Penn State’s Andy Kotelnicki aims to create more explosive and fun plays

Andy Kotelnicki was born and raised in Litchfield, Minnesota, a small town where everyone knows his name.

He was one of the most popular kids in middle and high school, the center of attention because of his effervescent personality.

“Andy loved to have fun,” said Jon Johnson, high school football coach and physical education teacher. “He was fun. He was that type of player. He always liked connecting with people. People loved Andy. People liked being around him. So do we.

Kotelnicki enjoyed being around Johnson and John Carlson, the Litchfield football team’s offensive coordinator and basketball coach who also taught physical education. They were among several men who inspired Penn State’s new offensive coordinator to choose a career in coaching a quarter-century ago.

“They made football fun,” Kotelnicki said. “They had a great way of getting you to focus on getting things done. They were good at it. They knew when to rip my ass apart. They knew when to hug me and love me.”

Penn State players have felt the love from Kotelnicki since he left Kansas last December to join James Franklin’s coaching staff. They like your positivity, energy, enthusiasm and leadership.

“He carries himself like the head coach of the offense,” quarterback Beau Pribula said. “I think all players gravitate towards that. He has a good sense of humor. He’ll make fun of us, sure, because we’re the defenders, but he’ll make fun of everyone. He likes to joke and have fun with the players.

“He’s a great leader and a great offensive mind. So far it’s been nothing but good things.”

The games haven’t started yet. Franklin fired Mike Yurcich and hired Kotelnicki from Kansas to augment Penn State’s explosive plays and rejuvenate the offense.

To emphasize how tough the offense was at times last year, the Nittany Lions had three or fewer plays of at least 20 yards against Indiana (3), Maryland (3), Northwestern (3), Ohio State (2), Illinois (two). ), Delaware (2), Michigan (1) and Iowa (0).

Penn State had just eight plays of at least 40 yards; the Jayhawks had 24. The Lions averaged just 6.76 yards per pass attempt, ranking 79th. Kansas averaged 10.04, which was third.

Carlson, Kotelnicki’s offensive coordinator at Litchfield and father of former Notre Dame and NFL tight end John Carlson Jr., was asked what goes through his mind when he watches his student’s offenses.

“Interesting,” he said. “Creative. Complicated. Fun. Intelligent. He’s a smart, intelligent football coach. You could just say. There’s not a lot of wasted movement, but there is a lot of movement. It’s a lot of fun to watch how he operates. Obviously he does a good job at teach him.”

Like many coaches, Kotelnicki, 42, considers himself a teacher above all else. As a teenager, he experienced two events that pointed him in the direction of coaching.

When he was 13, parents of younger hockey players asked him to teach their children, ages 4 to 6, how to demonstrate crossovers by skating in a circle.

When he was a senior in high school and working as a teacher’s assistant because “I didn’t have classes and just wandered the halls,” Carlson asked him to teach a younger boy with autism the basics of swimming.

“I tried to get him to put his head under water and blow bubbles,” Kotelnicki said. “I was trying to teach him every little thing I could remember. I don’t know if we ever officially made him swim, but the patience needed to teach children was very evident there.

“I found that very rewarding… Looking back now, those are the two moments that really made me know I was born to be a coach.”

He played center on the Litchfield football team and played well enough to earn an opportunity at Division III Wisconsin-River Falls. He was a team captain as a senior in 2003 and a student offensive line coach.

Kotelnicki began his professional career as a graduate assistant at Western Illinois, returned to River Falls for five seasons and coached at the University of Mary for two. Then Lance Leipold hired him at Wisconsin-Whitewater, where he thrived under the most successful Division III coach in history.

In 2014, Kotelnicki’s second season there, the Warhawks averaged 40.1 points and 487.7 total yards per game en route to a 15-0 record and their sixth national title in eight seasons. The two had success over the next nine seasons at Buffalo and Kansas, with Leipold as head coach and Kotelnicki as his OC.

“He and I have a great relationship,” Kotelnicki said. “It was difficult to move on with him. He has always been a broad thinker. He was really good at putting the players first.”

From Leipold, he learned to design an offense around players – their strengths and weaknesses – and not allow players to conform to a rigid system.

In their six seasons in Buffalo, Leipold and Kotelnicki helped resurrect a program that had just two winning seasons since 1999. The Bulls made steady improvements, going 24-10 in their final three seasons there and setting school records for total offense and fast attack.

Over the past three years at Kansas, the Jayhawks have thrived on offense and become bowl eligible in consecutive seasons (2022-23) for just the second time. Kotelnicki oversaw some of the most prolific offensive performances in school history behind running back Devin Neal and quarterback Jalon Daniels.

Kansas often used pre-snap motions and changes and varying formations to confuse defenses.

“I watched the Kansas offense a lot,” Pribula said. “It’s very different from our attack. It’s very innovative.”

Less than a month after Franklin fired Yurcich midseason, the little-known Kotelnicki left Kansas and Leipold for Penn State and received a hefty pay raise. He said he did it for personal and professional reasons.

“I know he loved Kansas and loved working with coach Leipold,” Carlson said. “He had a great thing going at Kansas. That was his comfort zone. He could have stayed in his comfort zone. As a coach, you always encourage kids to step out of their comfort zone.

“There are Division I schools and then there are the Big Ten and the SEC. He has a great opportunity.”

In his introductory press conference, Kotelnicki gave everyone a glimpse into his personality. He compared attacking football to a Dairy Queen Blizzard; he explained why it’s better to have Tigger’s personality than Eeyore’s; and dropped a mention of Ted Lasso.

He won the day, but can he help Penn State and Franklin win enough to make the College Football Playoff for the first time now that it has been expanded to 12 teams?

Kotelnicki’s job is to restore the Penn State offense’s big-play ability, to take better advantage of weapons like Governor Mifflin graduate Nick Singleton and fellow running back Kaytron Allen, and to make the passing game more dangerous behind the scenes. Drew Allar and Pribula.

Allar and Pribula combined for just seven touchdown passes of 20-plus yards last season as wide receivers struggled to separate from defenders.

“There will always be situations where talented, elite receivers have the ability to get open,” Kotelnicki said. “We train our players to know how to do this. There are things within a scheme that you can do to help create softness, openness and disorientation.”

More than a century ago, Litchfield High School produced legendary Minnesota football coach Bernie Bierman, who led the Golden Gophers to seven Big Ten titles and five national championships. Franklin hopes Litchfield’s latest graduate can help him and Penn State reach their ultimate goal.

“I hesitate to talk about wins and losses and winning titles,” Kotelnicki said. “If you believe in the process you have to develop your football team, the results will take care of themselves. I know this: expectations are higher. It’s probably the reason I’m here.

“I know Coach Franklin defined what he wants to do a long time ago. He wants to win everything. I want that too.”