The eighth-ranked Penn State Nittany Lions enter their first bye week of 2024 with a record of two wins and no losses. Their two victories have come against a Power Five opponent in West Virginia, and a MAC team in Bowling Green. While the West Virginia game was a statement victory, the Bowling Green win was too close for comfort. In this first Penn State Bye Week update, the focus is on the offense.
Head coach James Franklin and offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki should be happy overall with the performance of the offense so far. The players that came in with big expectations, such as quarterback Drew Allar and Penn State’s running back tandem, have performed as expected. The wide receiver position was the question mark coming into the season, and that question remains entering the first bye week.
Penn State Offensive Rankings
Total Offense: At 447.5 yards per game, Penn State is ranked #44 in the nation
Yards Per Play: 7.65 yards per play, #18
Rushing Offense: 228 yards per game, #25
Yards Per Rush: 5.77 yards per rush, #31
Passing Offense: 219.5 yards per game, #76
Yards Per Completion: 17.56 yards per completion, #10
Kotelnicki Effect: Big Increase in Big Plays
With the addition of Kotelnicki in the offseason, the expectation was that the number of big plays would significantly increase. So far, so good. In 2023, Penn State had five passing plays of 50+ yards in total. They have two already this season, both achieved in the first half of the first game. When looking at plays of 20+ yards, either passing or rushing, Penn State had 47 such plays last season. That comes to an average of 3.6 per game. Through the first two games of 2024, the Nittany Lions have 14 such plays, for an average of seven per game.
Penn State Rushing Offense
Not surprisingly, Penn State’s opponents have seen a healthy dose of the Nittany Lions running game. Coming into this season, the running back room was one of the strengths of the team. They have not disappointed.
In the first game, against West Virginia, Nick Singleton had the bigger stat day, rushing for 114 yards on 13 carries with a touchdown. He had two runs of 40 yards each. Kaytron Allen amassed 10 rushes, producing 20 yards. After reviewing the game, Franklin reiterated his confidence in Allen, saying simply, “Stats can be deceiving.”
Fast forward to the Bowling Green game, and the carries were roughly evenly split again. Singleton led again, with 119 yards on 13 carries with a touchdown. Allen went for 101 yards on 14 carries. While he was kept out of the end zone, Allen did have a more obvious impact on the game.
The quarterbacks have also contributed to the Penn State rushing attack. Through the first two games, Allar has 13 carries for 51 yards and a touchdown. In the West Virginia game, he set his career high for rushing yards in a game with 44. Allar has shown a propensity to get some yards on the ground when needed. As expected, backup Beau Pribula has also seen some snaps in Kotelnicki’s offense. More of a dual-threat quarterback than Allar is, he has carried the ball five times this season for 37 yards.
Penn State Passing Offense
Kotelnicki’s offense with Kansas used the running game to open up long passing plays. With that being the expectation for Penn State this year, the rushing side has produced, and the long pass game has shown flashes. Coming into the season, the wide receiver position was the biggest question mark on offense. Despite the big plays in the passing game, those questions persist.
Allar’s statistics are very good through two weeks, as he gets more acclimated in his second year as the starting quarterback. Through two games, he has completed 24 of 37 passes for 420 yards with five touchdowns and one interception. The 64.9% completion percentage and 11.4 yards per attempt are significantly ahead of last year’s 59.9% completion percentage and 6.8 yards per attempt.
In the West Virginia game, Allar appeared to build a solid rapport with Trey Wallace. Wallace had the first four catches of the season for Penn State and finished the game with five catches for 117 yards and two touchdowns. Those remain his stats after the second game too, as he was held without a catch by Bowling Green. Omari Evans has also stepped up as a deep threat, delivering four catches for 89 yards and a touchdown through the first two games.
Covering for the lack of wide receiver production, particularly against Bowling Green, was tight end Tyler Warren. Through two games, Warren has 11 catches for 176 yards and a touchdown. He made the position a strength coming into the season, and showed his complete arsenal against Bowling Green (where he set the school record for receiving yards by a tight end in a game), getting open at will, gaining yards after the catch, and solidly blocking. Additionally, the running backs have chipped in, providing an outlet for Allar. Allen had a touchdown reception in the West Virginia game, and Singleton had one against Bowling Green.
