What is PSU’s best formula for beating Ohio State?

By Neil Rudel

nrudel@altoonamirror.com

Andy Kotelnicki has been the life of the party since arriving at Penn State.

The offensive coordinator’s personality and fingerprints have been all over the Nittany Lions’ 7-0 start heading into Saturday’s season-definer against Ohio State (6-1).

How Kotelnicki keeps the offense moving against the Buckeyes will go a long way toward pushing the Lions’ program into the elite status James Franklin publicly pledged to attain after a frustrating loss to Ohio State in 2018.

He’s still chasing it.

Franklin is 1-9 against the Buckeyes, and the one win came on a blocked field goal that was returned for a touchdown in 2016, pushing Franklin toward his only Big Ten title.

While the series has been lopsided, the games have been pretty competitive. Half have been one-score affairs, and Penn State has lost late leads a couple of times.

Generally, though, the Lions have not played their best game vs. OSU and have not taken enough chances on either side of the ball.

That’s one reason Franklin coldly fired his last two offensive coordinators — Kirk Ciarrocca after the COVID year of 2020, and Mike Yurcich late last season after losses to Ohio State and Michigan.

When he went looking for his latest OC, he wanted proven success “against their biggest competition,” and reminded us earlier this week that situational adjustments were “a little bit of a problem in the past.”

So far, even though it cost PSU plenty on a buyout, Kotelnicki has justified the move.

Drew Allar is vastly improved, Tyler Warren has become a star and the offense is more successful getting its playmakers into space. Their number of explosive plays nears 35 in seven games; last year, it was 47 in 13 games.

This past Saturday in Wisconsin, five different Lions took direct snaps — quarterbacks Allar and Beau Pribula along with Warren and both running backs, Nick Singleton and Kaytron Allen.

The run game is diverse with lots of motion that sometimes features 350-pound Vega Ioane as a terrifying pulling guard.

The signature play of the season came at USC when Warren lined up on the left edge of the line, seemingly at his tight end spot, and snapped the ball to Pribula, who threw backward to Allar, who found Warren in the end zone for a 32-yard touchdown.

You would think Kotelnicki is saving something special for Ohio State because the Lions will need it.

But regardless of who plays quarterback — Allar, who hurt his knee at Madison, or the shiftier Pribula — Penn State must play aggressive.

That goes for the defense, too, as the Lions need to keep the pressure on Will Howard and not let Ohio State’s gifted receivers roam free in the secondary, as they’ve done for years.

Too often under Franklin, the Lions have been tentative or made the wrong call at the wrong time in the biggest games, and that’s contributed to his 4-16 against the Buckeyes and Michigan.

Ohio State looked more than beatable before coming back against Nebraska last week, and that was at home.

The same guy who has thrown the proverbial kitchen sink at the Nittany Lions’ schedule so far is a big key to the game Saturday, and his name is Andy Kotelnicki.

Rudel can be reached at nrudel@altoonamirror.com.