Minnesota OC Kirk Ciarrocca praises Penn State's Yetur Gross-Matos: 'I'd pick him in the first round'
Minnesota had a tough task from Penn State over the weekend.
Though the Golden Gophers put up 31 points on the Nittany Lions’ defense, that point total alone doesn’t tell the full story. Minnesota scored 24 points in the first half before Penn State locked things down after the break. Penn State allowed just one second-half touchdown.
On Wednesday, Minnesota offensive coordinator Kirk Ciarrocca discussed a bit of the game plan along the offensive line. He mentioned how the Gophers rotate bodies to stay fresh and maximize matchups, and he particularly took time to highlight Penn State’s Yetur Gross-Matos.
Ryan Burns with Gopher Illustrated shared Ciarrocca’s comments:
“99 (Yetur Gross-Matos) is going to be, well, I don’t know if he’s going to be a first-rounder, but I’d pick him in the first round,” praised Ciarrocca. “He’s going to be a high pick in the draft. So just trying to get maybe a little bit more mass on him. I didn’t think it was going to confuse them, but I knew it was something they weren’t working on.”
In his career, Gross-Matos has 31 tackles for loss and 14.5 sacks. He is definitely among the top edge players in the country and is a likely candidate to forego his senior season for the 2020 NFL Draft.