Film Study - Kotelnicki's Pre-Snap Shifts & Motions

[CaliLION79]

KOTELNICKI FILM STUDY

See Link. For all the stuff we and other sites have done, THIS is going to be the most noticeable difference in Penn State's offense this year -- not the whacky plays, triple option, sugar huddles, etc. Kansas ran more pre-snap shifts and motions than any team in the FBS in 2023, so we dove into all Kotelnicki does before the play starts. Yurcich motioned a good amount, but Kotelnicki is at another level as far as frequency and DEPTH (if that's the right word) when using pre-snap movement -- like, there are stages or layers to his shifts and motions.

Couple notes we couldn't fit in the video:
1. All the shifts and motion made Kansas one of the slowest teams in college football from a plays per minute standpoint. This will feel like a Ciarrocca/Moorhead offense as far as pace, compared to Yurcich's meep meep offense at Okla State..which honestly, I'm fine with. Felt like Yurcich's up-tempo no-huddle stuff was a flop for the most part here, especially when he got caught trying to hurry up with odd personnel groupings.
2. As our guy says, Year 1 is where you see the biggest statistical benefit when comparing plays with motion vs. plays where the offense aligns and doesn't move. As Big 12 DCs got more accustomed to all this pre-snap craziness, the statistical gap between motion-no motion shrunk in 2022 and 2023.
3. We touched on it one play, but Kotelnicki loves to disguise his personnel groupings by sticking players in odd alignments - WRs in the backfield - then shiftinginto, say, an empty set to create advantageous coverage matchups.
PS - Codutti is back in a month.

 

[creamery]

This is all nice and good but we heard the same things about Yurcich. He was going to do all sorts of different things that would keep defenses off balance. He was a cutting edge play caller and that’s why they got rid of Ciarrocca. I never thought Yurcich had any flow to our offense, plus reports seem to indicate he was too complex for some and not real collaborative with the staff. Hoping PSU can do better with Coach K but we need to block better than last year and be able to throw the ball downfield to loosen up the defense. Short of that and we’re no farther ahead. Hoping for some receivers to step up, Allar to be great, and the Oline to mesh quickly.

 

[bcspsu]

This is all nice and good but we heard the same things about Yurcich. He was going to do all sorts of different things that would keep defenses off balance. He was a cutting edge play caller and that’s why they got rid of Ciarrocca. I never thought Yurcich had any flow to our offense, plus reports seem to indicate he was too complex for some and not real collaborative with the staff. Hoping PSU can do better with Coach K but we need to block better than last year and be able to throw the ball downfield to loosen up the defense. Short of that and we’re no farther ahead. Hoping for some receivers to step up, Allar to be great, and the Oline to mesh quickly.

I have a wacky idea, Considering that the running backs and tight ends are the strength of this offense, why don’t the coaches replicate what Harbaugh did with Michigan’s offense beginning in 2021? He basically went back to the future with simple power football, which produced three Big 10 Championships, three playoffs and a National Championship. That doesn’t mean that pass routes can’t be schemed and coached better that what they were last season.

 

[lazydave841]

This is all nice and good but we heard the same things about Yurcich. He was going to do all sorts of different things that would keep defenses off balance. He was a cutting edge play caller and that’s why they got rid of Ciarrocca.

Ciarrocca was more a victim of circumstances than anything. He got saddled with "OC during Covid". He lost both Brown and Cain before the 5th snap of game 1 and his offense needs horses. We also drew Indiana in their best season in 30+ years in game 1 and lost on a controversial call. Then OSU week 2, who ended up in the title game.

Yurcich took 2 years to fix Clifford, but his offense had 1 good outing in 4 games vs OSU and Michigan and I'm probably okay with this. He did improve things, but he couldn't produce enough. He proved to be more than a 1 trick pony as the offense highlighted our TEs and RBs vs his WR-centric schemes prior, but it's criminal Allar threw 42 or so passes at OSU last season.

If AK can help get us to 11-1 and the playoff, he'll probably be gone before year 2. Just how it goes.

 

[LMTLION]

I have a wacky idea, Considering that the running backs and tight ends are the strength of this offense, why don’t the coaches replicate what Harbaugh did with Michigan’s offense beginning in 2021? He basically went back to the future with simple power football, which produced three Big 10 Championships, three playoffs and a National Championship. That doesn’t mean that pass routes can’t be schemed and coached better that what they were last season.

I have a wacky idea. Perhaps cheating by knowing your opponents plays and not a power offense led to UM’s success?

 

[PSU20]

I have a wacky idea, Considering that the running backs and tight ends are the strength of this offense, why don’t the coaches replicate what Harbaugh did with Michigan’s offense beginning in 2021? He basically went back to the future with simple power football, which produced three Big 10 Championships, three playoffs and a National Championship. That doesn’t mean that pass routes can’t be schemed and coached better that what they were last season.

+1000% - Just re-watched the UM OSU 2021 game the other night. This was the start of UM kicking the Buckeyes butts 3 years in a row. The OL played power football with the RB's looking like Kamikaze's blasting through the Buckeyes DL. No RPO bullshit like we do allowing the OSU and UM LB's time to step in the hole and stop our running cold in its tracks. Sure, we would break one with Barkley to add to our stats, but we still could not get a consistent running game even against inferior teams.

Remember the 2017 game at the Shoe. 1st down at the 7 YL. We could have put the game away with a TD. 3 RPO's later, we did not gain an inch. Kicked the FG, went ahead, but still lost the game with about 6 minutes left, since the defense could not stop the Buckeyes passing game.

 

[Obliviax]

I have a wacky idea, Considering that the running backs and tight ends are the strength of this offense, why don’t the coaches replicate what Harbaugh did with Michigan’s offense beginning in 2021? He basically went back to the future with simple power football, which produced three Big 10 Championships, three playoffs and a National Championship. That doesn’t mean that pass routes can’t be schemed and coached better that what they were last season.

Offensive line. Running game is a factor of the offensive line way more than it is the RBs. UM's line was very senior and excellent during their two-year run to the Natty playoffs. We've had a decent to good OL but not a great one.