Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1276571
cution, and they come through those in- tangible things that we talked about. If you don't value the ball, if you're turn- ing the ball over, well, you're not going to be on the field as much. And so again, you've decreased your chances for these explosive plays that are important to us. We want to be a balanced offense. That ties into the explosive plays and the physical stuff. I want to always have the ability to win the game in a couple of different ways. If we need to throw the ball 45 times to win the game, we have a system built that allows us do that. If we need to run the ball for 300 yards to win the game, we have a system built that's capable of doing that. The defense a lot of times can dictate what we end up emphasizing within the game, how they want to play us within that. There are other things like core tenets. A core tenet of mine is, I don't want any missed assignments. No MAs is what we say. If that's the case, then that ties back into that execu- tion. If somebody doesn't do their job, goes the wrong way, the play is going to the left, he steps to the right, the play has very little chance of working at all. The beautiful thing about offensive football is that it takes 11 guys playing together as one, trusting each other to do their job. Offensive football, I get so excited about it because, to me, it's the ultimate team game. Eleven guys. And no disrespect to the defensive side of football, but I use this analogy some- times: It's like if you listen to an orches- tra play or a symphony, all these instruments work together to make this beautiful music. But if somebody's not doing their job, it sounds terrible. That's the way offensive football works. When you've got 11 guys playing together, it's 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. BWI Are there benchmarks that you want to reach or have in mind when you go into a game for explosive plays? CIARROCCA We want to win the explo- sive play battle. Because again, that cor- relates to winning. Yes and no is the answer to your question. Yes, I want to have X number of explosive plays in the game. But I don't think about it during the game because I don't want to try to force a square peg into a round hole. So it's not something I think about, but it is something that I look at. As soon as somebody gives me the stats after the game, I look right away at turnovers and explosive plays. But we do think about it a lot during the week and are constructing the game plan so that we have these shots, we have these chunk plays that we think are there. In the run game, it happens or- ganically. In the passing game, if every- body runs a five-yard hitch, your chances of getting an explosive play are not that great. So in the passing game, it can be more by design, and it definitely >> TOUCHDOWN MAKER Pat Freier- muth has "proven himself to be an elite player," Ciar- rocca said. The All-Big Ten junior has already caught 15 scoring passes in his ca- reer, the most in school history by a tight end. Photo by Steve Manuel