Reed: Coverage of PSU Media Day

By Kenny Varner Jr.
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Updated: August 4, 2024

Photo by Kathy Reed

By Dom Reed
UNIVERSITY PARK – Penn State Football hosted the team’s annual media day Saturday at Beaver Stadium and Holuba Hall with just 28 days until the Nittany Lions open their season.

Penn State will travel to West Virginia for week one.

“It’s been good working with the three new coordinators it’s really been good.the players took a big jump from day one of camp into day two,” said PSU head coach James Franklin. “Franklin said there’s still room for improvement we’re really excited there’s a lot of growth mentally and physically.”

The Nittany Lions made changes in the offseason with the coaching staff some new faces.

Penn State hired Tim Allen to become the teams’ new defensive coordinator Allen is not new to the Big Ten as he coached at Indiana before coming to Penn State.

Allen brings a lot of energy to the team when I asked him about his energy and how it impacts the team this is what he said.

“Anytime you coach with passion and from the heart and when they know it real conunuite they respond to it,” said Allen. “It starts with building a relationship. You got to be true to who you are and I wanna do that it can also be empty words if you don’t capture their mind.”

Allen spoke highly about his coaching style being consistent the newly hired defensive coordinator looks to bring that constituency every week.

The newly hired offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki spoke to the media. “Our guys continue to grow, learn and improve,” said Kotelnicki.

Kotelnicki was named the 2023 247 sports offensive coordinator of the year entering his first season with the Nittany Lions Kotelnicki has 19 years of play calling experience. This turns out to be the best thing for Penn State following last year’s disappointment.

I got to speak with the running backs coach JaJuan Seider. When I asked about the success he has had over the years with the running backs, coach Seider responded. “You gotta recruit well. You gotta develop well and keep revolving as a coach,” said Seider. “You can’t always do the same thing year in and year out, you always have to redefine your goals who you are and what you’re looking for my big thing is competition I want to be the best in what I do as a coach.”

The Penn State receiving core has been pretty good over the years. The Nittany Lions made some moves in the offseason a guy that has put in the work to be better at his craft is Liam Clifford. “Just building off some of the success I had last year continues to lead the group to bring the best out of the people that we have. The older guys bringing people along just finding something to get better at each day.”

The Nittany Lions have always been well known for their linebackers I got a chance to talk with Tony Rojas asking him how can he build off of last year’s success.

“For me its confidence that’s the biggest factor from last year to this year,” said Rojas. “Going into camp my biggest improvement and I’m happy that I have been able to improve from last year season it’s only growing.”

The Penn State Nittany Lions look to build off a 10 win season last year. There’s so much talent on this team Penn State will get to turn it loose in hopes of an even better season than last season.