Rutgers Football OC/QBs coach Kirk Ciarrocca talks Bye Week
Rutgers Football Offensive Coordinator / Quarterbacks coach Kirk Ciarrocca talks with the media on Thursday afternoon following one of the program's bye week practices.
What type of growth have you seen out of Gavin Wimsatt so far this season?
KC: “I think I’ve seen steady improvement overall. Just like I said in the very beginning, there’s some peaks and valleys. It’s about how quickly you recover and what do you learn from being in those valleys. But I’ve definitely seen growth from the start of January until now and we are just going to keep growing everyday and learning.”
He’s grown as a runner and his completion percentage is up. Do you feel like he still has a bigger margin of progression in terms of throwing the ball and accuracy.
KC: “I think the whole team does. I think there’s still a lot of meat on that bone with the passing attack. I think when you’re really good at throwing the ball, there’s three phases to it. There’s the quarterbacks accuracy and decision making, there’s the receivers making plays on the ball and there’s the protection element of it. We’ve been working hard in this bye week in all of those areas.”
What has Kyle Monangai meant to this offense?
KC: “A lot. I think that his level of play and his leadership has meant a lot to the unit. I don’t where we would be without him, I would hope that somebody else would’ve stepped forward in that role, but he’s played at a very high level for us.”
He’s also had a good role blocking this year, what have you seen out of his growth in that respect?
KC: “He plays the game very hard. He’s a very intelligent football player, so he makes a lot of the correct split second decisions that are out there, especially those high speed decisions when you’re blocking. He takes great pride in how hard he plays, he’s very committed and accountable to his teammates and his preparation is second to none each week. I’m just really proud of him and proud what coach (Damiere) Shaw has been able to do with him.”
What have you seen from Christian Dremel this year in terms of how he’s grown as a receiver and his relationship with (Gavin Wimsatt)?
KC: “I think number one he’s really embraced the coaching that he’s gotten. A smarter player is a better player and he’s made himself a smarter receiver, improved his details and then his confidence in himself, I’ve really seen that grow from spring ball and into the season. When you watch his confidence grow, you know it gives him the ability to do certain things out there on the field. When you see them being relaxed and confident in themselves, you know that they know the answer it’s really cool and really rewarding as a coach to see that.”
Kirk I’m sure you’re heard about the scandal at Michigan. In hindsight, do you think they had your signals or signs?
KC: “In time that will all play out, the facts will come out. I’m not going to get involved in that. I’ll let the facts come out and come forward with it. Everyone can make their own choice in that point in time, but you know who knows.”
Offensive Line, seems like you have shifted with a lot of guys early on, but is it fair to say that you have a solidified it at this point. Talk about how that unit has played so far.
KC: “I think like a lot of our football team, they have improved as the year has gone on. You could start to see it, three to four weeks ago that they were starting to improve in practice, you know there’s always a little gap there. If you don’t do it in practice, there’s a very little chance of you doing it in the game. When you do it in practice, sometimes there’s a gap between it happening in practice and taking that to the game. I saw it coming and coach Flats (Pat Flaherty) has done a great job with those guys, they’ve done a great job in believing in the system, continuing to grind along with it and now they’ve been able to get some results the last few weeks. There have been good fronts that we’ve seen the last two weeks and they’ve done an exceptional job along with the QBs and the RBs executing the run game. I think Reggie Sutton has really helped solidify things, he’s been a stabilizing force which might be the best word to use for him. I’m excited about those guys and to see what they can do moving forward. The thing that’s excited for me is there’s just lots of meat on the bone. There’s just so much room for growth. We got to take it one inch at a time.”
You said before the season, you want Gavin to be an extension of you on the field. How do you think he’s handled that?
KC: “Very well. He’s a great kid, he listens in the meetings and learns through his experiences. We are just hitting the tip of the iceberg baby.”
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