Penn State's Andy Kotelnicki Finds a Muse in Tight End Tyler Warren

"Yeah, he's pretty special," the Nittany Lions offensive coordinator says of Warren.

Penn State Nittany Lions tight end Tyler Warren runs by USC Trojans safety Akili Arnold in the second half at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. / Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images

Penn State’s Tyler Warren lined up at the end of the line of scrimmage and snapped the ball to backup quarterback Beau Pribula. Pribula threw a lateral to starting quarterback Drew Allar, who was lined wide on the play. Allar lofted a pass to Warren, who streaked downfield after snapping the ball and proceeded to make a circus catch over a USC defender for a touchdown. 

It was a play that only Penn State offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki could have drawn up and a play that only a tight end like Warren could have made. Warren was a quarterback, an all-region basketball player and an all-state baseball player at Atlee High School in Mechanicsville, Virginia. That athletic background impressed Kotelnicki when he first arrived at Penn State in December and watched Warren’s tape. Kotelnicki said the play where Warren snapped the ball came from “an evolution” of different concepts that he and the offensive staff brainstormed. 

“We’d do some unbalanced things with the line, and we said, ‘We need to throw a screen off of this,’ and then that morphed into, “Well maybe we could make it a double pass,’  and they said ‘Well maybe we hide one of our guys at the center,’” Kotelnicki said this week on Zoom.  

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Penn State’s staff decided Warren was the right fit to snap the ball as a decoy center. Despite the novelty of the play, Warren didn’t get much separation. USC corner Jaylin Smith ran with Warren and was in position to knock the pass away, but Warren contorted his body to make the catch on the defender’s shoulder while falling to the ground. 

“All this is possible because one, he has that background athletically, but two, because he just does everything right,” Kotelnicki said. “He’s a tell-you-once guy, you tell him one thing one time, he’s gonna remember. … The fact that he’s that kind of person and the fact that he has that athletic background makes it very feasible to do those kinds of things.” 

Warren has done just about everything through six games this season: snapping the ball, taking direct snaps, throwing passes, throwing blocks and racking up receiving yards. 

He had a career game against USC, as his 17 receptions broke Penn State’s program record and tied an NCAA record for tight ends. His 224 receiving yards were the second most for a Penn State player and the most for a tight end in Big Ten history. 

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He’s now the Nittany Lions’ leading receiver with 40 receptions for 513 yards receiving. He has the second-most receiving yards in the nation for a tight end, behind only Bowling Green’s Harold Fannin Jr. 

Franklin said last weekend that Warren is “part of a conversation as one of the best players in all of college football.” Kotelnicki knew coming in that Warren would be an offensive weapon, but he’s been impressed with the tight end’s knowledge and work ethic. 

“Yeah, he’s pretty special,” Kotelnicki said. “He’s pretty unique that way, probably one of a kind in that sense, and so I’m really enjoying trying to find creative ways to get him the football, and I appreciate his willingness to want to do creative things.”

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Sam Woloson has covered Penn State Athletics for the past three years and is currently the managing editor of The Daily Collegian. His work has also appeared in Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Huntingdon Daily News and Rivals. Follow him on X @sam_woloson