James Franklin considers how Andy Kotelnicki can help Drew Allar

The Penn State Nittany Lions are returning plenty of experience on offense as Spring ball gets going in Happy Valley. That includes Drew Allar at quarterback, who head coach James Franklin is hoping to see make a big step forward next season.

A big part of how Drew Allar is able to progress comes down to new offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki. Just how Kotelnicki can help Allar is something that James Franklin addressed as Spring practice got underway.

“A couple things. I think, first of all, I think some of the things that we can do to compliment the run game and the play action pass to create explosive plays to open really the field up and make them defend the whole 120 yards and the whole 53 and one-third, I think is really important,” James Franklin said. “And I think the play-action pass will be a big part of that with Drew, with Andy, with our offense in general.”

Drew Allar came to Penn State as a five-star recruit in the Class of 2022. In 2023, which was his first season as the starting quarterback for the Nittany Lions, Allar threw for 2,631 yards and 25 touchdowns to only two interceptions. However, creating big plays was an issue for the Penn State offense.

The changes that Franklin is hoping for under Kotelnicki are real, but they’re also things that Franklin believes he saw late in the 2023 season, following the initial change at coordinator.

“The other thing is, I think some things that you can do that we did later in the season. I think the last two games, if you look at our explosive play percentage, it dramatically increased. I think there’s some things that you can do with the wide receivers in terms of motion, in terms of alignment, like stacks and bunches and things like that, that we can do to help our guys versus man coverage. I think that’s going to be really, really important for us as well,” Franklin said.

“So, I would say the combination of you look at what they were able to do at Kansas, what we were able to do the last couple of games, play-action pass specifically, motions, shifts, formations, bunches, stacks, things like that to make it more challenging for people in man coverage. I think those are probably the biggest things that jump out to us.”

James Franklin considers how Big Ten expansion impacts spring practice plan

The Big Ten is adding four new teams this season, but that doesn’t mean that James Franklin thinks it will change Penn State’s spring approach.

“I would say no. I think if this was maybe 15 years ago in the Big Ten and everybody had to, under league rules, line up with a fullback and run power, then maybe. But I think if you look, most of the offenses in the Big Ten are very similar in a lot of ways to what that other conference looked like. If you look at the way USC operates and Oregon and Washington and UCLA, I think the leagues probably look more similar in terms of style of play than maybe ever before,” Franklin said.

“Obviously we’re going to have to get into in detail studying those people, but in terms of, again, like we’re all lining up and running Power I and they’re all spread, I don’t really see that as a major challenge or issue. But I also think that diversity is also what makes the Big Ten kind of special and fun, that you get a combination of all those types of things. So I would say no.”