Penn State offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki’s name has shown up on the hot board for a big-time coaching vacancy.
Josh McCuistion of On3Sports’ SoonerScoop.com put out a list of potential options for Oklahoma’s open offensive coordinator position, and Kotelnicki’s name showed up.
Just six games into his Penn State tenure, Kotelnicki has turned heads, not just for how his offense is producing (34.2 points per game) but for his creativity.
For those looking for specific examples of this creativity, this play from Penn State’s 33-30 overtime win at USC Oct. 12 probably best sums it up.
He snapped the ball, and he caught the TD 😱@PennStateFball TE Tyler Warren's 11th reception of the game is must-see stuff. #B1GFootball on CBS 📺 pic.twitter.com/BtSRdKuntY
— Big Ten Network (@BigTenNetwork) October 12, 2024
Like great Penn State coordinators Joe Moorehead, Brent Pry and Manny Diaz before him, many PSU fans are expecting Kotelnicki to leave eventually.
But they’d be expecting him to leave for a head coaching job, of which ESPN mentioned him as a potential candidate last month.
Kotelnicki leaving Penn State for another coordinator gig would surprise many, and McCuistion laid out why it may or may not happen.
WHY KOTELNICKI TO OU WOULD MAKE SENSE
McCuistion wrote that Kotelnicki would seem to mesh well with Oklahoma head coach Brent Venables.
Add Nittany Sports Now as a preferred source in Google! Click here to add us.“No offensive coordinator with less talent at his disposal gave the Sooners more problems over the last two years than Kansas. Kotelnicki’s pace of play, his constant motion, the Sooners just struggled with it. Could Oklahoma choose to seize that opportunity this time around after missing it last year?
WHY IT DOESN’T MAKE SENSE
Photo by Matt Lynch, Nittany Sports Now: Andy Kotelnicki
As McCuistion pointed out, Kotelnicki hasn’t bounced around too much during his coaching career. His first full-time DI coaching job was at Buffalo, and he stayed there for six seasons.
From there, he went to Kansas, where he stayed for three.
Now, he’s at Penn State.
Three job changes in just under a decade isn’t much in the coaching world.
“Kotelnicki doesn’t seem like a guy who moves around just to do so,” McCuistion wrote, “he’s obviously got a top end job in State College, Pa. The Sooners would have to get real aggressive with their offer and be willing to make whatever allowances he might want to even make this a possibility.”
There were plenty of other names McCuistion listed:
- Ben Arbuckle— Washington State OC
- Kade Bell— Pitt OC
- Joe Craddock— Tulane OC
- Rob Ezell— South Alabama OC
- Buster Faulkner— Georgia Tech OC
- Joe Jon Finley— OU interim OC
- G.J. Kinne— Texas State HC
- Zach Kittley— Texas Tech OC
- Willy Korn— Liberty Co-OC
- Mack Leftwich— Texas State OC
- Andy Ludwig— Former Utah OC
- Brennan Marion— UNLV OC
- Dan Mullen— Former Florida HC
- Mike Shanahan— Indiana co-OC
- Tino Sunseri— Indiana co-OC
You never know what can happen but it doesn’t seem likely that Kotelnicki would leave Penn State for a job that isn’t head coach.
