WVU expecting a little bit of old and new from Penn State’s offense

Aug. 27—MORGANTOWN — Nobody seems to quite know what Penn State’s offense is going to look like this season, just that the Nittany Lions have the potential to be very good.

New offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki has a strong track record of success, spending the last three seasons at Kansas and the previous five at Buffalo.

“Andy did a great job at Kansas and before that, he did a great job at Buffalo, ” WVU head coach Neal Brown said Monday. “He got after us pretty good last time he was here with Kansas.”

The Mountaineers last faced Kotelnicki in 2022, when the Jayhawks put up 511 yards in a 55-42 win in Morgantown. He’ll be back in Morgantown when the Mountaineers and Nittany Lions kick off the 2024 season at Milan Puskar Stadium on Saturday (noon, FOX).

Kotelnicki moved over to Penn State this offseason, replacing Mike Yurcich, who was fired last November.

The Nittany Lions have plenty of firepower, led by running backs Kaytron Allen (902 rushing yards in 2023) and Nicholas Singleton (1, 060 total yards). The difference is in the quarterback, where junior Drew Allar is much different from Kansas’s Jalon Daniels and Jason Bean.

“We always start from a personnel standpoint, ” Brown said. “You evaluate the personnel, the guys you think you’re going to see. You look at the strengths and weaknesses of those players and then you evaluate the schemes you could potentially see.”

At 6-5 and 235 pounds, Allar is bigger than Daniels (6-0, 220) and Bean (6-3, 205) and a more traditional pocket passer.

To prepare for Penn State, Brown said the Mountaineers cannot simply look at what Kotelnicki did at Kansas and expect to see the same things.

“There’s a lot to review, ” Brown said. “You’re watching Kansas film, you’re watching what Penn State did last year to get the strengths of their football team.”

“It’ll be interesting to…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/wvu-expecting-little-bit-old-023200655.html

Author : The Dominion Post, Morgantown, W.Va.

Publish date : 2024-08-28 02:32:00

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