4/4/2024 football Edit

Drew Allar 'feels comfortable' in Andy Kotelnicki's offense

Dylan Callaghan-Croley • Happy Valley Insider

Editor

Perhaps this spring and entering this upcoming fall, there will be no player on Penn State’s roster under more scrutiny than their signal caller, true junior Drew Alar.

After being heralded as the potential next big thing for the program much like Christian Hackenberg was a decade before Allar’s own arrival in Happy Valley, the Ohio native put together a very strong first season as Penn State’s starter. He had a 25-2 touchdown-to-interception ratio and threw for over 2,600 yards while completing 59.9% of his passes.

That being said, Allar struggled in the big games and despite being arguably one of the most physically gifted quarterbacks in Penn State’s history in terms of pure arm talent, the Nittany Lions passing game was by no means explosive.

Now in his third year with the program and entering his second year as the starting quarterback, Allar, along with his teammates, has been tasked with mastering an entirely new offense ahead of the fall season. Recently, Allar met with the Penn State media to discuss the Nittany Lions’ new offensive approach. While questions swirled about his teammates, including Julian Fleming, KeAndre Lambert-Smith, and Ethan Grunkemeyer, Allar also provided insights into his own development during the offseason and the Nittany Lions new offense under Andy Kotelnicki.

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"I feel really comfortable right now," Allar said when asked about Penn State’s new offense. After running a more traditional pro-style like offense last season under Mike Yurcich, the Nittany Lions will now run what Andy Kotelnicki describes as a “multiple pro-style offense that uses spread concepts and components.”

"I think it's the way that the offensive staff has been installing everything like it's not only me and the quarterbacks that feel comfortable with everything but I think it's really all the skill positions,” Allar would go on to say. “Specifically like with all the different pass schemes and that upfront on the offensive line I think they're doing a really good job in the run game and being prepared for all the different run schemes that we've been running throughout the spring."

As Kotelnicki also described in his initial Penn State press conference following his hiring, the Nittany Lions offense will fundamentally be vanilla. However, once you add pre-snap movements and more, then it becomes “something really awesome,”. During his time with the media on Wednesday, Allar discussed the Nittany Lions progression in that part of their spring and installing the offense.

"I think the biggest thing has been we're getting to the same plays that we've been doing all spring but through different formations shifts and motions things of that nature so everybody's learning the concept and like not just one part of the concept they're learning the full concept,” he said.

Once the offense is able to perfect that full concept, they’ll be able to move onto the next portion of the offense's development this offseason.

“We can kind of get to the point, hopefully towards the end of the spring spring cycle and moving into fall camp where all the receivers can be plug and play at all the positions they're not just a H, or they're not just a X they can play H, X and Z and even Y,” he said. Iif we need to based on personnel packages but I think we're doing a really good job on the offensive end right now."

Another part of that offensive development will be the usage of pre-snap motion and more to create stress on opposing defenses.

“The biggest thing that we talk about in the offensive end is creating stress and applying pressure and stress to the defense whether that be pre-snap or post-snap,” Allar said. So we have a lot of shifts and motions that we've been doing which really makes it hard on the defense because they've got to communicate everything like it's just a simple motion or shift for us,” he said. “But then they got to communicate, we're going from like two by two formation to three-by-one back to two-by-two and it's just a lot of communication that puts a lot of stress on them and you can for the lack of a better word expose defenses and like tie them into certain coverages that you want them in.”

Another part of the Nittany Lions offense that has been beneficial this season has been the route concepts for the wide receivers. Last year, the Nittany Lions’ route concepts under offensive coordinator Mike Yurcich were often scrutinized, showing a lack of creativity at times while also at times jumbling too many receivers in a tight area, causing miscommunications, errant throws, and other mishaps.

“I think the route concepts too have been a huge help to creating more separation versus man coverage, doing a great job with all that stuff and I think that just comes back to the scheme,” the Nittany Lions signal caller said.

The more creative route trees and concepts that will be present in the Nittany Lions offense this season isn’t a surprise by any means as creating space and utilizing that space is a key part of Andy Kotelnicki’s offense and his previous success at Wisconsin-Whitewater, Buffalo, and Kansas.

“I think it really depends on the concept that you're running,” he said. “Right now it's more of like okay we're anticipating a lot more things just because the concepts make it easy to set our eyes in one spot and kind of see through certain lanes and then you can determine, ‘Okay are you going to throw the ball, are you going to move onto the next progression in the read,’ he added. “Coach K is always big with distortion and creating a lot of space for us on the offensive end, getting us into open space one-on-one opportunities and showing off our abilities as ball carriers and you know catch or pass catchers too. I think he does a great job of presenting us opportunities of making plays in space and getting us into those opportunities throughout practices”

Allar also believes that while it will be beneficial for the Penn State offense, the Nittany Lions’ defense facing the offense every day in practice will also be beneficial long term as well.

“It's going to be good for our defense to see it right now,” he said. “They'll probably see it throughout the season with how much shifts and motions that you know are going to be present throughout college football this year so I think it's just really good for both sides of the ball to get work at this.”

Drew Allar and the Nittany Lions will have five more spring practices to work on their offense before they will showcase some portions of their new look offense on April 13 in their annual Blue White Spring Game.