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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.”...
Since Foggie, the Gophers have had some solid if unspectacular quarterbacks. Glen Mason coached Bryan Cupito and Asad Abdul-Khaliq, who rank first and second, respectively, among the Gophers’ all-time leaders in touchdown-to-interception ratio. Mason also recruited Weber and redshirted him in 2006 before getting fired that winter.
Weber started every game the next four years under Tim Brewster. As a sophomore in 2008, the Mounds View grad ranked among the nation’s completion percentage leaders as the Gophers started 7-1. But the team’s play deteriorated from there, with Weber unable to keep Brewster’s sinking program afloat.
“Not to cry in my milk, but when we signed Adam Weber, there was no doubt in my mind we had finally gotten the quarterback that would take our offense to the next level,” Mason said. “When you think about our power running game, if you would have thrown the ability to run effective option, we really could have been something.”
http://www.startribune.com/quarterb...ugly-past-meets-optimistic-present/491722731/
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.”...
Since Foggie, the Gophers have had some solid if unspectacular quarterbacks. Glen Mason coached Bryan Cupito and Asad Abdul-Khaliq, who rank first and second, respectively, among the Gophers’ all-time leaders in touchdown-to-interception ratio. Mason also recruited Weber and redshirted him in 2006 before getting fired that winter.
Weber started every game the next four years under Tim Brewster. As a sophomore in 2008, the Mounds View grad ranked among the nation’s completion percentage leaders as the Gophers started 7-1. But the team’s play deteriorated from there, with Weber unable to keep Brewster’s sinking program afloat.
“Not to cry in my milk, but when we signed Adam Weber, there was no doubt in my mind we had finally gotten the quarterback that would take our offense to the next level,” Mason said. “When you think about our power running game, if you would have thrown the ability to run effective option, we really could have been something.”
http://www.startribune.com/quarterb...ugly-past-meets-optimistic-present/491722731/
