Penn State’s new OC is known for collaboration. How that will help the Nittany Lions

Penn State’s newest staff addition has been lauded for his creativity and intelligence when it comes to work. That makes sense, given it’s Andy Kotelnicki’s job to excel in those areas as the offensive coordinator.

He’s going to be paid handsomely by Penn State show off how creative and smart he is, too, starting at $1.6 million in his first year and $2 million by the end of the four-year contract.

But for those that have been around Kotelnicki for a long time, his ability to connect outside of football is just as impressive as his inventiveness and intellect.

“He loves to golf. He’ll hang out with you at a bar and drink a beer and just have the ability to socialize and talk about something other than football because he’s intelligent,” Northern Illinois offensive line coach Daryl Agpalsa, who coached with Kotelnicki previously, told the Centre Daily Times.

“He has the ability to disconnect (from football) and build real relationships with people outside of football, which I think matters.”

Those attributes will amplified by how the last offensive coordinator left. Mike Yurcich was fired by head coach James Franklin, who then spent the last two weeks of the regular season talking about how important collaboration was for the offense — not so subtly hinting that it was an issue under Yurcich at the end of his tenure.

He echoed those sentiments again when he spoke at his first press availability following the hiring.

“I thought our co-coordinators in Ja’Juan Seider and Ty Howle as well as the rest of the offensive staff and (graduate assistants) and analysts did a really good job,” Franklin said. “I thought we played really well the last two weeks of the year. I wanted to make sure that if we brought somebody in, that it was somebody that was going to use those resources, that manpower, that experience that we had in the Lasch Building and take advantage of it.”

That’s a clear area of improvement for the offense moving forward.

And in Kotelnicki, who will officially be introduced on Friday, Franklin may have found the ideal combination of an offensive mastermind and a collaborative teacher who strives to help those around him grow.

Making connections

Agpalsa is one of the coaches who would know that best. He spent two seasons with Kotelnicki at Wisconsin-Whitewater and another four with him at Buffalo and remains a friend of the new OC. For all of the football successes they shared together — including two national titles at Whitewater — Agpalsa said some of his off the field memories stand out. Like when the Whitewater staff took a van to a Milwaukee Brewers baseball game with their wives.

“It was a blast, man,” he said. “... We enjoyed each other’s company. It wasn’t flashy, it wasn’t money, but it was just good people. It was good people having fun.”

Kotelnicki’s ability to connect with his coaches is paired with his love for the sport. Franklin College head coach Alan Hensell — who coached with the OC from 2013-2014 at Whitewater, from 2015-2019 at Buffalo and in 2006 at Wisconsin-River Falls — said that’s one of the first things that stood out when he first got to know Kotelnicki.

“Andy is a very genuine, down to earth person,” Hensell told the CDT. “He is an extremely hard worker and a great recruiter. One of the hardest working coaches I’ve worked with.”

Agpalsa and Hensell both learned under him as his position coaches, and alongside him as assistants to Lance Leipold, who Kotelnicki spent the last decade with as a coach.

Transition to Penn State

This will be Kotelnicki’s first time away from Leipold since 2012 when he was the offensive coordinator at Division II Mary. That will come with its own set of pressures, but it also likely made it a difficult decision. Agpalsa knows firsthand — he made the same decision when he left Buffalo to join Northern Illinois. He recalled his own struggles with the choice when talking about how Kotelnicki felt about his departure from Kansas.

“Even when I left and went to Northern, it is not easy,” Agpalsa said. “Because you are a family at the end of the day. I think it was mixed. I think he’s so excited about the opportunity. I think Penn State is a great school and he’s ecstatic about it, but I also think there are some hard things, too, for him.”

Kotelnicki’s new venture will have him working with a completely different staff for the first time since he joined Leipold, and that means getting to know a new group of personalities. His history with his previous assistants should point to a relatively smooth transition. And as Agpalsa said, the OC excels at separating work from his personal life, allowing himself to disconnect.

That should let him bond with his new assistants, which is going to be important for the offensive staff to collaborate in the way Franklin wants them too. That will help, and so will the fact that both Agpalsa and Hensell said Kotelnicki didn’t just listen to them, he involved them in the offense in a way that made them feel heard.

“When we were together we would spend a bunch of time meeting and we would actually game plan together,” Agpalsa said. “And I think the one thing that I appreciated about Andy is if you had a thought or something you would like to install or run, you had the ability to present it. I think the one thing he did a great job of, and it helped me even to this day, is you have to have the ability to defend your thesis. ... He was always open and listening. ... He’s not so prideful where he wanted to do everything on his own.”

Hensell agreed.

“I coached the receivers for him for two years and I coached the tight ends for him for five years and I always felt I had a voice,” he said. “He always listened to the assistant coaches and I felt we always went into games and it was very collaborative. It just wasn’t one guy. And I think that definitely helped us. I know it did.”

If their experience with Kotelnicki is any indication, he should be able to maximize the offensive staff and bring the level of cohesion the Nittany Lions had been missing this season.

For a group that was disjointed and felt lost for extended stretches over the last four months, that could be the difference that allows it to make the vaunted leap from great to elite.