Andy Kotelnicki reflects on growth of Drew Allar since he accepted Penn State job

Since taking over as the offensive coordinator at Penn State, Andy Kotelnicki has gone through an offseason’s worth of practice and now 14 games. During that stretch, he’s seen a ton of growth from his quarterback Drew Allar.

That going change forced Allar into learning a new offense and, thanks to the time the two have put in together, Kotelnicki is now seeing the results.

“There’s a much greater understanding on his side for sure of what we’re doing offensively,” Andy Kotelnicki said. “We’re game planning, obviously, and how fast that can go and how seamless it can be on a week-to-week basis because of where we’re at. His understanding, his mastery of the offense, has grown every week since I’ve been here. Then you get into the season, and that’s continued. He’s at a high level with it.”

Drew Allar spent two seasons at Penn State with Mike Yurcich at offensive coordinator. So, the move to Andy Kotelnicki was a big one for him to deal with. Given that he’s going to be coming back in 2025, it stands to reason that Allar will have a season of comfort within the offense.

“We’re always trying to get the quarterbacks involved in things with the game plan — what they like, what they don’t like. Certainly, he’s been doing that. When we put game plans together, he’s real quick to communicate with myself and Coach [Danny] O’Brien about what he sees and what he thinks. When your trigger man is involved in that way,” Kotelnicki said. And he’s taking ownership in what we’re doing, hopefully, it connects at a high level, and you really hope you’re getting a ton of ownership, I guess, is the word I’m looking for.”

For the 2024 season, Drew Allar completed 68.5 percent of his passes for 3,021 yards and 21 touchdowns to seven interceptions. He’s also rushed for 289 yards and six touchdowns. Those have made for single-season career highs in completion percentage, passing yards, rushing yards, and rushing touchdowns.

“You get a ton of buy-in, you get a ton of execution, you get a ton of reps — you know what I mean? Meaningful reps. We don’t have a lot of what I call ‘my bads’ out there on the field. He knows what’s happening. He knows his reads. He knows what the defense is doing,” Kotelnicki said. “And he’s just at a high level of understanding right now from where he was 13 months ago.”

Drew Allar and Andy Kotelnicki will get at least one more game together this season when Penn State takes on Boise State in the quarterfinals of the College Football Playoff.