Penn State Football Peach Bowl Media Day Live Notebook

On Friday morning and afternoon, Penn State held their local media day for their upcoming Peach Bowl appearance on December 30 against Ole Miss. Happy Valley Insider was present for the media day and below will provide a live notebook of Friday's media proceedings.

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- Franklin had no opening statement on Friday and went straight to questions. The first question was surrounding the defensive coordinator position for the bowl game, the Nittany Lions will have safeties coach Anthony Poindexter and analyst Robb Smith as their defensive coordinators during the bowl game.

- He would prefer not to change scheme with his next defensive coordinator. He believes a coordinator with head coaching experience is "helpful" but wouldn't call it a prerequisite. Says finding a coach who fits the program from a relationship building standpoint, says it can be even more important than the scheme. "The fit at Penn State is different following Manny."

- Notes that Manny Diaz was in a tough spot replacing Brent Pry who recruited and coached all of Penn State's players at the time while also finding a coach who is not "intimidated" by taking over a top-ranked defense where it statistically where will be hard to improve upon.

- Franklin believes there is a "ton of value" in finishing what you started when considering the trends around of college football and the advice that some players in college football are getting.

- James Franklin and Andy Kotelnicki have not had a ton of time together since he was hired as Penn State's offensive coordinator, Franklin says they may have had one day of being able to be together as everyone has been on the road recruiting.

- Bill Queisert has been a helpful piece of the staff since arriving in Happy Valley alongside Kotelnicki, believes he'll serve a similar role that defensive analyst Rick Lyster was able to serve for Manny Diaz.

- Franklin calls his schedule the last two weeks "not good" thanks to recruiting, transfer portal, coaching searches, etc. "It has been a sprint.' Also said its been helpful that the program has "had less battles to deal with on campus."

- To build off that, Franklin believes that the schedule for coaches across college football is driving coaches out of college football and it will be a trend that we see continue. Says that the current model is "unsustainable" and can only be fixed by the commissioners.

- The program has a "pretty good idea" of what players are leaving or staying following the bowl game. The ambiguity of some players is only in the eyes of the public and not the same within the program.

- Franklin says Robb Smith understands the program, the culture, and has a pretty good understanding of that they do on the defensive side of the ball and that's why he will have an opportunity to help call the defense.

- The Nittany Lions are excited to get Riley Thompson back for two more years.

- He will be coaching the linebackers for the bowl practice, him and Manny Diaz were both in the room for the most part this season with the linebackers.

- "It's all about how quickly we can build relationships and create connections," Collins on replacing Manny Diaz and moving to whoever the next defensive coordinator is.

- "The kids are going to feed off what you're doing as a staff," Collins on the Nittany Lions' defense and the "fun" they had according to Manny Diaz during his introductory press conference at Duke.

- Collins says going from head coach to an assistant or coordinator is much more "cogitative" of what is going around throughout the program and how everything impacts each other.

- On Kavieon Keys... "I think he just got better and better each week. He just needs to continue to build off that and that he's got a bright future."

- Notes Sander Sahaydak and Ryan Barker have both shown improvement since the beginning of the season.

- Ty Howle calls Andy Kotelnicki "really sharp, really bright, and a really good person," echoes the sentiment of James Franklin that they havne't had a ton of time to spend time together.

- Kotelnicki interviewed for Penn State's tight end position when Ty Howle ultimately got the job, so there was some familiarity there per Ja'Juan Seider

- Howle says the entire offense responded well to the adversity they faced this season and continue to do so.

- Seider believes Nicholas Singleton and Kaytron Allen both announcing their returning says a lot about the relationships between the coaching staff and the players. Notes you never hear about them being about themselves, they're always talking bigger picture, never complained. Seider calls it a "luxury" to able to see them perform every day and to coach them. "Every day they're feeding off of each other," he says about the two tailbacks. "I may never have two this good at the same time ever," he adds.

- Seider says he doesn't feel like he's coming into work at Penn State, he's been places where it always feels like "fourth and one." Says that he likes being at a place where they're pissed off at 10-1 where there's plenty of schools that would be happy of 10-1. Calls Franklin the ultimate CEO, says Franklin doesn't get enough credit where Franklin has gotten Penn State to, references how the three Florida schools have taken forever to turn their programs around, "it starts at the top." Says he's okay if he's never a head coach, "if this is the pinnacle, its pretty damn good."

- Both Seider and Howle credit each other for the game planning and play calling, "it's an open mic, we're on the mic together." The two have taken a "think players, not plays" when it comes to game planning and play calling, how to put your playmakers in the best spot to have the opportunity to make plays. Says its sometimes to forget that when you're in that offensive coordinator seat for so long, believes they've done that the last two games really well.

