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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For the second straight week, Penn State faced an important test. This one was of a much different nature than the test it ultimately failed in last week’s loss to Ohio State.

The danger was that the soul-crushing defeat would linger, that the Nittany Lions would lose confidence and focus and that they would have to work harder than they should to beat another inferior team, that they would look different than the flawed but forceful group that was deserving of its top-10 ranking, a team that’s been pretty damned consistent all year, even if consistently imperfect.

Instead, a better team showed up.

It only stuck around for a half, though.

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You got questions, we got…the same questions and no answers for Penn State’s four forgettable, unimaginative plays near the goal line with the game hanging in the balance.  

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Why fuss around, right? Just rip off the damn Band-Aid. We’re discussing the failed 4^th quarter goal-to-go sequence that sucked the juice out of a record-setting Beaver Stadium crowd like a poorly aimed straw popping a Capri-Sun pouch.

Hold your nose. Here we go.

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The easy column, the prudent column, would be to detail another agonizing loss by Penn State at the hands of its most hated rival and then, at the end, say that this year, it doesn’t really matter in the big picture because the path to the playoff is still clear.

(Dr. Evil voice) Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiight.

This loss, agonizing in its own unique way even in a series of agonizing losses, matters very much because it represents the ceiling for the program under James Franklin. The wins, the recruiting rankings, the semi-consistent visits to the top 10, the massive White Outs—all important. All hard-earned. So too are the overdue facility upgrades and the about-face a school that liked to think it was above paying players did on the NIL front.

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