Kirk Ciarrocca paused for a moment during training camp, listening to the Gophers’ tortured history at the most important position in sports. The man that coach P.J. Fleck has described as a “quarterback whisperer” knew most of the story by heart.
The Gophers haven’t had an All-America QB since Sandy Stephens in 1961. Decades passed between their last three All-Big Ten QB selections — Tony Dungy (1976), Rickey Foggie (1987) and Adam Weber (2008). They haven’t had a quarterback picked in the NFL draft since Craig Curry in 1972.
Doesn’t that checklist make recruiting quarterbacks difficult, leaving a hard cycle to change?
“I look at it the other way,” said Ciarrocca, the team’s raspy-voiced offensive coordinator. “We talk openly about the quarterback history here, and what an unbelievable opportunity it is to be the one who leads us to a Rose Bowl. They’ll be legendary. They’ll be building statues of them.”
That was part of Fleck and Ciarrocca’s pitch to Zack Annexstad last year, when they recruited him from the IMG Academy in Florida.
Annexstad had scholarship offers from Pittsburgh and Illinois but walked on at Minnesota, where he edged out redshirt freshman Tanner Morgan for the starting job.
If Annexstad, Morgan or one of the current high school seniors who’ve committed to the Gophers — Eden Prairie’s Cole Kramer or Texas native Jacob Clark — blossoms into an all-conference player, it won’t be the first time for Ciarrocca.
At Delaware, he developed Joe Flacco into a future Super Bowl MVP, and quietly molded Andy Hall into a 2004 sixth-round pick by Philadelphia. At Rutgers, Ciarrocca coached Tom Savage, an eventual 2014 fourth-round pick by Houston. At Western Michigan, Ciarrocca turned a little-known recruit, Zach Terrell, into a three-time All-Mid-American Conference selection who had 33 touchdown passes and four interceptions as a senior.
“The biggest thing I’ve learned is elite quarterbacks come in all kinds of shapes, sizes, packages and skill sets,” Ciarrocca said. “Because those guys were all great young men, but they couldn’t have been more different.”...
http://www.startribune.com/quarterb...ugly-past-meets-optimistic-present/491722731/
The Gophers haven’t had an All-America QB since Sandy Stephens in 1961. Decades passed between their last three All-Big Ten QB selections — Tony Dungy (1976), Rickey Foggie (1987) and Adam Weber (2008). They haven’t had a quarterback picked in the NFL draft since Craig Curry in 1972.
Doesn’t that checklist make recruiting quarterbacks difficult, leaving a hard cycle to change?
“I look at it the other way,” said Ciarrocca, the team’s raspy-voiced offensive coordinator. “We talk openly about the quarterback history here, and what an unbelievable opportunity it is to be the one who leads us to a Rose Bowl. They’ll be legendary. They’ll be building statues of them.”
That was part of Fleck and Ciarrocca’s pitch to Zack Annexstad last year, when they recruited him from the IMG Academy in Florida.
Annexstad had scholarship offers from Pittsburgh and Illinois but walked on at Minnesota, where he edged out redshirt freshman Tanner Morgan for the starting job.
If Annexstad, Morgan or one of the current high school seniors who’ve committed to the Gophers — Eden Prairie’s Cole Kramer or Texas native Jacob Clark — blossoms into an all-conference player, it won’t be the first time for Ciarrocca.
At Delaware, he developed Joe Flacco into a future Super Bowl MVP, and quietly molded Andy Hall into a 2004 sixth-round pick by Philadelphia. At Rutgers, Ciarrocca coached Tom Savage, an eventual 2014 fourth-round pick by Houston. At Western Michigan, Ciarrocca turned a little-known recruit, Zach Terrell, into a three-time All-Mid-American Conference selection who had 33 touchdown passes and four interceptions as a senior.
“The biggest thing I’ve learned is elite quarterbacks come in all kinds of shapes, sizes, packages and skill sets,” Ciarrocca said. “Because those guys were all great young men, but they couldn’t have been more different.”...
http://www.startribune.com/quarterb...ugly-past-meets-optimistic-present/491722731/
