James Franklin offers early assessment of new Penn State OC Andy Kotelnicki

It’s been a little over two weeks since Penn State football hired Andy Kotelnicki as its next offensive coordinator on December 1. Since then, Kotelnicki has had the chance to get acclimated to the program as the Nittany Lions prepare to take on the Ole Miss Rebels in the Peach Bowl on December 30. It’s only been a short window of opportunity, but the new playcaller is already starting to make his first imprints on the Penn State offense. On Friday, James Franklin offered a first evaluation of Andy Kotelnicki since arriving in State College.

James Franklin: Andy Kotelnicki has “hit the ground running” since arriving at Penn State

Andy Kotelnicki arrived in Happy Valley at an opportune time. Rather than starting with a blank canvas in early winter, the new offensive coordinator gets the chance to observe Penn State football on the field as it readies for the Peach Bowl in two weeks.

Extremely valuable as a gestation period, Penn State football coach James Franklin gave insight on Friday into how the first few weeks have gone with Kotelnicki in the Lasch Building. While Franklin cautioned that their interactions have been limited due to the hectic college football calendar in early December, the early returns on the new offensive coordinator are promising.

“I think it’s been really good,” Franklin said. “I love this model of being able to bring guys in and allow them to kind of get a feel for the culture and the program and the structure and the organization and the personnel and all those types of things and then be able to hit the ground running.”

Franklin also praised Kotelnicki’s situation at Kansas for creating healthy conversation to ensure Penn State was the right fit.

“I think it also helped; he had a really good situation,” he said. “I’ve got a ton of respect for Kansas, and I’ve got a tremendous amount of respect for Coach [Lance] Leipold. And he didn’t need to leave there, right, so it forced a ton of dialogue to make sure it made sense for both parties. And, fortunately, it did. I think it worked out where it made sense for everybody. But we were able to have a ton of conversations ahead of time to make sure we’re all on the same page.”

“The reason I say that is, I think it helps once he arrives on campus,” Franklin continued. “I knew what I was getting; he knew what he was signing up for. So, I think that’s been helpful.”

What is Kotelnicki’s role during Peach Bowl prep?

Although Penn State football plays a game in 12 days, Andy Kotelnicki won’t have an extremely active role in preparing for the Ole Miss defense. Instead, this bowl practice period allows him to get immersed in the program and look at the Nittany Lions offense with fresh eyes.

“[It’s] been a lot of time spent on looking at the terminology and the language and what can stay the same, what should stay the same, what should be tweaked, really for both of us,” James Franklin said of Kotelnicki’s early efforts. “Sometimes you call something a certain way, and it just evolved that way over eight years, and it may not be the best way to call it. And I think he’s got some situations like that, and we’ve got some situations like that, things that could be a little bit more descriptive and helpful for the players from a teaching and a learning perspective. So we’re kind of working through those things [now].”

Kotelnicki has also started to meet with the Penn State football players individually and in position groups. On Friday, Nittany Lions QB Drew Allar discussed how those initial conversations have gone from his perspective.

“With the time I’ve been back, I’ve had a ton of meeting time with the offensive staff in general,” Allar said. “I’m just really excited for the future. I think he brings an element to our offense where he’s just going to be able to relate to everybody. And I think he’s been doing that the last two weeks. [He’s been] setting up meetings just to get to know guys on more of a personal level, which I think is big for him.”

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