The first game of the season always presents a chess match as teams evolve and look for different ways to attack the opposition.
That is already difficult without any coaching changes, but the West Virginia defense will look at go against a Penn State offense that has a new offensive coordinator in the saddle.
The Nittany Lions lured Andy Kotelnicki away from Kansas in December to reinvent the offense. During his time as the offensive coordinator with the Jayhawks, Kotelnicki put together an explosive unit with the group ranking 12th during that time in 20+ yard plays, 15th in 30+ yard plays, and 11th in 40+ yard plays.
The Jayhawks also scored 40+ points in nine of those games and 50+ in five of those, while hitting the 400-yard mark in a total of 20 games. The Mountaineer coaching staff got a taste of that in 2022 when Kansas came to Morgantown and won 55-42 with 419 total yards.
So, there is a history there, but the question will be how much does the offense change with the new, talented personnel grouping that he inherits with Penn State?
“Just look at what’s returning and it’s quite a bit different than how he used the personnel at Kansas,” defensive coordinator Jordan Lesley said. “I would say a vanilla approach and see early in the game what it is but it’s going to be the same type of structure, a lot of moving pieces, a lot of eye candy and alignment is going to be key. I’ve got a lot of respect for him; he does a phenomenal job.”
Lesley, who coordinated the defense the last time the two squared off, understands that Kotelnicki excels at doing what his personnel can do best. And looking at the Penn State roster, most of the production from the running back room as well as some talented tight ends are back this coming season.
But while Drew Allar isn’t necessarily the same type of quarterback that he had at Kansas, he has already shown the ability to adapt during times he had injuries or when he was at Buffalo to the talent around him.
In fact, that ability and feel for the game is something that stood out to head coach Neal Brown several years ago when he showed himself as a talented playcaller.
“So, he’s a guy that I’ve known and been on my radar for a long time now,” Brown said.
But even then it’s still guesswork on how it will unfold. That means watching some previous games to get a general feel and then working on the personnel and things that he has shown in the past. It goes without saying that Penn State certainly has plenty of options in the personnel department.
“He’s been creative everywhere he’s been so I’m sure there’s some creative things that he’s going to do with Drew and the running backs and tight ends and all of those guys,” Lesley said.
But it’s critical not to get too far down that rabbit hole it comes down to alignment and then shedding blocks and making tackles against a talented offensive scheme.
“He’s really good at finding matchups so we’ve got to play the chess match to get the ones we like,” Lesley said.
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