Penn State Football: 10 Minutes with Offensive Coordinator Andy Kotelnicki

you you're really immersed in the program that you're currently working at and you know whatever you see on the Sports Center or the highlights around the country uh but when as the opportunity arose um you could see the potential right when you just watch his film like some of the things I've talked about before his wittiness you know his decision making those kind of things are really hard to coach and they're very very evident when you watch him right away and then to get here and acknowledge which I've said many times before about the kind of just person he is you know of character but then like his his want to get better and growth is really I mean it's next level it's second to none that I've work with how hard is it to find somebody who has those traits of understanding the game and seeing it the way he does and his decision making those sort of things super hard that's why NFL quarterbacks get paid like a bazillion dollars you know what I'm saying and people spend a lot of money even if they haven't been proven that way you know what I'm saying and I don't to give you a fous answer but it they're hard it's rare to find it's hard to evaluate um people have Wroten a lot of books about evaluating the quarterback position to play at our at the college level and the next level and there as many success stories there are there's probably 10 quote unquote misses however you want to Define that so those characteristics that he has the fact that you can see them um as you you know as you're coaching him and You observe his play u is exciting having played offensive line what do you think you you've kind of learned about the quarterback position from that perspective that's maybe helped you with through well um you know probably I don't know that anything beyond um you know understanding of protections and things like that you know what I mean I think maybe for him the importance of his involvement in the Run game right I think that's true of any quarterback you know making sure we're in the right play or they're controlling people off the edges you know things like that um I don't know that my o line background helps with that I think that's just good coaching right you know what I mean I don't know you had to have play or line to do that but um certainly um that would be something that that that we won't want to ever compromise our ability to run the football well one of the things Drew said was that learning how to call plays in this system takes some time uh how is he done with that how have all the quarterbacks done with that given that I mean it's kind of brand new to that yep yep yeah and so um coming in right away that was one of the things I talked about you know we we use a lot of tags I said very Pro style you've heard me use that expression before in the sense of you know we're Lo using tags and we're doing that because we have a lot of variations perhaps of what we're doing that are fundamentally the same but different alignments and splits and running the same routes from all these spots um and you need to tell people how to do that you know you either can tell them with these tags or you could just have them wrote memorize when we call this play this is what we want you to do this week so a tag is like a Shand like one word or two words yeah right I I always use it like our vernacular is like Lego pieces right I think I've used that expression before right CU someone asked me if I like Legos um big Lego yeah big Lego guy uh but uh but like so you just that's all you're doing within a play is you're taking these Lego piece you're stacking up to make a play and so once kids and people and players understand what the Lego pieces are putting them together becomes pretty easy how much uh how much has coming from a big 12 school led to having unique conversations about playing W opener I don't know that I've had any unique ones about them specifically coming here um that program and Coach Brown actually go way back when he was at Troy we were at buff we played in a bowl game and then we came into a league and we were at Kansas and they were there and so there's quite a bit of familiarity uh with what he's done in the past and his staff I got a bulo of respect for what they do for sure for sure there something you can tell us about Drew with regards to the guy that we don't see off the field like have you had him over to your house like how you kind of gotten to know person see now I don't know if I could say all the things I really want AB um that's why we're here yeah um I don't know I'm trying to think of something funny I don't know if I can uh he he he I'm surprised and this is maybe an age thing it's not exclusive to Drew I'm surprised that maybe the quarterback room in general at uh how they don't pick up on my movie quotes nearly as quick as I should and I think it's it's starting to become a generational thing are they 80s yeah well ' 80s ' 90s I mean even like things like old school which I don't think's that old but then you got to remember s that like came out when like you know what I mean they were born and so they're not going to want you know Frank the Tank right you know I mean they're not going to do that and they don't get that stuff as much um uh so I I kind of have challenge those guys to up their game in that area do Daniel o Brian help to kind of breach that gift he does that's a great that's a great Point Daniel is doing a fantastic job coaching quarterback but he's also being the for me you know he is that's exactly what he's a bridge between the generational gaps yeah I know that at Kansas last year you opened up the floor for some players to call plays to create through call plays but some is that something that you've done with the offense uh we've done some things you know what I mean but not quite to that extent yet probably mostly because of uh where we're been at in Fall Camp you know what I mean and and and maybe there some newness to it but specifically since we've talked a lot about the quarterback room here that's that's a group and I've said this all along this the communication and dialogue with those people is really important was that something that was used last year where he used a player's play oh a ton yeah for sure how much oh I don't know I could