Andy Kotelnicki was the first person quarterback Drew Allar saw when he walked off the turf after Penn State’s 33-30 win at USC on Saturday. The teary-eyed Allar held an embrace with his offensive coordinator before the pair descended into the locker room beside each other. Even with a double-digit halftime deficit, Kotelnicki never doubted Allar would get the job done.
Neither did James Franklin, who was gleeful as he waved to fans in blue and white who had made the trip to L.A. Franklin understands that no matter how close the final score, winning is difficult in college football, let alone on the road against a quality opponent.
But all the same, Franklin understands that his team is not perfect. Kotelnicki’s offense is one of the nation’s most explosive, but one of the worst at scoring in the first quarter. The Nittany Lions have eliminated early-game scares under the facade of a second-half team, but Franklin and Kotelnicki both know it’ll take all four quarters to beat Ohio State and make noise in the playoffs.
“As coaches, we just want to see perfection. … I know it’s never really just been all the phases — sometimes we started fast and sometimes the defense did and vice versa,” Kotelnicki said. “So it’s really about making sure that we’re just consistently playing. That’s what Coach wants. That’s what I want, is from the first snap to the last snap, are we playing to our potential?”
It took resiliency for the Nittany Lions to pull out the win against the Trojans. And not just from an offense that entered halftime without a touchdown, but also from a defense that allowed 20 points in the first half. Both units found their strides after the break, but it’s unlikely opponents like the Buckeyes and whoever could come in the postseason will wait for them to catch up.
Penn State’s defensive first-half showing at USC was eerily similar to its performance against Bowling Green on Sept. 7, when defensive coordinator Tom Allen’s unit allowed 24 points in the first two quarters but adjusted to allow just a field goal the rest of the game. Allen said he’ll use the bye week to evaluate his play calls to determine a potential reason for the slow starts.
“Obviously, the level we play at here, we can’t afford to start off slow,” Allen said. “We’ve obviously played strong in the second half, which is a good thing. But you don’t want to have it slow; you just want to have a continue-to-grow and keep-getting-better type of mindset.”
And the Nittany Lions have gotten better since last season, their ability to flush out shortcomings and rebound effectively being a significant reason. It doesn’t matter a whole lot schematically to Kotelnicki if Allar throws an interception in a critical moment, or to Allen if his defense allows an explosive play.
Mistakes happen. It’s just a matter of moving on and sticking to the script that both coordinators are confident will ultimately translate to a win.
“I’ve never felt out of control. I’ve never felt, ‘Oh, man, this plan sucks’ after the first drive,” Kotelnicki said. “It’s always one snap. It’s always one little thing within a snap. Maybe it’s a poor call. Maybe we just didn’t block it quite right, or whatever it is, but never felt out of control in that there’s reason for ‘concern.’”
There have been times when the offense is hot from the get-go. There have also been times when it’s the defense. Against the Trojans, when the offense and defense were, more or less, struggling in the first half, it was special teams that came through.
With an Oct. 26 trip to Wisconsin on the horizon and a consequential game against Ohio State the weekend after, the time to capitalize is now. It’s unlikely the Nittany Lions can afford to continue their trend of starting slow and finishing strong if the goal remains to beat the Buckeyes, win the Big Ten title and ultimately go deep in the College Football Playoff.
It will take consistency and dominance from all three phases across all four quarters to get the job done.
“We’ve done it at times. We got to put it all together — offense, defense and special teams all starting strong,” Franklin said. “It’s details. It’s getting the guys settled. It’s getting them really comfortable. It’s figuring out what they’re going to be doing differently than what we have planned for, because that’s going to happen, and get our guys to adjust and feel comfortable and play fast. But we just got to do it really in at least two out of the three phases in each game.”
