Everything Penn State offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki said during Thursday's Fiesta Bowl press conference

Penn State’s coordinators don’t meet with the media often during the season, but with the Nittany Lions still playing in the College Football Playoff, both offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki and defensive coordinator Tom Allen are required to meet with the media before and after the game.

On Thursday, Kotelnicki met with the media for about 20 minutes to discuss his thoughts ahead of next week’s Fiesta Bowl showdown with Boise State. Fans can read everything he had to say below.

Q. What have you noticed your opponents doing defending Tyler Warren in the last couple games? And has it forced you to be even more creative than you’ve been?

KOTELNICKI: I’ll answer the second part of the question first. I would say that’s definitely the case. I thought we’ve always done a good job of moving him around, to make it hard to double-team him, which in essence, is what people want to do. They don’t want to leave him in one-on-one coverages, but that naturally happens with the tight end position. It’s easier to move them around, to basically be in alignment. That’s harder to do for defenses.

I don’t know if there’s anything that’s been unique the last couple of weeks to defend him. Obviously, everyone is aware of him, as they should be. He’s one of our best players. But again, it’s our challenge to make sure that he’s not taken away in the game, right? It’s our challenge as an offensive staff to make sure he is impacting the game.

The cool thing about Tyler is that he impacts the game in ways way beyond just getting catches. When you look at his last game and how well he blocked and the way he strains, he’s making an impact in the game.

There’s nothing really specific that people are doing, but obviously there’s a really heightened sense of awareness for where he’s at and what his alignment is and those kind of things. But we want to be versatile enough that it’s hard to get a bead on what that is, how it lines up and how it looks.

Q. I want to ask about Boise State’s defense. What are you’re seeing on film from them over the past couple of days?

KOTELNICKI: First of all, they play great team defense. They’re one of the top teams in the country in terms of sacks and disruption up front. They have some talented players on their defensive line for sure. But they play great complementary team defense. They have a nice pressure package that complements what their base defense is.

They played really good football throughout the course of the year. But certainly up front, as we talk every week, that’s going to be the battle. When you’re in playoff football, this time of year playing football, you need to be good up front on both sides of the ball.

What you see from them is you see a very disruptive defensive line. You see a defense that’s making opponents have to earn their touchdowns and their points and they’re not really giving up things, which is what you would expect this time of year for a team that’s playing in the national playoffs.

Q. I wanted to ask about your running back tandem in Kaytron [Allen] and Nick [Singleton]. Is it fair to say as a collective group, those two are running more effectively than we’ve seen maybe at any other point this season? If that is the case, or if it’s close to being the case, does it create more opportunities for you in this offense than, say, you would have had in October or November because of the way they’re both running the football right now?

KOTELNICKI: That’s a fair observation. Both are kind of back to being at full strength, and you can kind of see that the last couple of weeks, the way they both ran the football. They’re so complementary of each other in terms of their skill sets and how we use them. Obviously, they’re impact players for us, and part of my responsibility is making sure the impact players get the ball.

It affords me more flexibility to try to utilize those guys in ways that’s going to put stress on the defense. But your observation is accurate. They’re both playing football at the highest level they have this year, which is what it should be at this point in the year.

You’re right. If we’re about daily improvement, about getting better every practice and every game, those things are happening. And that position is very evident of our philosophy and our values.

Q. Perfect timing to follow up on the run game. What is it about the offensive line at this point in the season that they’re putting on film that’s evolved from Week 1 to now that has this running game humming at a high level?

KOTELNICKI: I would say some consistency. That’s the first word that comes to mind. Then also some physicality. When you watch our last game, we played a really physical brand of football, which I love. That’s who we want to be. We want to be a tough group up front. As a whole offense, we want that, but our offensive line definitely embodies that. So the fact that they’re playing together consistently and the way that they are.

The nastiness and the physicalness which they’re playing with and their understanding of what we’re trying to do, both in the running and pass game, specifically for that protection. There’s just not a lot of mental errors. There’s not a lot of busts, and you shouldn’t have that anyway.

But the way they have embraced the idea of kind of being the reason for how far we’ll go. I always challenge offensive lines, and say our team will go as far as they’ll allow us to go. For them to embrace that and love having that impact, if you will, on an offense, on a football team, they’ve truly, truly embraced that.

And then Coach [Phil] Trautwein and Coach [Frank] Leonard, Coach Q [Bill Queisert], those guys have all done a good job working with that group.

Q. When you think about 13 months ago, when you were interviewing for this job, what do you remember about the process and James at that junture? Has anything surprised you about throughout the season?

KOTELNICKI: No. Going way back, and it has been 13 months now. Part of the reason to come here — it’s so long ago, it feels like, although it doesn’t some days. Coach is very transparent and authentic, which matters. I kind of feel like I’m that way, too.

In the process, in the conversations that are being had, it’s two very transparent and authentic people communicating, which really leads you to believing that there are no real surprises. So I haven’t had any surprises. You don’t want to have any kind of regrets one way or the other. And I don’t, because he was so authentic through the process.

So, being here for a full year, it’s exactly as we talked about, and that’s why I’m enjoying it so much. No surprises. Very accurate description of how he wants things and how he runs his program, which I love and I think is fantastic. I’ve had a ton of fun in the, whatever, 12 months and 26 days that I’ve been here.

Q. Where is Drew Allar at this point? Where is he at this point in the season? How are you guys working together now again as opposed to 13 months ago?