-- "No one can be Manny Diaz, he's Manny Diaz. You just have to be yourself. Everyone has their different style," - Poindexter on how he's going to call the defense. "Everyone has their own uniqueness."

-- "You get to the game, you get a feel to it, each game plays itself out differently," on how he calls a game as an interim coordinator.

-- James Franklin has had "several conversations" with Poindexter about the defensive coordinator job.

-- Players were upset when Manny Diaz left but the players know that a standard remains and that the game will still go on. Believes the players will be ready.

-- Analysts and GAs have been breaking the tape down and have been grinding today of really taking a deep look at Ole Miss.

-- "It's always exciting when you can go down south and play a team like Ole Miss." Notes that that they have a ton of skill across the offense. "We gotta be ready to go."

- On why he would want to be defensive coordinator at Penn State, "It's Penn State. It's one of the best progams in all of college football."

- Believes its a benefit that some players can see what they're trying to reach in person. "It's special, not a lot of guys are able to play in NFL stadiums." Says that he believes the team is in for a real treat with the Peach Bowl. Poindexter has experience playing in the Peach Bowl twice.

-- "I've been fortunate," he says about coming to Penn State and being able to coach or help coach players like Jaquan Brisker, Ja'Ayir Brown, Kalen King, Joey Porter Jr, Johnny Dixon, etc. "I love those kids, you're excited to come to work, you know what you're going to get." Notes that the entire defensive back room comes to work every day.

-- Andy Kotelnicki comes in with some fire and with a big "howdy". Immediately thanks his wife and family for being able to allow him to be a college football coach. He grew up growing up playing hockey, remembers when his mom brought home a football helmet when he was growing up. White helmet with a blue stripe. He would see Penn State on a television a short time later and would grow up a Penn State fan. "I'm not taking this opportunity lightly."

-- Kotelnicki also said that Penn State was always a place he wanted to coach at.

-- Says he first met James Franklin at a coaching clinic at the Penn Stater a while back, Franklin gave him and Lance Leipold a tour of their facilities the next day.

-- Kotelnicki on collaboration within an offense, "13 brains are better than one."

- Calls Drew Allar a "high capacity" guy who wants to be involved in every aspect of a game throughout the week. Was the first person he talked to once he accepted the job. Says he embodies the idea of taking ownership as a quarterback.

-- How would he describe his offense? "A multi-pro system offense that uses spread concepts." Focuses more on the people more than the system, "it's always going to be about people."

-- Kotelnicki will call his plays from the box.Notes that there has only been 3-4 games in his 20-year career as a OC that he has called from the field.

-- "Win with speed"

-- In an answer about simplicity vs complexity in offense, Kotelnicki has gone on a tangent about blizzards at Dairy Queen. There's a lot involved but for the most part its just vanilla ice cream and your favorite candy/topping, etc. "We want to have the vanilla part of our offense mastered, so when we mix in all our goodies, it creates something awesome."

-- The most important position group is the "offensive line", the most important position is the quarterback.

- Three coaches will be in the quarterback room. Kotelnicki, James Franklin, and Danny O'Brien.

-- Kotelnicki's Twitter pinned tweet of Tigger vs Eeyore is based off the book "The Last Lecture" in which a professor who is dying of pancreatic cancer asked who would you rather live like, Tigger or Eeyore. "We need to be more like Tigger," he says when it comes to doing the mundane than being like Eeyore.

Penn State sophomore running back Kaytron Allen told the media on Friday that he is definitely returning for the 2024 season. Allen now joins Nicholas Singleton in both announcing their returns to for next season. Allen said he never thought about transferring away from the Nittany Lions.

Penn State offensive lineman Olu Fashanu has not yet made a decision of whether or not he will be playing in the Peach Bowl. Fashanu is a projected first round pick in this year's NFL Draft.

Notably, tight end Theo Johnson and defensive end Adisa Isaac both said they will be playing in the bowl game. Johnson has already declared for the NFL Draft while Isaac says he has not yet made a decision on if he'll return to Penn State in 2024. Linebacker Curtis Jacobs will paly but has "not decided" his future either.

Penn State center Hunter Nourzad will have the unique opportunity of finishing his collegiate career where his football career all started, Georgia. The Georgia native who will be playing in his final game called the ability to go home to The Peach State, a "full circle moment" and something he didn't really think about until he asked about it on Friday. The Marietta, Georgia native grew up going to Atlanta Falcons games when he was younger and is looking forward to being able to go home especially with the majority of his career games played occurring in the northeast with Cornell and the Nittany Lions.

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