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Amid a 4-0 start in 2022, Kansas coach Lance Leipold could think of nothing more important than how to retain his offensive coordinator.
Leipold and Andy Kotelnicki had been their own Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, riding together for a decade together at three stops. Kotelnicki joined Leipold in 2013 at Wisconsin-Whitewater for the last two of the coach’s six Division III championships. From there, the pair won 41 games together in six years at Buffalo before taking on downtrodden Kansas.
With the Jayhawks creating national buzz in 2022, defenses weren’t the only ones closing in to try to stop Kotelnicki’s unique approach. So were potential suitors.
“Don’t write anything about him,” Leipold pleaded to a reporter back then. “He needs to stay right here. Don’t give him some $2 million [coordinator’s] job.”
Too late. Seven games into the biggest job of his life, Kotelnicki is anything but hidden. He is the brains behind a Penn State offense that too often has underachieved in the James Franklin era. As the Nittany Lions’ new offensive coordinator, Kotelnicki has shored up several areas heading into Saturday’s Week 10 top-five showdown with Ohio State.
Indeed, it took a mighty monetary wind to pry him from Leipold’s side. The 43-year-old improved his quality of life with a four-year contract worth more than $7 million ($1.77 million average annual value). He will reach that $2 million figure that Leipold referenced in the last year of the deal. All of it guaranteed.
Such is the price for elite coordinators these days.
“Andy has been kind of been on my radar for a while,” Franklin said. “We started to look at … the coordinators who are producing explosive plays and not just because their [football] genetics are better.
“When you looked at those types of things, the list narrowed down pretty quickly,” Franklin continued. “The fact we had a relationship and had been talking a while helped.”
Franklin had to get this one right. He had already previously interviewed Kotelnicki for a tight end coaches job. Penn State’s coach had been going through a revolving door of offensive coordinators (Kotelnicki is Franklin’s sixth in 11 seasons). But there seems something more permanent about Kotelnicki, the native of Litchfield, Minnesota, who just four years ago was at the University of Buffalo.
He initially seemed to be an odd match. The money was nice and all, but quarterback Drew Allar is a pocket passer and Penn State, under Franklin, had become almost ultra conservative offensively.
Things were going to change only if Franklin allowed them to change.
But something had to change. Michigan was able to stifle the Nittany Lions in last year’s win, famously running the ball 32 consecutive times in a 24-15 win at Beaver Stadium. The Ohio State meeting was just as stultifying. The Nittany Lions were held to two field goals until Allar’s touchdown pass in the final 30 seconds in a 20-12 loss. The Penn State defense, then the best in the country, deserved better.
Kotelnicki became part of that “better.”
“Andy’s been calling plays for a long time, 19 years,” Franklin said. “There is value in that type of experience. We did some really good things the last couple of years but where we were lacking is explosive plays.”
About those explosive plays …
“The Kotelnicki Effect” has been significant. The Nittany Lions have moved from No. 60 in 2023 to tied for No. 25 in plays of at least 10 yards. That’s about four more per game, but try looking at the Nittany Lions with the naked eye. They are more fun to watch. Currently, Penn State is gaining its most yards per play (7.09) in 30 years. Not since the 12-0 season in 1994 has the Penn State offense been that productive.
Penn State tight end Tyler Warren is the Big Ten’s No. 3 receiver (47 catches) and perhaps the best player at his position this season. Nick Singleton and Kaytron Allen are the only two Big Ten backs from the same school in the top 15 in league rushing. The biggest transformation has been QB Drew Allar, who is one of only four players in the country averaging double digits in yards per pass.
And because of the new play-caller, Penn State also has one of the deepest quarterback rooms in the country. Not many folks know dual-threat backup Beau Pribula, who dropped in seamlessly in Week 9 at Wisconsin, completing 11 of 13 passes after Allar got hurt.
Pribula may see significant time Saturday — if he doesn’t make his first career start. Allar is a game-time decision with what appears to be a knee injury. Penn State is the only Big Ten team with only one starting quarterback in the last two seasons. That streak could be interrupted if Pribula is forced to start.
But Kotelnicki made his reputation as a guy who maximized dual-threat quarterbacks. In 2022, Kansas QB Jalon Daniels accounted for 25 touchdowns despite missing four games. Daniels was hurt last season and hasn’t been the same player this year. Kansas hasn’t been the same team since Kotelnicki left, down in both scoring and offensive yards during a 2-6 start.
“I gotta give Kansas and Lance and their AD a ton of credit because it wasn’t an easy hire,” Franklin said. “He’s been with Lance a long time. You don’t make that move unless you feel good about it. I think Kansas is committed to winning in football at a level we probably haven’t seen in a long time.”
On a bigger stage, another next step is waiting to be taken against the Buckeyes, who own 11 of the last 12 in the series. This Penn State offense isn’t going to shy away. Warren’s 17 catches against USC tied the most in a game by an FBS tight end.
The trick play against the Trojans earlier in October might have defined the season. It featured an uncovered Warren snapping the ball to Pribula, who then lateraled to Allar, who was lined up left as a receiver. Allar threw a perfect pass to Warren, eligible because he was uncovered, for a touchdown. The play sparked a comeback from two touchdowns down.
A mystery remains as to what the play was called. Franklin made it sound this week like its description was too hard to comprehend for mere mortals.
“I am used to wordy play calls,” Franklin said. “If you come from a West Coast offensive system, they are very wordy … Our stuff is wordy. Our play calls could be between 12 and 16 words.”
Back to that 1994 team. In retrospect, it never had a chance at a national championship. That was the team led by quarterback Kerry Collins and Ki-Jana Carter, both future top-10 NFL Draft picks, but it still sports the anguish of winning all its games and dropping from No. 1 to No. 2 in midseason, then soundly beating Oregon in the Rose Bowl only to finish second behind Nebraska.
The group that led the country in yards per play (7.6), yards per game (520) and scoring (47.8 points), but in the end, it couldn’t overcome Nebraska and the pollsters. The No. 1 Huskers beat No. 3 Miami in the Orange Bowl. No. 2 Penn State’s best matchup was the No. 12 Ducks in the Rose.
The College Football Playoff will not be as discriminating since the championship will be decided on the field. A loss Saturday will not drop the Nittany Lions out of playoff contention, but a win makes them a favorite to the get to the Big Ten Championship Game.
“The Kotelnicki Effect” is waiting … to have an effect.
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