KOTELNICKI: There’s a much greater understanding on his side, for sure, of what we’re doing offensively. 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.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, 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. 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, and he’s just at a high level of understanding right now from where he was 13 months ago.

Q. When you get this late in the season, how much are you adding to your offense? How much are you just relying on what you’ve done best all year?

KOTELNICKI: You’ve heard me say this before, so I don’t want to sound like a broken record, but I really believe offenses have to evolve week-to-week based off of who you are, what’s been going good for you, the opponent that you’re playing to some degree, and what you trained your players to be like through fall camp and spring football, specifically.

I don’t know if adding is the right word; it’s more evolving, which you have to be able to do as an offense. But you can’t lose sight of what you’ve trained your football team to be. You have to stay within a certain set of parameters, which we always do. But you have to evolve, to grow, to put new stresses on defenses and not be repetitive, right? And predictable. That’s not what we want to be. We will always grow week to week.

Q. It seems like every week there’s a new wrinkle to your offense, a new scheme. I’m curious how much time you spend this time of the year inventing new glitz to your offense or just perfecting what you already do?

KOTELNICKI: It’s a combination of both those things. It’s a similar answer to the last question about you have to evolve. You have to be careful you’re not totally reinventing yourself. I don’t even like using that word, reinventing. That would indicate you were doing it wrong the first way. So, you have to seek inspiration that fits within the parameters of what you’re doing.

As a staff, between access to film and watching other games, you steal a lot of things that you think will complement what you’re doing. But you have to, again, do something that’s a little bit different, or at least appears different to the defense. You have to put some stress on the other side of the ball. Not, “Oh, I remember this play.”

That’s not what we want to be at all. We always want to be adding stress to the defense and adding new wrinkles, as you say, is one way to do that.

Q. You mentioned the Boise State pass rush earlier. You guys just faced a really good one at SMU. How does the Boise State compare to them and some of the pass rushers you’ve seen in the Big Ten over there?

KOTELNICKI: I don’t know, it’s hard to make comparisons. I think elite players and elite statistics, if you will, are there for a reason. Then they show up, so you have to always — it’s hard to make comparisons. I don’t like doing it, saying “Oh, they’re similar to this team or that team.”

They’re one of a kind, as individuals and as a football team. So we have to do a good job up front with protection. SMU was a good football team up front as well. Their strength was in the defensive front, much like Boise State’s. We have to play well up front. We have to slow that pass rush down for sure. We can’t let that take the game over, for sure.

Q. You mentioned Danny O’Brien a little bit earlier. How have you seen him grow in this
quarterbacks coach role this year, especially in your first year working with him?

KOTELNICKI: That’s a good question. Like anyone, as coaches, we want to get better every week, and he’s understood that and embodied that himself. But seeing him take ownership of the room and their performance, which I think is a great trait of any assistant coach. They don’t ever point fingers if something is not going right.

Danny has embodied that and embraced that. Any adversity that we faced in that room, to want to be part of the solution and move forward and respond the right way, are all things that he’s been doing a really, really good job of.

He’s got a great relationship with the quarterbacks. I think someone — I think Audrey [Snyder] said this one of the times, suggesting that I was ancient, but he’s a generational bridge between myself and the college-aged players. Even though I’m not that old, but apparently old enough to say something like that, Audrey. Shame on you.But he’s done a great job relating to the guys and kind of communicating to them in of a way that’s a steady Eddie calm voice for them and the quarterbacks.

Q. After the SMU game, James Franklin said there isn’t a difference any more between college football and the NFL, that it’s a grind on everyone, including the coaches. Beyond schematics, beyond play calling, are there any specific challenges you’re facing this week, simply because you’re getting ready for the 15th game this season?

KOTELNICKI: I think balancing, developing your current team, getting ready for a new opponent, onboarding new players that are already committed to your program, and recruiting other ones you may want, other perspective student-athletes. Juggling all of that is a challenge when you’re in a playoff run for sure.

But as Coach says, you have to be able to compartmentalize the best you can. What I appreciate the most about James is in all those things, we really fancy ourselves as a developmental program. We’re not going to compromise in that area. We’re going to make sure that our roster is being developed the way it needs to be and the way we want it to be. Balancing those things have always been a challenge, you know? But he’s right, it’s harder than ever to do it all. We’re all tired and playing game 15 here or whatever it is. We’ve been here together every day since, whatever, the end of July, but that’s what we signed up for.

Link: Three stats that can shape the game between Penn State and Boise State

We’re competing for a national championship one at a time here. We were talking yesterday because we had practice yesterday. We said, where would you rather be? If someone said in July: Hey, we’re going to be practicing on Christmas because we’re playing for a national championship in the playoffs, people would have signed up immediately, saying hell yeah. There are a lot of people that aren’t doing press conferences today because they’re not playing anymore. We’re fortunate and blessed to be doing that.

There are moments where we need to keep the main thing the main thing. As tired as we are, we need to enjoy what we’re doing here, and we are. We’re having a great time doing it.

James is exactly right. It’s a challenge. It’s very pro-like that way. But we still want to hopefully always keep the main thing, and that’s people and relationships, and not make this game so transactional, which is really easy to become that way right now. But make it about developing and teaching and guiding and growing and helping people achieve their goals. That’s what we all got into it for. So if you can keep the main thing the main thing, and you get used to being process-oriented, you should enjoy your job, which we do around here.