Analysis: A good Penn State football fit? New OC Andy Kotelnicki's even better. Here's why

Penn State football didn't need to overhaul its offense — no matter how badly it looked in toughest games (Ohio State, Michigan) and, in some ways, its easiest (Massachusetts).

Head coach James Franklin recruits too well to require a talent renovation; has too many proven standouts at the ready.

He just needed to find someone who could make the best use of it all.

Turns out, he may have just hired about the best guy possible.

Why else would Franklin go to Kansas to hire a football lifer that only insiders really know: Andy Kotelnicki? No big industry name, no head coach experience, didn't learn under some famous guru.

No, Koltenicki has been attached, for the past decade, to about the most underrated, un-flashy kind of head coach around: Lance Leipold. They've triumphed from a Division III program (Wisconsin-Whitewater) to low-level FBS (Buffalo) to the Big 12 football backwater known as Kansas.

Penn State fans even got a glimpse of their abilities a few years back and it nearly scared them to death. Understaffed Buffalo actually led the Lions at halftime, outgained them in total yards on the night.

Why Penn State football needs Andy Kotelnicki

But this hire is more than that, more than luring a rising coordinator, more than landing a 40-something on the verge of leading his own program, soon enough.

Rather, this was about being able to specifically fix what keeps pulling Penn State down: Not being able to utilize its talent to its full capabilities, not putting its stars in the best possible places to succeed.

If there's anything Koltenicki excels at it is this. And, certainly enough, doing that well is a lot tougher than it may seem.

Actually, that's what everybody who knows him has been saying since his name became publicly connected with Penn State on Tuesday.

Here's just one, Michael Swain of Lions247's Kansas site:

"There’s a reason opposing head coaches raved about him ..." Swain wrote on Thursday, a couple of hours after news broke of Kotelnicki's hiring.

"He’s an incredibly bright schemer and helped elevate the KU offense to the top of the conference. It’s been clear that the players loved him and respected his coaching and how he put players in positions to have success. I don’t think there are many offensive coordinators in the country who scheme as well as Kotelnicki."

His Kansas offenses led teams that improved from 2-10 to 6-7 to 8-4. His group this year averaged about 7 yards per play, good for Top 10 nationally.

Penn State and all of Franklin's desire to be "explosive?" The Lions averaged 5.3, ranked at 73rd.

Just this fall, Kotelnicki quickly re-fitted his offense to operate smoothly without injured star quarterback Jalon Daniels. The Jayhawks leaned into their run game and still finished 30th nationally in scoring points (33.6 per game).

All that for a team that hadn't won more than three games in a season in more than a decade.

Here's another supporter, ESPN analyst Dan Orlovsky. A recent social media X post:

"This is a fantastic hire for @PennStateFball at OC to get Andy Kotelnicki Super creative + open box mindset play designer and play caller"

He's an aggressive playcaller who likes to push the pace, confidently so − the opposite of how the Lions looked against Ohio State and Michigan. They played timidly.

Which is to say Mike Yurcich and staff, for some reason, never could quite find the way to get bruising tailback Kaytron Allen running downhill nearly enough or get explosive Nick Singleton working with the ball in space.

That suddenly began to shift only after Yurcich left. Same for wideout Omari Evans, maybe the fastest player on the team, who suddenly re-appeared and began contributing again.

Primed, already, for 2024? More than a game: How one blowout victory can change Penn State football | Bodani

Nick Singleton debate: His numbers crashed. But is Nick Singleton actually better for Penn State football now?

Same, too, for using No. 2 quarterback Beau Pribula's running and throwing (on the run) to stress defenses when they aren't expecting.

Koltenicki, meanwhile, is adept at the two-quarterback thing. There might not be another coordinator who does with as much pizzazz and production.

Then again, it's more than just that with this hire.

What sounds so simple but, in Penn State's recent case, is anything but.

No matter if Koltenicki stays only a year or two at Penn State before he runs his own program.

That's the way of college football now: You pay handsomely for the best fit, work it for all it's worth, and worry about the next hire when you must.

Good for Franklin if he must find his next man, again, sooner than most want.

That just means Koltenicki did exactly what he was hired to do — at a place where his expertise could mean just about everything right now.

Frank Bodani covers Penn State football for the York Daily Record and USA Today Network. Contact him at  fbodani@ydr.com and follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @YDRPennState.

This article originally appeared on York Daily Record: Analysis: Penn State football hired OC Andy Kotelnicki from Kansas