New Penn State football OC gives first impressions of Drew Allar

We won’t see Andy Kotelnicki call a play for Penn State football until 2024. But the new Nittany Lions offensive coordinator has already started to become engrained in the program. And while Kotelnicki discussed Ted Lasso, Dairy Queen blizzards, and running into trees during his introductory press conference Friday, he also spent plenty of time talking Xs and Os. During the discussion, Kotelnicki offered his first impressions of QB Drew Allar and his philosophy on improving the Penn State passing attack next year.

New offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnick offers his initial impressions of QB Drew Allar

There’s no question that the on-field success or failure of the Penn State offense in 2024 rests with Drew Allar. Despite underwhelming performances on the biggest stages, the sophomore QB still put up an impressive 2,300 yards and 23 touchdowns in his first season as a starter.

But now the Nittany Lions offense is getting ready for a transition period. While there hasn’t been much time to get acquainted, Andy Kotelnicki has started to meet with his new players over the last few weeks. One of the first players he met with was Drew Allar, and on Friday, the new offensive coordinator shared his impressions of the Penn State QB.

“High capacity guy,” Kotelnicki said. “Wants to sit in the meetings. Wants to be involved with game planning. Wants to know the why of things. He’s the kind of guy who is a coach on the field, and you can give plenty of responsibilities to make sure you’re in the right play. So my initial impressions of him are very, very impressive from the kind of things that you want from a QB.”

How can Kotelnicki get Allar in rhythm in 2024?

James Franklin openly criticized the offensive play calling of Mike Yurcich as the Nittany Lions struggled down the stretch against Ohio State and Michigan this year. The Penn State football coach highlighted the inability to create easy throws for Drew Allar to get the young QB in rhythm. 

So accordingly, Andy Kotelnicki was asked how he plans to correct this issue in 2024

“When you talk about easy throws, you’re looking for often soft coverage,” he said. “You’re looking for things that can get out of his hand on rhythm and timing. And you want to game plan for those kinds of things…I think a lot of coaches would tell you that there’s a reason that QBs who are winning Heismans and playing in the NFL are completing 60-75% of their passes. And there’s usually a decent number of those completions are an easy off-throw.”

And you can’t really argue with Kotelnicki’s results. At Kansas, QB Jalon Daniels put up 2,000 yards in 2022 and 700 yards in three games this season before suffering an injury. 

Will the Penn State offense be more explosive?

Similarly, another major criticism for Penn State football in 2023 was the lack of explosive plays on offense. The Nittany Lions ranked 42nd in explosive passes over the last two seasons. Kansas, on the other hand, ranked second nationally. 

“I would tell you, I know what you can do to prevent inconsistencies, and that is by practicing everything that you want to emphasize consistently well,” Kotelnicki said when asked how he plans to make the Penn State offense more explosive. “I’m a huge preparation, a huge practice guy. You can’t just go out there and not practice things a certain way and expect to get results on a Saturday.

“I don’t know enough to be able to speak about [what happened at Penn State] last fall that way,” he continued. “I’m just speaking about my experience as a coordinator and a coach. You’re going to train your players to be a certain way, and you’re going to train them on the things that you’re going to emphasize.”

Last year, the Jayhawks averaged 7 yards per play and put up over 500 yards of offense six times. While he certainly made a good first impression on Friday, time will tell if Kotelnicki can replicate that formula in Happy Valley.

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