Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1518105
A P R I L 2 0 2 4 2 1 W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M Andy Kotelnicki is taking over for a pre- decessor who was successful — PSU led in the Big Ten in scoring offense in 2023 at 36.2 points per game — but not suc- cessful enough to earn a fourth season in State College. With so many moving parts, the ques- tion for championship aspirants like Penn State has less to do with whether they can hold their staffs together — they can't — but whether stability as a concept is overrated. PSU is certainly hoping that's the case. When the Nittany Lions opened spring practice on March 12, it was with an eye toward making the transition as seamless as possible. "Really, the issues are the same as they always are, but it's just magnified," head coach James Franklin said. "I don't think there's any doubt about that. We need to feel coming out of spring ball that our players have confidence and an under- standing of how we want to play in all three phases. "I do want to pat the coaches on the back, because it's been pains- taking to go through the entire process. There's been a lot of humility in those rooms as well. For Tom to be able to compro- mise and for Andy to be able to compromise and Coach Lustig to be able to compromise where it's appropriate, I think has been really good." Best Interest Although Penn State has never before had to replace all three coordinators in the same year during Franklin's reign, this is not entirely unfamiliar terri- tory. Since 2014 when Franklin and his staff first arrived, the Nittany Lions have had 13 co- ordinators — three defensive, six offensive and four special teams. Occasionally, the Lions have had more than one new coordi- nator in the same year. In 2016, for instance, Joe Moorhead and Brent Pry were in their first sea- sons overseeing the offense and defense, respectively. That worked out pretty well; Penn State went 11-3 and won the Big Ten championship. Two years later, PSU had two new co- ordinators in place, with Ricky Rahne in- heriting the offense from the Mississippi State-bound Moorhead and Phil Galiano taking charge of the special teams after Charles Huff joined Moorhead's new staff with the Bulldogs. The Lions went 9-4 that year. The other instance in which PSU re- placed two coordinators at the same time was in 2022. Pry had left to become head coach at Virginia Tech, opening up a va- cancy that would be filled masterfully by Diaz. Collins joined the staff three weeks later, and together they helped PSU as- semble an 11-2 season that ended in a Rose Bowl victory over Utah. This year, a 10-win regular season would all but certainly thrust the Nit- tany Lions into the inaugural 12-team CFP field. To help achieve that goal, Frank- lin said he's asked Allen, Kotelnicki and Lustig to adapt as much as possible to the players they've inherited rather than forcing the players to assume that burden. "I kept saying over and over and over again, what is in Penn State's best inter- est? What is in our players' best inter- est?" Franklin said. "Not what you were comfortable doing at Indiana. Not what you were comfortable doing at Kansas. Not what you were comfortable doing at Vanderbilt, and also not what we were comfortable doing. What is best?" Streamlining The Offense The most heavily scrutinized aspect of Penn State's transition is going to be how junior quarterback Drew Allar adapts to Kotelnicki's approach. The Lions want to produce big plays with more frequency while keeping turnovers to a minimum. They handled the latter skillfully last year, with their 8 giveaways ranking third in the FBS. But while they didn't turn the ball over very often, they didn't produce the kind of offensive thunderclaps that are needed to have a chance against the likes of Michigan and Ohio State. PSU averaged 3.5 yards per play in a 20-12 loss to the Buckeyes and 4.0 yards in a 24-15 defeat against Michigan three weeks later. Offensive coordinator Mike Yurich was fired the day after the loss to the Wolverines. For the season, the Nittany Lions averaged 400.2 yards per game to rank second in the Big Ten, and Allar came away feeling as though the offense "wasn't far off at all." But the ability to produce yards and points against its other 10 opponents only made the struggles against Ohio State and Mich- igan that much more irksome. "That was the most frustrating thing about it," Allar said. "We had the right things going, and for whatever reason, we didn't execute the play properly. Or we could have been more sound in assignments and things of that nature. I think that's why it was so frustrating last year at times. For me personally, I knew how close we were. We have all the talent in the world here. We've just got to go out and do the job." That's where Kotelnicki figures to help. One of his objectives at Penn State is to streamline the offense so Head coach James Franklin has brought 13 coordinators to Penn State, but until this year, he's never had to replace all three in the same season. PHOTO BY RYAN SNYDER