Tyler Warren details versatility within Penn State offense this season

Tyler Warren passed for a touchdown against Kent State. A week later, he ran for a score against Illinois. Two weeks after that, he hauled in 17 passes for 224 yards and a touchdown at USC — that touchdown reception took place on a double pass that started with him snapping the ball.

Warren is one of the most dynamic players in college football this season. He’s also a 6-foot-6, 261-pound tight end.

“Obviously we’ve been having a lot of fun,” Warren said, when discussing the versatility of Andy Kotelnicki’s Penn State offense on “The Triple Option” podcast Wednesday. “And I think Coach K has brought a new energy to this offense and kind of what he does. It looks like a bunch of crazy stuff to the outside, but really it’s just 11 guys.

“We each have a job on each play, and we can move around and do it in a lot of different ways. But I think that’s kind of what makes it work is our preparation and knowing we have our one job on that play and being able to move on from it. Whatever we can do in the offense to help it out is kind of how we approach it.”

After being hired away from Kansas this past offseason, Kotelnicki has spiced up the Nittany Lions’ offense with multiple formations and shifts, and he’s leaned into the quarterback run game.

The Nittany Lions are more explosive in 2024. Granted this puts them at only 10th of 18 teams in the Big Ten, but they have 33 plays of 20-plus yards from scrimmage this season. In other words, they are averaging 4.71 of those plays per game this year, an improvement from the 3.62 per game they averaged in 2023.

What’s more, Penn State has seven plays of at least 40 yards from scrimmage this season when it had eight such gains all last season. Three of those seven this season have come on the ground, where running backs Nick Singleton and Kaytron Allen star. That running back tandem has combined for 992 rushing yards and seven rushing touchdowns this year.

At times, Kotelnicki will put two quarterbacks on the field at once, starter Drew Allar and backup Beau Pribula, and on other occasions he’ll have a non-quarterback taking the snap.

Warren’s had his fair share of opportunities in that department, and he’s used to it, considering he played quarterback at Atlee High School in Hanover County, Virginia. Reading EDGE players is particularly comfortable for Warren because during his final two high school seasons, the southpaw quarterbacked a Wing-T offense that featured a bunch of power and read-option runs.

Former Alabama and NFL running back Mark Ingram, a co-host of “The Triple Option,” asked Warren how he became such a tough tight end playing quarterback in high school. Warren had a good answer.

“Growing up, I played fullback,” he said. “My dad was the coach. He didn’t want me to be the running back, and he’s like, ‘You’re gonna play fullback and block for the running back.’ So I did that, and I played linebacker and stuff growing up. So it wasn’t really like I was a quarterback who had to play quarterback. That’s just kind of what was needed of the high school team at that time.

“So that’s what I did, and that’s kind of how it went.”

The humble Warren called Kotelnicki “the mastermind” behind Warren’s colorful playmaking pallet this season.

“Really, our whole offensive staff, they do a great job,” Warren said. “And we’ve given little tidbits and things you might have ideas for, and [Kotelnicki] listens to them, and if he likes it, he’ll, incorporate them. But I got to give a lot of credit to him and the staff for the way that they get creative with the tools that we have on our offense.”