Former Penn State OC sheds light on offensive struggles last season
· Yahoo Sports
When people look back on the tumultuous nature of Penn State's dreadful 2025 season, one can point the finger at many different people. One name that comes up is certainly former head coach James Franklin. However, another that might get some modicum of blame is former offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki. Now back at Kansas, he failed to make the offense with a lot of returning talent more efficient. In a recent interview, he bared all about the outcome of the Nittany Lions' unexpected season.
"What I take away is that we probably should have done a better job of reminding our team how close we were to not winning some of those games in that [2024] season," Kotelnicki said in an interview with On3. "We had to beat USC in overtime, and we had to go on drives at Minnesota and Wisconsin. We had to face adversity and we got battle-ready as a team."
Visit newsbetting.cv for more information.
While Kotelnicki is right, at the very least that 2024 team was a success story. The 2025 iteration did not end up taking those moments to heart despite the fact that several kep players returned from the '24 squad. Also, the little growth Penn State fans saw from a player like Drew Allar led many to believe in his downfall heading up to his season-ending injury. However, it was Kotelnicki's interesting response to the offense's struggles that may have given fans more pause.
"I don't know, you know what I mean?" Kotelnicki said on an October call when asked about the team's struggles. "That answer could be so, so long and into stuff, but the reality is, it hasn't gone like we're hoping. And what do you do? You go to the next play, you go to the next game, you go to the next moment and opportunity. But I don't really have a good explanation for where it is or what it was."
This year, hopefully, the Nittany Lions will not have similar problems to the ones they faced last season. New offensive coordinator Taylor Mouser brings a Big 12 pedigree and understands his quareterback in Rocco Becht, who he has worked closely with over the past three years. Still, both can be reminded of Kotelnicki's struggles with a quarterback who everyone expected to have a much higher ceiling than most in Happy Valley.
While Kotelnicki's comments won't do much for this year's squad, for last year's, it isn't quite the saving grace he may have wanted it to be.
This article originally appeared on Nittany Lions Wire: Former PSU coach addresses 2025 offensive struggles