How Penn State football’s Tyler Bowen is helping to bridge the gap between the old and new offensive schemes
Continuity has been difficult to find for the offensive side of Penn State football’s coaching staff. Three of the five offensive assistant coaches are new this offseason and only one has more than two years of experience with the offense the Nittany Lions ran in 2019.
Co-offensive coordinator and tight ends coach Tyler Bowen is the only member of Penn State head coach James Franklin’s offensive staff who has experience with the offense prior to 2018. The tight ends coach was the offensive line coach under former Penn State offensive coordinator Joe Moorhead, who brought the offense and its principles to University Park, when Moorhead was the head coach at Fordham. Bowen then spent a year as the program’s offensive coordinator before moving up the coaching ranks to take the offensive line coach job at Maryland in 2017.
Bowen’s four years of experience learning Moorhead’s system will be much-needed if the Nittany Lions want to blend the old scheme with the what new offensive coordinator Kirk Ciarrocca plans to implement.
“The biggest thing I’ve tried to do since Kirk came in is really approach everything with an open mind,” Bowen said on a teleconference with the media Wednesday morning. “Is there something we did that can add and blend the offense together, which is what we’re trying to do here ... The biggest thing we’ve all just tried to approach it with an open mind.”
Franklin sought out a level of continuity when he hired Ciarrocca and made note of his desire to blend his scheme with the scheme Penn State has established over the last four seasons under Moorhead and former Penn State offensive coordinator Ricky Rahne as one of the main factors behind the hire.
Bowen is one of the key cogs in bringing the two systems together because of his experience and sees himself “in some ways” as a bridge between them.
The Penn State assistant is helping where he can in blending the offenses together, but still defers to Ciarrocca on matters. He believes in the new offensive coordinator and wants to make sure he gives him his full support, no matter what decisions are made.
“Coach Ciarrocca is the offensive coordinator and that’s his role and I’m going to blind-faith buy-in,” Bowen said. “That’s the only way we’re going to get anything done. There’s obviously going to be discussions that happen, but ultimately it’s my job as an assistant to help him and help our team.”
Bowen’s faith in Ciarrocca should help create a cohesive unit in an offense that returns eight starters and give both assistants the chance to grow as coaches from each other’s principles and ideas. That gives Bowen an opportunity to do something he strives to do every day — learn.
“The biggest thing I’ve always prided myself on ... is that I want to be a lifelong learner,” Bowen said. “I’ve been fortunate. Early on in my coaching career, when I was a grad assistant at Maryland, I was involved in a lot of bad offenses, but a lot of different offenses. I think we had coordinator turnover every year ... I was involved with a lot of offenses early in my career. The one thing I know is there’s more than one way to skin a cat.”
The offensive assistant’s flexibility fits with Ciarrocca’s description of his offense. The new Penn State offensive coordinator told reporters in early February he wants to put his players in the best position to succeed, rather than trying to pigeonhole them into a scheme that doesn’t fit the personnel.
“Ultimately, it’s about what your players do best,” he said. “Accentuate their strengths and limit their weaknesses. And that’s something I’ve always been able to do, no matter where I’ve coached at. And I’m excited doing that here, and I love the talent that we have to work with here.”
Ciarrocca will have plenty of talent to work with on the field, and on the sidelines. Bowen called plays for the Nittany Lions during the Cotton Bowl win over Memphis in December to the the tune of 53 points. It’s only one game, but his small sample size as a play-caller and his recent promotion to co-offensive coordinator point to a bright future for the tight ends coach.
For now, he’s honed in on learning from Ciarrocca and helping Penn State get better. Bowen believes the new offensive coordinator will produce the kind of results fans hope to see on offense.
“He’s had so much experience doing it at a high level,” Bowen said. “I think everyone will be very pleased. I know I am from a knowledge standpoint and learning from him every day so far.”
This story was originally published April 1, 2020 at 5:03 PM.
