Allar and Andy: Penn State’s Quarterback and New OC Share First Impressions; Plus, the PSU QB Coaching Triad  (2024)

Call them Allar and Andy. They are Penn State football’s newest dynamic duo, and they will go a long way in determining the Nittany Lions’ success in 2024.

Andy Kotelnicki was hired on Dec. 1 as Penn State’s new offensive coordinator, succeeding fired OC/QB coach Mike Yurcich after laudatory stints in Buffalo and Kansas. He’s been on the job for three weeks, mostly observing and meeting with players and coaches.

An early enrollee in January 2022, Drew Allar has been at Penn State at 711 days — and counting. Next season will be his third at Penn State and his second as the Nittany Lions’ starting quarterback. In his career, he is 10-2 as a starter. Overall at PSU, as a passer he is 294 of 410 (60.7%) for 2,680 yards, with 27 touchdown passes and only one interception. He’s had 87 carries for 222 yards, for five TDs and an average run of 2.6 yards.

Here’s their first impressions of each other, and a more detailed look at how head coach James Franklin — a former college QB and an OC/QB college coach for five seasons — plans to coach the position moving forward.

1. WHAT ANDY SAYS

Meet cute: “Drew may be the first person I talked to after I accepted the job — (it was) on FaceTime or whatever. We’ve met a couple times in-person as well. My initial impressions of him are very, very impressive. He has the kind of things you want from a quarterback. It’s been really good.”

Allar is all-in: “Drew is a high capacity guy. He wants to sit in on the meetings, he wants to be involved. He’s very knowledgeable with game-planning. He wants to know the ‘whys’ of things. He’s the kind of guy who wants to be the coach of the field. You can give him plenty of responsibility to make sure you’re in the right play.”

Maturity: “You want players to take ownership. It starts with that position. He has, from what I’ve seen, very much embodied that.”

2. WHAT ALLAR SAYS

The hiring process: “Coach Franklin did let the quarterbacks know first who he did hire as he OC. But I had no role in interviewing candidates or giving my opinion.”

Getting acquainted: “I really like Coach K a lot. He’s been setting up meetings just to get to know guys on more of a personal level, which I think is big for him and just being here. Having those open and honest conversations with him have been really good. And I think he’ll be able to help me reach those goals and help our offense take the next step.”

Coach K’s offense: “He’s had a lot of success over multiple different stops. In the past, his offenses have been very explosive. So I’m definitely excited. I haven’t dived too deep into his system. Just looking at the numbers standpoint, he does a lot of good things. He uses a lot of personnel groupings, which we’ve been doing here. He has a really high explosive rate percentage on both the run and pass.”

Changes are coming: “I’m excited to get to work with him in the future and just learn everything thatI can under him. ….I think he brings an element to our offense where he’s just going to be able to relate to everybody. And I think he’s been doing that the last two weeks. Beingable to watch our practice has been huge so he has an understanding of where we are as a team and as an offense, what we run similar to him, learning our terminology. Then after the bowl game, it’s what we’ll be changing, what we’ll be applying and what we’ll be focusing on going into spring ball.”

The role of graduate assistant Danny O’Brien: “I know Danny’s going to be involved in it like he has been the whole year and specifically these last 2-3 weeks. I know Danny will play a role in it.”

3. THE PSU QB COACHING TRIAD

What Kotelnicki has planned: “There’s going to be three of us that are working quarterbacks: Myself, Coach Franklin and Danny O’Brien. And I know Danny, who I’ve interacted with, has been there for the last couple of weeks and does a fantastic job. You have a chance for a guy who’s played professional football, the quarterback position, to interact with the quarterbacks. I think that’s a huge deal.

“And then Coach Franklin, being an offensive guy, to be involved, and then myself — I’ve coached quarterbacks in the past and have been able to see the whole big picture with them. So, it’ll be very NFL like in terms of how we interact with those guys.”

Franklin was a college offensive coordinator/QB coach for five seasons. Here is where his offenses ranked nationally in major college football when he was the QB coach/OC at two stops, earlier in his coaching career. (Josh Freeman was the K-State QB in 2006-07 and O’Brien was the Terps QB in 2010).

Among the 12 teams in the College Football Playoff and playing in New Year’s Six bowls it appears Penn State is the only one without a designated full-time QB coach from its allotment of 10 full-time assistants. As a grad assistant, O’Brien must also take classes in addition to coaching.

Here’s how those CFP/NY6 schools break it down:

Offensive Coordinator/QB Coach — Alabama, Washington, Liberty (co-coordinator), Missouri, Georgia, Oregon, Ole Miss (co-coordinator).

Quarterbacks Coach — Michigan, Ohio State, Texas, Florida State.