But that doesn’t mean Gopher football fans won’t see Athan. In fact, if all goes as planned we’ll get a really close look at his NEW JERSEY home, when Minnesota travels to Piscataway to play against the Rutgers Scarlet Knights, who he was just named QB1 for.
Kaliakmanis announced his transfer just days after the Minnesota Gophers season ended and the parting wasn’t without hurt feelings. Head coach PJ Fleck had all but anointed Athan as his QB of the future back in 2019 and it ended in a complete failure four years later. No matter whose fault it was, that isn’t an easy situation to be a part of on either side.
Reuniting with old Minnesota Gophers OC friend
No doubt, part of Athan’s issues while a Gopher was the instability at offensive coordinator. Fleck’s longtime OC Kirk Ciarrocca, whose only recruiting mission after PJ Fleck was hired in 2017 was landing Kaliakmanis, jumped on a big raise from Penn State and opportunity to move closer to family, following Minnesota’s historic 2019 season.
He was fired after one season with the Nittany Lions. After one season with West Virginia, PJ Fleck hired him back (2022). He repaid that favor by leaving one year later for… Rutgers. That’s right, Kirk Ciarrocca, the offensive coordinator who recruited Athan Kaliakmanis to Minnesota, is now the OC at Rutgers, where Athan was just named QB1.
That will make for a very interesting mid-November meeting in New Jersey, should Kaliakmanis still be starter that deep into the season. As Minnesota Gophers quarterback, the “Greek Rifle” passed for 2,784 yards, 17 touchdowns and 13 interceptions in 23 appearances, most of them starts. His career completion percentage in Dinkytown was a paltry 53.3%.
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