Former OC Kotelnicki had chance to go to Penn State even before joining KU

By Henry Greenstein     Dec 22, 2023

article image Chance Parker/Journal-World photo
KU offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki calls out directions to the offense during practice on Aug. 4, 2022.

Given the swiftness with which former Kansas offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki left for Penn State at the start of the month, and with which KU replaced him with Jeff Grimes, the coaching staff hasn’t spent much time reflecting on his departure amid a busy bowl season.

But head coach Lance Leipold did comment on the recent loss of his longtime assistant, who helped elevate the Jayhawks’ program over the last three seasons, on Tuesday’s episode of the Jayhawker Podcast.

“We were together 11 years, and I appreciate everything Andy’s given our programs at all three stops (Wisconsin-Whitewater, Buffalo and KU) along the way,” Leipold said on the podcast. “But as he looked at it in his career, it was a chance for him to see it done differently at a school with a fine tradition.”

If the chips had fallen differently, Kotelnicki might have gotten that chance a little earlier.

The Nittany Lions’ co-offensive coordinator and running backs coach, Ja’Juan Seider, told reporters in State College on Dec. 15 that Kotelnicki had interviewed for Penn State’s tight ends coach job three years ago, before Leipold and Kotelnicki went to Kansas. So there could have been a scenario in which he never came to Lawrence at all.

Asked in his introductory press conference about how getting that job would have shaped the course of his career, Kotelnicki told reporters, “It’s kind of funny you said that, I really had not thought about that too much.”

“But I joked with Coach Leipold, he didn’t hire me the first time he interviewed me either, it’s true,” Kotelnicki added, “so I don’t know, something about my first impression, maybe, just doesn’t fit well.”

Penn State hired Ty Howle, now Seider’s fellow co-OC, as its tight ends coach instead of Kotelnicki in February 2021. Three months later, Leipold got the KU job and took Kotelnicki and plenty of others along with him.

“If I would have been here would I have gone to Kansas and been a part of what they’re doing there now?” Kotelnicki said. You know, probably not is the answer.

“And so to be able to go there and grow with the people that I was (with) there, the rest of the staff and Coach Leipold and all those players, and then to come here and take some of the things that we’ve learned from that journey back over to here … it’s life. You just never know where it’s going to take you and what’s going to happen.”

In general, Kotelnicki has revealed a much longer-term fondness for Penn State than was widely known at the time of his hire. When he first met with the press in State College he said he became a Penn State fan growing up in Litchfield, Minnesota, because he used to headbutt trees while wearing a white helmet with a blue stripe.

But instead of making the leap directly to James Franklin’s staff from Buffalo, he played a substantial role in the Jayhawks’ turnaround.

“Super sad to move on, right,” Kotelnicki said. “Again, I just think a ton of Coach Leipold and what he’s helped me do with my career, but the opportunity to grow individually outside of his tree, if you will, was a huge part.”

Leipold and his staff are already moving forward, first with co-OC Jim Zebrowski calling plays in Tuesday’s bowl game, then with his new OC Grimes, who had plenty of success at BYU and Baylor in recent seasons.

“I would say there are a lot of similarities with myself and Andy, and Andy and I have been friends for a couple years, and sometimes when you’re in the same conference and you coach on the same side of the ball with somebody else, you form alliances with people,” Grimes said on “Hawk Talk” Wednesday. “… We would talk about those things the last couple years, and I thought it was an advantage for both of us.”

Grimes added that he and Kotelnicki both believe in establishing a physical running game to help set up a balanced offense.

“The shifts and motions and all the things that you’ve seen be successful here the last couple years are things that I want to continue doing,” Grimes said.

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Written By Henry Greenstein

Henry is the sports editor at the Lawrence Journal-World and KUsports.com, and serves as the KU beat writer while managing day-to-day sports coverage. He previously worked as a sports reporter at The Bakersfield Californian and is a graduate of Washington University in St. Louis (B.A., Linguistics) and Arizona State University (M.A., Sports Journalism). Though a native of Los Angeles, he has frequently been told he does not give off "California vibes," whatever that means.