Inside Penn State OC Andy Kotelnicki’s unconventional path from Division III to Happy Valley
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STATE COLLEGE — Andy Kotelnicki leaned back in his conference room chair, rubbed his beard and thought long and hard about what he was going to say next. The question was simple yet complicated: How did a former offensive lineman at a Division III school in Wisconsin become one of college football’s most innovative offensive coordinators?
Kotelnicki, Penn State’s newly minted play-caller, offered what was understandably a lengthy answer. He mentioned growing up in Litchfield, Minn., a town of a little more than 6,000 people. He mentioned playing and eventually coaching at Wisconsin River-Falls, a small rural college. He mentioned meeting Lance Leipold, the head coach he climbed the ladder with, by happenstance. And he mentioned his first run-in with James Franklin, one that paved the path to him being the man entrusted with Penn State’s offensive future.
“I was lucky. Luck and timing have a lot to do with it,” Kotelnicki said. “… I’ve been lucky with the people I’ve worked with, the people I’ve worked for, how I grew up, you know, in the sense of knowing what I wanted to do when I was young … There are a boatload of good coaches out there who don’t get to coach at a place like Penn State. I still have pinch-me moments.”
Kotelnicki, who was hired in December, understands the magnitude of the job. And he is confident his steady climb up the coaching ladder has him prepared for what’s ahead.
Kotelnicki and his older brother, Josh, played two-on-two touch football against another set of neighborhood brothers in the open lots. Kotelnicki and his brother, who also became a college football coach, concocted an elaborate playbook for themselves. Plays drawn in green marker were run plays, blue was for passing plays, and yellow was for trick plays.
“That’s when we started messing around with schemes and stuff,” Kotelnicki said. “That’s kind of when it all started.”
Kotelnicki’s collegiate playing career ended before his final season even kicked off. He suffered a fractured foot going into his senior year. But that injury gave Kotelnicki his first crack at college coaching.
Kotelnicki was a student assistant for the Falcons. He coached on crutches, drove around the practice field in a golf cart and offered tips sitting on a five-gallon bucket. In 2004, he took his first real job in coaching as a graduate assistant at Western Illinois.
“We did everything and anything,” he said, shaking his head. His job included — but certainly wasn’t limited to — walking dusty tackling dummies through the car wash, lining the field and working the concession stands at summer camps. Kotelnicki made $700 a month.
In 2006, John O’Grady, who coached Kotelnicki at Wisconsin River-Falls, hired his former center to be the Falcons’ offensive coordinator. Kotelnicki was 26 years old.
“In hindsight, I didn’t know (squat)” Kotelnicki said. “But you have to learn through failure first, and I did. Whenever I run into any players from back then, I’m like, ‘I’m so sorry.’ ”
And yet, Kotelnicki endured those rough patches and improved. Wisconsin River-Falls’ run-heavy offense set 24 school records in his five-season stint as the play-caller. In 2011, Kotelnicki was hired to call plays for Division II University of Mary.
It was there, in Bismark, N.D., that Kotelnicki’s creative scheme — the one so many are hoping can revitalize Penn State’s offense — took shape. University of Mary was on the front end of running a no huddle spread offense.
In terms of meeting Leipold, Kotelnicki was early in his stint as Wisconsin River-Falls’ offensive coordinator when he went to Nashville for a coaches convention. Waiting for his hotel shuttle, he spotted a rival coach.
Leipold hadn’t been at Wisconsin-Whitewater long. But Kotelnicki recognized him and struck up a conversation.
The two got to know each other more and more over the years and stayed in touch. In 2013, Leipold hired Kotelnicki to be his OC at Wisconsin-Whitewater. They won back-to-back national titles before Leipold took the head coaching job at Buffalo in 2015. The duo breathed life into a failing program, then made the jump to the Power Five.
Kansas’ football program was in rough shape. The Jayhawks went 0-9 in 2020. Head coach Les Miles was dismissed. Leipold was hired with Kotelnicki in tow to turn around a team in misery.
“It wasn’t always rainbows and rose petals, as you could imagine,” Kotelnicki said.
Kansas went 2-10 in Leipold and Kotelnicki’s first year running the show. But in 2022, the Jayhawks reached their first bowl game in 14 years. Last season, Kansas finished with a 9-4 record, appearing in the Top 25 and taking down No. 6 Oklahoma in a stunning upset.
All the while, Kotelnicki’s profile grew. “Distortion” became a mantra for Kotelnicki as he tried to describe his offense that used motions and disguises to confuse opponents. Kansas averaged 34.6 points per game and 7 yards per play the last two seasons. The only other FBS teams to do that were USC, Georgia, LSU, Washington and Oregon.
Kotelnicki was happy at Kansas. He was compensated well, especially after signing a new contract after the 2022 season, and he worked well with Leipold. But in the back of his head, Kotelnicki also understood that a change at some point might make sense.
Five or so years ago, Kotelnicki and Leipold were invited to speak at a coaches clinic at The Penn Stater Hotel and Conference Center. When the two showed up for registration, they caught up with James Franklin. The three of them chatted in the hotel lobby before Franklin invited Kotelnicki and Leipold to tour the Lasch Building the next morning.
“We walked around the building, going room to room and BSing, talking ball, for two hours,” Kotelnicki recalled. “Then I had to go speak at the clinic, and James sat in on the lesson. I think I was talking about RPOs or something. He sat in the back of the room and was rifling questions. I was there for an hour. … That was the first time we interacted.”
The two stayed in contact. In 2021, Penn State had an opening for a tight ends coach. Franklin called Kotelnicki but, ultimately, hired Ty Howle, who still holds the position. Kotelnicki said their relationship never got “deep or serious” until this past winter. Franklin fired Mike Yurcich after offensively-inept losses to Ohio State and Michigan and was looking for an OC.
On Nov. 30, 2023, news broke that the Nittany Lions were hiring Kotelnicki as their new play-caller. But it wasn’t a straight-forward courtship. Penn State had to pay a significant buyout to Kansas thanks to Kotelnicki’s recent contract extension. And it took some time before Kotelnicki was comfortable enough with Franklin to strongly consider leaving the Jayhawks.
“James called me a ‘pain in the (butt)’ during the hiring process. Those were the exact words he used, and I appreciate that,” Kotelnicki said. “Because I wanted to be sure that he was who he was. You can’t really develop trust until time is spent with someone. So we talked numerous times from the time he made a change to the time he offered it to me. Numerous times. But it was good. And I felt and still feel really good about the situation.”