winner , consider him a inside the park home run hire that might not look spectacular , but did the job that was needed .

 

[mildone]

Many thought Gleeson was a home run, I did too.

This is a solid hire.

I guess I take a different perspective on this coach hire stuff. I still think Gleeson was a perfectly intelligent and well-reasoned hire. At the time.

It just didn't work out for various reasons. Which happens to the best of 'em. The job these coaches have to do is very difficult under the best of circumstances. And there are a lot factors that can affect success, many of which lie outside the control of any particular coach.

People look, with hindsight, and say he was a terrible hire because he couldn't get the job done here. Okay, fine. But hindsight isn't available when the hiring decision is made. At that stage, we have to look at the resume and if it all makes sense, the hire make sense. But again, not everything that makes sense, or is done for very intelligent reasons, works out as planned. Best laid plans and all.

KC is probably a good hire as well. For now. But that doesn't mean it'll work out.

The job of OC here at RUFB is far from the best of circumstances. So if, for some morbid reason, we feel compelled to guess about the future, the safe guess is to say he'll fail too. Just playing the odds. Vegas would surely agree. But until he's no longer here, he has a chance for success.

I figure it's way more fun hoping for the best and keeping an even keel as we wait and see. As opposed to what some of our fans do which is wallow in the misery of aggressively restated self-congratulatory pessimism posing as prophecy. 'Cause that shit is very, very lame.

 

[Ash_Hole]

Bumping

From January 2023

At the time, there was forum uproar about Kirk being named OC — with multiple threads (from the ‘sky is falling’ crew) complaining about it

No matter what happens in Michigan game, I think it’s fair to say, Kirk is proving the doubters wrong so far

 

[RUTGERS95]

Bumping

From January 2023

At the time, there was forum uproar about Kirk being named OC — with multiple threads (from the ‘sky is falling’ crew) complaining about it

No matter what happens in Michigan game, I think it’s fair to say, Kirk is proving the doubters wrong so far

too early given the record is the same as last year no? I will agree the offense looks better but you're also dealing with an older set of kids too.

let's not beat the meat yet, let's see how we look at year end. I'll be the first to post 'I was wrong' should he be smashing success

 

[mildone]

let's not beat the meat yet,

Wait. You mean not everyone does this all day every day anyway?

 

[robjknight]

So far thru 3 games, there i certainly a big step from last few years. Not only in points scored, but QB improvement and maturity, OL discipline and almost penalty free so far compared to drive killing penalties the last few years. And I would say the competition for 3 games was a step up from last year and we still did better. The blocking for runs is actually a thing of beauty when you watch it in slow motion. I know some are disappointed in the lack of targets to the TE's, but take the VT game. The 2 tight ends were responsible for key blocks on all 4 rushing touchdowns. I think Kirk has done wonders in a short period of time. And I don't think we have seen the total playbook yet. Many people projected another 4-8 year. Now people are believing we have a good shot at bowl eligibility. This week's game will be a good measure of the progress we have made. I feel a different vibe among the team Just seems like each player knows their job and role much better and we are organized versus disorganized as evident in the past few years by the number of wasted timeouts because of player confusion.

 

[Shelby65]

Wait. You mean not everyone does this all day every day anyway?

and sometimes while on the phone, long distance ?