Penn State holds onto maybe the most important piece of the program for 2025

December in college football is a time for head coaches to hold on tight to everything they’ve built at their program. For most, that means retention from the transfer portal or against the NFL draft, which Penn State will have to stare down with quarterback Drew Allar once its College Football Playoff runs comes to an end. However, before that, James Franklin had to ensure he kept the person who turned Allar into a potential first-round pick in 2025, Andy Kotelnicki. 

Last offseason, after firing Mike Yurcich, Franklin hired the 43-year-old Kotelnicki away from Kansas to be the next OC in Happy Valley, and so far that partnership has yielded outstanding results. So good, in fact, that Kotelnicki was a finalist to become the head coach at West Virginia after the program fired Neal Brown. There were even flight trackers following planes from State College to Morgantown, but Monday evening Kotelnicki put the rumors to rest on social media. 

If Allar, the former five-star who went toe-to-toe with No. 1 Oregon on Saturday night in the Big Ten Championship Game, is the most important individual for Franklin to keep in Penn State’s program, Kotelnicki is No. 2. And keeping the OC will go a long way to retaining the quarterback. 

Kotelnicki has not yet been a head coach but as a serious candidate for a Power 4 job in this coaching cycle, he’ll likely be ready to take a position next offseason, which could perfectly align with Allar’s to the NFL following his senior year. There’s no guarantee that those two are necessarily joined at the hip, but considering that Allar improved from 99th in the country in yards/dropback in 2023 under Yurcich to sixth under Kotelnicki, it’s safe to assume he’d love to play for the innovative play-caller again in 2025.