It happens every year during the holidays: Merry Christmas, Not-so-Happy New Year for the Little Engines that Finally Could of the college football world, whose most talented coaches strike while their iron is hot and leave for greener pastures.
Former Univ. of Sioux Falls head coach Kalen DeBoer’s exit from Indiana — where in his only year as offensive coordinator, the Hoosiers’ won 8 games for the first time in 26 years — to his first Div. I head coaching job at Fresno State is one example. The pay bump is from $800K to $1.4M, almost double.
Thursday’s news (first reported by the Pioneer Press) of Kirk Ciarrocca’s departure from Minneosta — where he was offensive coordinator for the Gophers’ first 10-win regular season in over a century — to take the same position at Big Ten blue blood Penn State is an even harsher testament.
“Why,” some Gopher fans are seething, would he make such a lateral move?
Indiana and Minnesota are two “have nots” of the Big Ten, who are used to half-empty stadiums and .500-ish seasons, and whose fans experienced euphoria of feeling like a “have” for the first time in a generation, if not their lives in 2019. To keep the train moving with a full head of steam, both schools clamped down their head coaches to seven-year contract extensions.
There is no guarantee Tom Allen and (especially) P.J. Fleck won’t leave for better opportunities within a year or two, when buyouts will be affordable to traditional football factories where money is no object. But at least they’ll stick around to follow up and build on their breakthrough seasons.
Their offensive coordinators, not so.
This isn’t just about pay raises and status elevation — a head coaching job for DeBoer and an OC job at a blue blood powerhouse for Ciraccoa, who is a Pennsylvania native.
It is as much about knowing when to leave the party, like George Costanza in Seinfeld after he told a joke that lit up the room and then decided to leave, fearing the perception of his charm would take a dip if he told subsequent jokes that bombed.
DeBoer led the Big Ten’s second-best offense at 443 yards per game. Think about that. Indiana produced more yards than 12 teams, including Michigan, Penn State, and Wisconsin. Nobody other than perhaps the most absurdly talented offense in the rich history of Ohio State was better.
With 1,000-yard receiver Whop Philyor possibly leaving early for the NFL, that air-heavy production would have been nearly impossible for DeBoer to top or repeat.
So, if DeBoer didn’t produce a top-tier offense and was not again one of 15 semifinalists for the Frank Broyles Award (given to the nation’s top assistant coach), would he be as bright on the radar of potential head coaching hires for Group of Five places like Fresno? Maybe. Maybe not. But why take the chance of staying at IU for whatever would (or would not) come along next year if this was the case?
Ciarrocca came from Western Michigan with Fleck and led the Gophers from 108th in the nation (out of 130) in scoring thier first season (22 ppg) in 2017 to 22nd at 34.3 in 2019, reaching a zenith with an explosive afternoon in the most electric Gopher home win in almost 60 years, a 31-26 upset of No. 4 Penn State.
Clearly, that caught the attention of James Franklin and the Nittany Lions. If you can’t beat ’em, pay them to join you. While his salary uptick is yet revealed, the bigger picture here is how much more prestigious being the OC at Penn State is compared to Minnesota. It is a resume boost as much as a pay increase. He burns brighter on potentional Power Five school radars for his first head coaching job coming from Penn State, where he is likelier to have sustained offensive success than the U of M.
Minnesota loses 71 percent of its rushing attack (steely seniors Rodney Smith and Shannon Brooks) and 39 percent of its receiving yards (Tyler Johnson and Smith). While Fleck and Ciarrocca had plenty of freshman and sophomore thoroughbreds waiting in the stables, like DeBoer, there was no guarantee of Ciarocca’s stock rising any higher while in Dinkytown.
Both Minnesota and Indiana’s history of football suggest a regression back into recent mediocrity is as distinct a possibility as following up their 2019 fairy tales with another one.
The Gophers and Hoosiers won’t be sneaking up on anybody. With DeBoer and Ciarocca returning, opposing league defensive coordinators would be more ready for their attacks.
That is not to say both OC’s would lack the acumen and ability to adjust to the adjustments and pump out prolific offenses again, and both teams repeating their 8-to-10 win seasons.
But their departures suggest their best route to elite status was out the door, just in case.
It is easier to repeat and sustain success with the constant influxuation of 4 and 5-star talent — like Ohio State, Penn State, and Michigan — or constant 9-win seasons fostered by the development of malliable 3-star talent, like Wisconsin and Iowa. The rich stay rich.
It is more difficult at places like Indiana and Minnesota, even though both squads have increased their talent level during Fleck and Allen’s times.
One final note: Of course high-end coordinators don’t just depart “have-nots” for better jobs. It happens all the time at national championship programs like Alabama and Ohio State, who are football factories for head coaches as much as NFL players.
But becuase of the sustained success and bulging budgets, they can more easily replace accomplished assistants with higher-end replacements than plucky upstarts can find.
It is a difficult race to run for the Little Engines That Could, but at least both Indiana and Minnesota have more steam to keep the engines humming than past years. DeBoer’s and Ciraccoa’s gigs are far more desirable than when those two men took them.
