It ended in, at least in the stat sheet, what appeared to be an obvious way — yet another pass completion from Drew Allar to Tyler Warren. A simple pitch and catch.

But nothing, not even that fourth-down toss, was simple in Penn State’s 26-25 win at Minnesota. With this town and this team, nothing ever is.

Saturday marked just the 17^th time in 32 Big Ten seasons that the Nittany Lions met the Golden Gophers on a football field, and though the Lions had won 10 of the previous 16 meetings, there had been a disproportionate number of concerning Gopher bites they had sustained from a team that hasn’t made much noise in the conference since the 1960s.

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Yurcich is to T-Formation as Kotelnicki is to: A) Warren Wildcat B) Shirtless Bro Walks C) Terrible Gus Johnson nicknames D) All of the Above.

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Another Penn State game on CBS game, another viral double pass to Nittany Lions TE 44-Tyler Warren for a massive gain. Coincidence? Probably.

The Warren Wildcat (2024’s T-Formation) finally showed another wrinkle for future defenses to worry about – moving forward, Penn State QB Drew Allar lining up 5-7 yards deep in the displaced backfield is ALWAYS a threat for a double pass.

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There was a moment in Saturday’s smackdown of Purdue that nicely illustrated both the problem for defenses that must play Penn State and the reason the Nittany Lions, after a 49-10 win that was every bit the blowout it was expected to be, have ascended to the top five and, perhaps in a way they didn’t in the first half of the season, truly look like a top five program.

Nick Singleton had just plowed into the end zone and was celebrating with his teammates. First Anthony Donkoh, with the Dirty Dancing lift. Then Drew Allar, with a practiced handshake and a quick nod. And then Singleton got props from the star of the day (and of the season, really): a short, almost businesslike acknowledgement from Tyler Warren. It was two lions nodding at one another over a big kill, two alphas understanding the moment for what it was but also that it was only a small part of their shared goal of ruling the entire jungle.

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Just like airing the Whiteout on a terrible streaming service, what’s Old is suddenly New in Andy Kotelnicki’s Offense

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In an offense where the highlight play typically comes in wild, unorthodox fashion – stuff we haven’t seen before — Saturday’s Whiteout game featured several gains for first down that were simply second layers or iterations of base concepts – stuff we HAVE seen before…just slightly tweaked.

What I mean by this: rather than building a game plan around gadget, gimmicky type plays (to be clear: not saying there’s anything wrong with this), Penn State offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki focused on peeling back the 2nd layer to the go-to concepts that the Nittany Lions consistently run.

While the plays themselves may not be all that exciting, hopefully getting inside Coach K’s brain is.

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