Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1276571
is. So we think about it a lot during the game plan week. But during the actual game, I don't necessarily think about it. I already have preconceived thoughts in my mind that, hey, if they're doing this, we really like this explosive play against that type of look. I'd like to get this into this coverage if I could. … But I don't check at halftime how many explosive plays we have. Because I do feel that then you might start to press. I don't want to put a square peg into a round hole. I'm not going to force it in there. If I've got square pegs, I'm looking for the square hole. BWI I asked Sean Clifford in the spring what the ingredients for a perfect col- lege quarterback would be. The first thing that he said was leadership. The second thing, a close second, was accu- racy. Did that come from you, and if so, where do you feel he is on that spectrum in terms of his accuracy? CIARROCCA I happen to believe that. I wouldn't take credit for putting that into his head. He might have heard that from me, but I'm sure he heard it before. I do really value those two qualities in a quarterback. It's a funny thing about the forward pass. You cannot advance the football unless it's completed. Thrown and caught. Otherwise, it comes back to the original spot. So accuracy is really important. Where is he with that? I think every quarterback is always striv- ing to improve in that area of accuracy. There are a lot of things that go into being an accurate quarterback. I think Sean definitely has the ability, has the talent, and the physical gifts to be that type of quarterback. But we're always looking to improve. I don't care who you are or what level you're at, every year as a quarterback, because of what the im- portance of it is, you're looking to im- prove your accuracy constantly. BWI Do you have receivers who can make a play? CIARROCCA I think so. But what I'm basing that on is what I saw in winter workouts. And the first thing I'm look- ing at when I come into a new situation or I'm evaluating young players is, is the potential there or not? Do they have the skills that are needed to win that one- on-one battle? So I see a great deal of potential in the receivers at Penn State. But there's a difference between poten- tial and productivity, so that's where the development comes into play. We have to take this potential that these receivers have at Penn State and turn it into pro- ductivity. Because ultimately, that's what it's all about. The one thing we do have is a player who's proven to be very productive, and I'm really, really excited about working with him and utilizing his skill set. Pat [Freiermuth] has been very productive. He's proven himself to be an elite player. So I'm excited about that. But one of our challenges right now is to take this po- tential and turn it into productivity at the wide receiver position, and it's something we're going to work really hard on. BWI Have you ever had four running backs in a room before? And can you en- vision how you're going to handle that? CIARROCCA I always feel like the run- ning back position sorts itself out. But I don't think there's a team that ever says they have too many running backs. It's too physical of a league. It's just a grind every week in the Big Ten, and that depth is really important. I think that having depth keeps guys fresh, keeps guys healthy. I think that's really impor- tant at the running back position. I al- ways worry anytime I give a running back 25-30 carries in a game, which I've done. It happens. I think they can do it one week, but it's very difficult to do it three, four weeks in a row and not have it affect your performance in some way. So we're in a unique situation. If there's a deeper running back room in the country, I'd like to see it. So we've got to figure out how to use those guys effectively and make sure we give them a chance to impact the game. BWI Beyond just evaluating what you know you have, fundamentally, what are the characteristics that you're looking for from your offensive line? CIARROCCA What I'm really excited about up front is that they're really ath- letic. Their athleticism is off the charts. It's something that you can see. That's not me guessing, that's not me watching the film and saying, I think he's athletic. That's me watching him run around in winter workouts. I think we have some great leadership up front, which is really important at that position, because those guys, they're not five individuals. They've got to play as one. For a program to have a great offensive line, they have to play as one. And so the leadership that we have up there, I'm really excited about that. I want an offensive line that's going to be detail-oriented, that's going to play together and be physical. Football is a physical game. It just is. And I think that when you have a physi- cal, tough offensive line, it usually means you have a physical, tough unit. It all starts with them. If you thought about an offense as an airplane, the offensive line is really the engine. We've got this airplane that we can do all these neat tricks and all these cool things with. But if we can't get off the ground, then we can't do anything. So the offensive line is really important to the overall unit. They're the engine. They've got to get us off the ground and get us up to a flying altitude. These skill guys that we have, they're the ones that make the airplane do all the tricks when they're up in the air. But that offensive line, they've got to get us up off the ground, and I'm excited about them. We've got a nice core group coming back and we've got some young guys who are going to push the older guys, too. Strength and athleticism are really im- portant qualities that you're looking for in an offensive line. Our strength staff does an unbelievable job. These guys are big, they're strong, they're athletic, but they're not fat. It's a credit to the strength staff and our nutrition staff, the job that they've done with them. One of the first things I noticed when I got to the Cotton Bowl was how fit we were up front. So I'm excited to work with them. ■