Andy Kotelnicki: Penn State's offensive improvement has been evident during preseason

In December, Penn State made a splash by hiring Andy Kotelnicki away from Kansas. His task will be to take Drew Allar, Nick Singleton and the other playmakers on the Nittany Lions offense and take a leap after an up-and-down go under Mike Yurcich a year ago.

So far, Kotelnicki said the work is paying off. He looked back on Penn State’s journey from spring ball through training camp with the season quickly approaching.

Kotelnicki specifically pointed the consistent improvement he’s seeing from the offense. While it’s not perfect – and, quite frankly, probably won’t be – he sees a stark difference between where the Nittany Lions were in the spring compared to now.

“I’ve been pleased,” Kotelnicki said. “And I’ve commented before about how I just care that our guys are getting better every day, and that is evident. We are definitely a better football team from the very first practice I was part of this spring, to now. And every one of those, we’ve had growth.

“They’re never gonna be perfect. I think that’s very natural for us, as coaches, to be critical and never be satisfied. I think that that’s why we’re sitting in the chairs that we do. So I don’t know that we’re ever gonna leave a game or a practice and be like, gosh, that was perfect. But I am pleased because the mistakes that we make, we’re correcting. Everyone is coachable and willing to grow.”

Drew Allar ‘really excited’ for new Penn State offense

Penn State led the Big Ten in scoring offense last year with 36.2 points per game and with 184.85 rushing yards per game, as well. The passing game, however, ranked No. 5 out of the 14 teams in the league a year ago as Allar struggled with the deep ball.

However, the rising junior quarterback still tied for the league lead with 25 passing touchdowns. In addition, Allar threw just two interceptions – the fewest by a quarterback to appear in at least six games. But James Franklin still saw the need to make a change and brought in Andy Kotelnicki, who helped Kansas become a Big 12 contender.

As for how Allar is feeling about the new-look offense, he sounds ready to go. He also pointed out some of the differences from last year’s team.

“I’m really excited. There’s a lot of things I can do in this offense that I think it’s going to be cool to put on tape, and I think it’s going to cause stress for defenses,” Allar said. “There’s a lot of pre-snap stuff you can do, but there’s also a lot of post-snap stuff you can do that’s going to just cause stress on defenses, challenge their rules and coverages, certain coverages.

“I think the biggest thing is just how complimentary we’re going to be. Everything’s going to marry together. Everything is going to look the same. That’s one of the big, intentional points we made this offseason, of making everything look the same. … But it’s been really cool to see how creative we can be on offense, and how simple it is for us, but how much stress it can cause for a defense.”