Nittany Lions' 4-star recruit enters transfer portal

ALTOONA, Pa. -- This is always an extremely busy time of the year for college football programs, and it's even more so now with the transfer portal. 

There's lots of Penn State news to catch up on from Thursday, so here we go.

4-STAR SAFETY ENTERS
TRANSFER PORTAL

Enzo Jennings came to Penn State as a heralded 4-star safety recruit from Michigan, and he even enrolled early in January of 2020. But the redshirt freshman only played in one game over two seasons and now has entered the transfer portal.

Jennings was a high school All-American and has the makeup to go on and do big things in college. But he didn't seem to be in the Nittany Lions' plans, as they have a crowded secondary. He could have become a bigger factor, perhaps, in the coming years, but instead he decided to move on.

Jennings played in the season finale against Illinois in 2020 but did not appear in a game this season and was on the scout team.

Jennings is the second Penn State player -- and second former 4-star recruit -- to enter the transfer portal so far. There likely will be a number of others in the coming weeks and months.

Sophomore safety Tyler Rudolph, a 4-star recruit from Connecticut, entered the transfer portal on Nov. 24. He appeared in the first four games this season and had six tackles.

CIARROCCA HEADING
BACK TO MINNESOTA

Kirk Ciarrocca had been a successful offensive coordinator at Minnesota before coming to Penn State in 2020, and things didn't work out well for him with the Nittany Lions. He had to deal with COVID restraints during 2020, limiting what he could do as far as teaching the offense, then after only one season, he was fired by James Franklin.

Mike Yurcich became available, and Franklin decided to move on from Ciarrocca. That move did not work out well for the Lions this year, as their offense was worse in most statistical categories than it was during Ciarrocca's one season.

Ciarrocca spent this season as an offensive analyst at West Virginia. But now it appears that he'll be heading back to familiar territory, as he's set to become offensive coordinator once again for the Golden Gophers.

When Penn State fans think of Ciarrocca, they immediately think of the fade pass in the red zone. He became well known for relying on that play call in 2020, and it pretty much never worked.

Here's what I wrote last year for Nittany Sports Now, prior to Ciarrocca getting fired, about what he said of all those fade passes:

“One of the reasons why I’ve been calling fades down there, it’s something that we did well in training camp and have done a really good job with in practice,” Ciarrocca said.

“We haven’t been able to execute it as well as we’d like in the games. From that standpoint, it’s been against man coverage.”

Ciarrocca said, from a technical standpoint, coordinators like to call fades “because it’s usually pretty safe to call, where your guy can make the play or nobody makes the play.

“But, again it’s something that I’m continually evaluating as I look at our players and what their strengths are and what their weaknesses are. We just haven’t done a great job of being able to convert them in the games for a number of different reasons, it’s not just one thing with it. So we’ve got to continue to diversify down there.”

Penn State started last season 0-5, with Sean Clifford struggling mightily and turning the ball over a lot. That had many fans sour on Ciarrocca, even though the offense improved the second half of the season as Penn State won its final four games.

Oh, and let's not forget that Ciarrocca was dealt numerous blows that made his offense short-handed.

The Lions were able to run the ball in Ciarrocca's offense -- no surprise given his background with Minnesota and other programs -- and they could not run at all this season under Yurcich. We broke down the offensive comparisons here a month ago between Yurcich and Ciarrocca, and they clearly favored the latter.

Minnesota is a good place for Ciarrocca, as he had worked under head coach P.J. Fleck since 2013 at Western Michigan and followed Fleck to Minnesota in 2017.

By the way, Penn State plays Minnesota on Nov. 19 next year at Beaver Stadium, and you can guarantee Ciarrocca will be ready for that game.

POINDEXTER POSSIBLY
IN RUNNING FOR VIRGINIA JOB

Virginia football got a surprise Thursday as coach Bronco Mendenhall resigned so he can begin the next chapter of his life. If you want to watch a personal and moving explanation of why a college head coach might want to step away from a good job, click here and watch what Mendenhall had to say. It is really, really good stuff.

Penn State safeties coach and co-defensive coordinator Anthony Poindexter was a sensational player at Virginia, earning All-America honors in 1998 and getting inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2020. Could he be a possible candidate for the Virginia job? Apparently so.

Rittenberg is, of course, referring to Brent Pry leaving Penn State to become head coach at Virginia Tech. And yes, if Poindexter also leaves, it would indeed be wild to see the Lions lose both of the leaders of the defense.

Poindexter not only played at Virginia, he served as an assistant coach there from 2003-13, after his NFL career. So he's beloved there, it's his alma mater and he's a respected coach. All that makes it very possible that he either could become the head coach, or perhaps be hired onto the staff as, say, the defensive coordinator by the next head coach there.