James Franklin: Andy Kotelnicki working to create explosive plays for Drew Allar

Penn State football suffered offensive slumps in the biggest games last season. This led to a painful watching experience as a Nittany Lions fan. Against Ohio State, Michigan, and Ole Miss, it felt like Penn State could not get out of its way. But at the end of the day, the Nittany Lions always had the talent to have success but lacked the scheme behind them to support the talent. Insert new offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki and his experience at Kansas. James Franklin believes that Koeltnicki will help Drew Allar and the offense bring more explosive plays in 2024.

James Franklin: Andy Kotelnicki, Drew Allar working on explosive plays

Andy Kotelnicki was responsible for helping lead the Kansas Jayhawks to 3,121 passing yards and 2,678 rushing yards during the 2023 season. That balance between run and pass game is what the Penn State football team was missing last season.

Now, with Drew Allar entering his second season as a starter, partnering with Kotelnicki, the Penn State quarterback should take his game to the next level. Specifically, using the play-action pass more in 2024 should help the Nittany Lions offense, according to James Franklin.

Franklin explained during his press conference on Tuesday. “First of all, I think some of the things that we can do to compliment the run game in the play-action pass to create explosive plays to open really the field up and make them defend the whole 120 yards and the whole 53 and one-third,” Franklin said. “I think is really important, and I think the play-action pass will be a big part of that with Drew, with Andy, with our offense in general.

“The other thing is, I think some things that you can do that we did later in the season. I think the last two games if you look at our explosive play percentage, it dramatically increased. I think there are some things that you can do with the wide receivers in terms of motion, in terms of alignment, like stacks and bunches and things like that, that we can do to help our guys versus man coverage. I think that’s going to be important for us as well.

“I would say the combination of you look at what they were able to do at Kansas, what we were able to do the last couple of games, play-action pass specifically, motions, shifts, formations, bunches, stacks, things like that to make it more challenging for people in man coverage. I think those are probably the biggest things that jump out to us.”

Drew Allar on his relationship with Andy Kotelnicki

For his part, Drew Allar commended Andy Kotelnicki’s work in simplifying the Penn State offense, allowing the Nittany Lions to read and react.

“I love being around Coach K,” Allar told us last month. “He brings great energy to our offensive unit. And I think he just allows us to be ourselves and play to our strengths and play with freedom. But he’s also going to allow us to play fast by eliminating variables. One of his big things is eliminating variables for us. He doesn’t want us to think; he wants us to just go out and play and react. I think he’s done a great job with that already.”

We will get our first glimpse at the new Andy Kotelnicki offense, albeit a watered-down version, at the annual Blue-White Game on April 13.

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