Much has been made about the presence of Penn State football’s wide receivers or lack thereof throughout the course of the season.
As a whole, the group hasn’t been targeted much.
With the running game being as potent as it is and Tyler Warren being, well, Tyler Warren, it’s really not a shock the stats haven’t been pouring in for the receivers. But for Penn State OC Andy Kotelnicki, that doesn’t mean they’re not having an impact on the game. In fact, their impact might be just as big, if not bigger than the stat sheet.
Kotelnicki uses real world examples of players who are playing unselfish football to help the team win.
“One of the things I show our offensive players is, and this is through my tenure as an offensive coordinator, (I) said okay you got good players how much are the best players touching the ball?” Kotelnicki said in front of media assembled at the Orange Bowl arrival press conference. “I spent some time and I looked in the NFL and you have guys like Travis Kelce. I’m throwing out some random big NFL names, Tyreek Hill all right, and you’re like ‘well how much and percentage of the time that they’re on the field are they getting targeted?’”
From there, Kotelnicki breaks down the figures and lays it all out there for those offensive players for how many times players like Kelce and Hill touch the ball.
“I’m going to throw an arbitrary number I’m thinking 30, 40-percent of the time 50-percent of the time,” Kotelnicki said. “The reality as players, your tight ends and receivers they’re touching the ball between 10 and 15-percent of the time they’re getting targeted and so you illustrate what touching the ball a lot actually looks like.”
What that looks like is playing away from the football and doing things to help spring the run game and even the passing game.
“These are the highest play paid players in the world at these positions and 85-percent of the time approximately they’re playing without the football,” Kotelnicki said. “They’re either doing something to block for somebody else or they’re running a route to get somebody else open.
Add Nittany Sports Now as a preferred source in Google! Click here to add us.Regardless of personal statistics and accomplishments, football at its heart is still a team game that needs all 11 players on each side to finish the job.
“There’s a lot of times even the best players have to do things that are unselfish and the work that guys like Liam (Clifford) and Julian (Fleming) have done for us, it doesn’t show up in the stat line all the time. But you can go back and you can look at a lot of long touchdown passes or plays that Tyler Warren has made and those guys are out there probably doing something to open up somebody else.”
Kotelnicki and the offense are going to need guys like Clifford and Fleming to step up in a big way for their season to continue.