give you an exact number I think they came in a notebook fall um but there were some they had some good ideas you know what I mean they had to stay within like the framework of of things that you know we would do if they come out too far L you like kind of C on it you know like we had an old L's like give me a snap you know what I mean I'm like okay we're not going to do that and then I found out he could actually throw the football really well his name is Dominic puny he's with the ners now is there um an element of your offense that was evolved to contend with some big 12 defenses in terms of three safeties a lot of soft coverages and things we see in the Big 12 that seems to be kind of spreading around college football in some aspects is there is there anything like that you have seen and done to kind of attack those Ty styles of Defense yeah I think you know when you when when you ask that question I think if you're trying as a program if you're trying to take the next step whatever the next step might be for your program you're going to evaluate the teams that you feel like you need to beat or do your point maybe is there is there a a a certain front or structure like you talked about 3 safety defenses that multiple teams are running in the league that you need to make sure that you have a really good schematic understanding of or a way to attack it um which coming here that was the first step right you know I mean worrying about our players and then what does the Big 10 look like in terms of defense and it's always evolving week to week you know what I mean player to player team to team um what you're doing so there's and I challenge our guys this and and I don't want to skirt a question but I tell our guys if we just worry about ourselves and what we're doing offensively and how we're executing we have enough things that we could grow or Shrink any packages to attack any kind of Defence Coy we've heard a lot about Trey Wallace this Camp um what what do you think he's done to really separate himself from the pack uh I think that when you talk about an individual's ability to separate themselves um maybe within a position group uh you look for things being done consistently and uh you know we talk in this program about being consistently good is better than occasionally great great and he he's shown to be consistently good right at what we're doing so so uh that is what You observe you can see the guy make a play and then you see him make two more plays and then you see the next day he does it again right so it's not like just one play a day it's a it's it might not be just some super you know ESPN deal it might just be consistently doing all we asking guys to do execution coach talk about getting players how Julian look really good yep he's another guy who's been really I think especially this back half of Camp has his consistency has really really erose you know what I mean I think he in his mind if you were to ask him I bet he would say gosh I started kind of slow I think he had probably a few plays that he wished he had back but then really in this back half I've been he's he's been done a great job when you talk about players like the best players getting the ball um with Trey do you view him as like a number one option like how exactly do you see him in this offense well you when you say that you're asking to make comparisons to other receivers or other skilled players which I I would do I would tell you I don't think so much within the position about hey he's a number one this or that um not to minimize what he's done in the kind of player he is I look at it more of like okay what does Trey do better than everybody maybe what route maybe it's blocking maybe whatever it is and I look at that every position and then we say let's put them in position to do that because you might say this is the number one blank at this position this is the number one guy you might say Ty Warren is number one guy but if we have a tight end that can do something better than Tai but that's just the one little thing he does we should put him on the field to do that thing do you know what I'm saying does that make sense when like so it's not just he's clearly better at everything sometimes that's the case but really it goes into like the individual capabilities of things we're asking him to do we've we've kind of beaten it over the head in terms of from our perspective getting the ball in the hands of the best Playmakers but do you ever think of how that works kind of reverse engineering it when you have guys like KRON and Nick not necessarily getting the ball but having those weapons out there how much does that make everybody else better do you follow what I'm saying yeah like like I think at the end of the day you want to put your best players in the football field so any time that one of them is on the sideline what do that mean right you have to be intentional about that but again it's not just the individual player it's what the player is doing cuz Nick and KRON as good as they are and as diverse as they're training themselves they probably aren't going to be as good as our tight ends are at maybe blocking a SE Gap right now they could do that sometimes they can do some things with it so you see what I'm saying so like it's about maybe what we're asking to do in it right although both those guys do a fantastic job of blocking and pass protection things like that you have to look at everything that you're asking that player to do in the field coach is week one harder to prepare for not having film from the previous weeks maybe having to go back to last year or the year before or you know going to Spring ball or um it can be like I think I I stated earlier about knowing um you know those coaches in that program for a while it's been like literally I I can't remember the last time how many years ago it was when we played him in a bowl game I mean this is probably our fifth or sixth time playing against each other um and again a ton of respect for him and so there can be challenges when you're playing a weak one opponent uh but I would flip the script on you and say is is that Advantage for them or for us sure right like I always tell people um we're going to be proactive in our mindset about what we got to do to to to move the ball not react as much to what someone else is trying to do