It is a family affair for Mike Ciaffoni as he enters his second season with Rutgers now under offensive line coach Pat Flaherty. Not only did Flaherty once coach his father Joe Ciaffoni on the banks, but he also finds himself playing alongside his younger brother Nick.
"It's like a full-circle moment because when my dad was here he played under coach [Flaherty]," Ciaffoni said. "I've been learning a lot of the same stuff that coach Flaherty's been teaching since I was eight years old."
Ciaffoni joked how Flaherty occasionally mixes the names up but emphasized how his techniques have remained the same and put him and his teammates in the best position to succeed.
"Sometimes he calls me Joe which is my dad's name so I guess sometimes he mixes us up," Ciaffoni continued. "Coach Flaherty's great though, all of the stuff you need to have to be a great offensive line he emphasizes."
Playing in all 12 games at right guard in 2022, Ciaffoni feels adding Flaherty will only help the Scarlet Knights improve as an offense.
"Coach Flaherty is arguably one of the greatest offensive line coaches in the NFL and college," he said. "Just having a guy with that experience and having him tell stories and showing he's been there and knows these techniques work is great to have."
Despite this being Ciaffoni's second year with the Scarlet Knights, he goes into 2023 as a senior with previous stops at Boston College and Colorado State. Ciaffoni also enters the season looking to improve his craft as a guard considering he spent his first three years on the defensive side of the ball.
"I just wanted to work on flying off the ball, thinking less, and understanding offense more because I was on defense for my first three years," he said. "I just feel like I'm improving as a player. Everything that I learned from last year I'm building on this year."
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