Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1518105
A P R I L 2 0 2 4 3 9 W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M T he Penn State football team has be- gun to implement its new offense for the upcoming season, with first-year coordinator Andy Kotelnicki oversee- ing the transition. As with any change in leadership, there will be specific players and positions that stand to benefit. Every position should fare better if Kotelnicki can replicate what he did at Kansas. No matter how you sift or filter the data, his offenses with the Jayhawks lapped Penn State in explo- sive-play production. But these are the players and areas that stand to benefit the most. 1. QUARTERBACK DREW AL- LAR: The benefits for the individual positions are cumulative at the quar- terback position, but it's not just about added production from explosive plays. Kotelnicki's offense has some com- plexities that the team is nailing down during the first part of the year. RPOs, for example, are a vital part of Kotelnicki's offense, even if these run-pass options don't equate to a high volume of plays. RPOs are essentially running plays with a designed passing concept tacked onto them. If the con- ditions are right, the quarterback can pull the ball and throw to a receiver, independent of the running play. We can see a stark difference when we compare Kansas quarterback Jason Bean to Penn State's Drew Allar on RPO throws last year. Bean more than doubled Allar's yardage on RPO throws (417 yards to 181) while only playing in nine games. RPOs are one-read plays in which the quarterback identifies a defender put into conflict by the run action. If that player bites on the run, the quarterback throws the ball. If the defender stays in coverage, no one generally notices that an RPO occurred. These can be incred- ibly beneficial to offensive production and quarterback confidence. Last year, Kansas produced enough explosive plays that Bean threw for more yards on his first-read passes than Allar (1,681 yards to 1,630) despite playing in fewer games and making fewer throws. Allar shares responsibility here. The rising junior must be patient, letting the play breathe before moving on to his next progression. Playing slower mentally will allow the offense to function properly. Allar also needs to be willing to throw the ball downfield into tight windows. Penn State must accept some risk for this to work, but if the scheme gives Allar some cleaner, easier throws, he could blossom into an elite passer. 2. SLOT RECEIVERS: At Kansas, Kotelnicki was excellent at manufac- turing explosive plays from slot targets. When the Jayhawks targeted players who lined up in the slot, they aver- aged an explosive play on 24 percent of those snaps. That amounted to 26 ex- plosive passing plays compared to Penn State's 15, and they did it on 16 fewer passing attempts than PSU. If Penn State is able to do likewise this season, the main beneficiary is going to be senior receiver KeAndre Lambert- Smith. He's a fair approximation of Kan- sas wideout Luke Grimm, who saw most of the snaps and targets in the slot last year and came up with 33 catches for 555 yards. With Penn State boasting a poten- tially better balance of receivers this year, Lambert-Smith has a chance to enjoy a big season lining up in the slot. 3. RECEIVING BACKS: Kansas' strengths last year were at the running back and tight end positions. That also happened to be the case at Penn State. Fans clamored for PSU to get Nicholas Singleton and Kaytron Allen more in- volved in the passing game to make them more explosive. However, the issue, given the constraints of what we saw from the previous offense, was that it likely wouldn't result in more explosive plays. The best way to illustrate this is to compare the average depth of the target between the two offenses. Last season, Allen and Singleton had a combined average depth of 0.0 yards. That means the two sophomore running backs were getting the ball at the line of scrimmage. The average target depth for all passes in college football last season was 9.9 yards. Penn State's average tar- get depth was 8.3 yards. That helps ex- plain why PSU produced few explosive plays even with Allen and Singleton averaging about 9 yards after the catch. Kotelnicki was very creative and ag- gressive with his running backs last season. His runners' target depth aver- aged 3.0 yards. That doesn't seem like a lot, but it's actually massive. And when you narrow the selection down to just targets on which the runners lined up in the backfield, the Jayhawks' average target depth jumped to 3.8 yards. With no disrespect intended toward Kansas' backfield, the Lions have supe- rior talent. If Kotelnicki can get Singleton and Allen downfield before they catch the ball, the average on passing plays to running backs goes from 9 yards to nearly 15. That's how you get explosive pass plays from a running back. ■ O P I N I O N THOMAS FRANK CARR T F R A N K .CA R R @ O N 3 .C O M Running back Nicholas Singleton was Penn State's fourth-leading receiver last year with 26 catches for 308 yards and a pair of touchdowns. PHOTO BY STEVE MANUEL These Players Will Benefit From PSU's Offensive Changes UPON FURTHER REVIEW