Neal Brown on new Penn State offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki: 'He's got some pieces there and there's a lot of things that he can do'

Penn State will hand the keys of the offense to assistant coach Andy Kotelnicki for the first time this Saturday against West Virginia. Previously at Kansas, Kotelnicki and the Jayhawks didn’t face the Mountaineers last season but they did put up 55 points against West Virginia in an overtime win on the road back in 2022.

That game, as well as a bowl game back in 2018 when current West Virginia head coach Neal Brown was at Troy, left a strong impression on the West Virginia head coach.

“He’s a really talented play-caller,” Brown said during his Monday press conference. “I remember having a conversation with my agent going into the Buffalo game when we were playing Buffalo and I was like, ‘Man, I don’t know this guy, but he does some really good stuff offensively.’ So, he’s a guy I’ve known and has kind of been on my radar for some time now. So, he’s going to figure it out. They’re not going to look like they did at Kansas.”

During his time in Lawrence, Kotelnicki had both Jalon Daniel and Jason Bean at quarterback. Combined, those two rushed for nearly 1,500 yards between them the past few seasons. That’s led many to believe that Penn State’s current starting quarterback, Drew Allar, may not be the ideal fit in Kotelnicki’s offense. However, as Brown noted, that hasn’t always been the case dating back to his time at Buffalo.

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“I think you have to dig a little deeper,” Brown said when asked by a media member if he believes Allar fits this offensive scheme. “If you look at what Andy did at Buffalo…they had a quarterback who was very similar in size and had a big strong arm, similar to how Drew does.”

He went on to add, “They’ve got two quarterbacks they could potentially play. [Beau] Pribula, who we recruited in high school, is a really good athlete and throws the ball efficient enough, too. So, he’s going to figure it out. They’ve got good pieces. We’ll try to figure it out early in the game and go from there.”

As a first-year starter for Penn State, Allar threw for over 2,600 yards and had a touchdown to interception ratio of 25 to 2. He also totaled 200 yards rushing, averaging nearly six yards per carry. In Brown’s eyes, the criticism towards Allar isn’t fair.

“I think the quarterback probably gets too much blame and too much credit when things go good,” Brown said when asked about Allar. “I think, maybe this is more nationally than locally, [there’s a belief] that he’s got pressure on him or that he didn’t play well. If you go back and look, and you think about this as a first-time starter, the kid played pretty well last year. He played really well against us. He was the difference in the game last year. We did OK versus their run game, but he hit some explosive passes against us that really hurt us. I thought he was accurate with the football in our contest.

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“If you look at his complete body of work, I think sometimes unfairly, a lot of people struggle against Michigan and Ohio State. Michigan did win the national championship. Ohio State does have a pretty good and sporty little team, too. So, I think sometimes those are a little bit maybe unfair. If you look at his entire body of work as a first-year starter, he did some really good things.”

Penn State also has no shortage of weapons elsewhere on offense, beginning with running backs Kaytron Allen and Nick Singleton. But even beyond those two, Brown made it clear that he sees no shortage of talent on the roster.

“Their running backs, both of those guys are elite talents,” Brown said. “Their tight ends are going to present some issues. Those are guys that not only have great size, but they run really well. At Kansas, the tight ends were featured parts of their offense and there’s no doubt they’ll be featured at Penn State as well.”

As for Kotelnicki’s move to Penn State, Brown added, “He didn’t take the job because they didn’t have players. That’s a pressure position he’s taking. They’ve had a few different guys who, if you look back on the run that James [Franklin] had in offensive coordinators, he’s had some really talented individuals in that role. There’s some pressure that goes along with that role, for sure, but Andy knew. He’s very smart.

“So, I think he made a calculated decision. He looked at that roster and said, ‘Oh yeah, they’ve got some players,’ especially at running back, tight end and some young wideouts. And so, he’s got some pieces there and there’s a lot of things that he can do.”