What Penn State Said About Notre Dame Ahead of the Orange Bowl

The Nittany Lions arrived in south Florida on Tuesday ready to take on the Fighting Irish for a spot in the College Football Playoff championship game.

Penn State offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki talks with reporters at Beaver Stadium during the 2024 season. / Dan Rainville / USA TODAY NETWORK

Penn State and Notre Dame arrived Tuesday in south Florida for the Orange Bowl, where the teams will meet for a spot in the College Football Playoff championship game. Before getting into their final local practices, select players and coaches from each team met with the media in Fort Lauderdale to discuss the game. Here's a sampling of what the Nittany Lions had to say.

Penn State offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki

On his offense: Obviously, the running backs that we have are pretty elite. Obviously, the talented tight ends that we have are pretty elite. And the receivers that we have are probably not getting enough credit for how they've helped open up the running game, right? Because when people are over committing to that, we have been able to be explosive independently, with those throughout the course of the season at different times. But fundamentally, it's about a total commitment from those guys to buy into the importance of doing that right. You get to this level, you get to this point in the season, you're gonna have to run the football well and you have to be able to throw the football well. And at some point, someone's going to do something to maybe take away one facet of that game.

On being a creative play-caller: It starts with identifying way back when you first get going with a team about what you want to be good at and why, and making sure that everything you do is rooted in substance. And then, the creativity piece, you got to be careful that if you end up doing too much, you maybe lose sight of some of the quote, unquote simple things that maybe aren't as you know, whatever sexy looking. And so it's about having to balance those two things. I can tell you, through the years to play caller, I have made the mistake of either living in both of those worlds too much, being too vanilla, if you will, and recognizing that I'm not helping our players execute, do their job, or being too creative and recognizing that you're not fundamentally sound enough. So it truly that, and that is, I wish there was a little more science to that, than talking about it's just a little bit of an art form and a little bit of feel and so that knowing your players and really spending time evaluating what practice looks like, how much do you have to spend time doing this or that, right, like if you guys spend a lot of time, you need to be able to get a lot of return on practice.

Penn State defensive coordinator Tom Allen

On preparing to face Notre Dame: We've faced a lot of good running backs this season, but their backfield is extremely talented and has our respect, without question. I think they're as good as anybody we've played as a group without doubt. Then you mix in the quarterback. The way [Riley] Leonard can run makes it really challenging. There's no question that he's so effective, ... so that always creates a dimension for a defense that's challenging, just because that guy you got to account for is the extra guy numerically. We've got to do a great job up front.

On Riley Leonard: He does throw the ball effectively. Obviously, they rely on the run game to set things up, but the same time, a lot of times, when he drops back and he starts running around, that's gonna be just as effective as him throwing the ball. So he's a very, very good quarterback, very good player. So we have to do a great job of playing team defense.

Penn State receiver Liam Clifford

On Notre Dame's defense: They play a lot of man coverage, which is always an awesome challenge as a receiver. They play extremely hard as a defense, harder than when you when you turn on the film. You notice it right away, how hard Notre Dame plays. And they've done a really good job throughout the whole year of being able to create turnovers and being able to capitalize on those turnovers. So just doing what we do well is take care of the ball. So needing to do that is going to be big in this game. But like I said, just excited for the challenge. They have a great defensive back room. Their defense overall is solid, so excited for the challenge.

Penn State tight end Khalil Dinkins

On the Orange Bowl opportunity: You don't get many opportunities like this. So having this opportunity, getting where we are, it's just so very special. We don't take anything for granted. It's a big opportunity for us to show who we are as a team and what we can do.”

Penn State cornerback Cam Miller

On the strategy vs. Notre Dame's offense: [In the Fiesta Bowl], we put our mind to stopping the run game, and [Boise State running back Ashton] Jeanty did a great job. He's great running back, however, we went out there with a mission, and we're able to do that together as a team. And I think one of our strengths is that we get on the same page. We're very chemistry-oriented on defense. So we have a goal in mind. We're just attacking full force, and we were able to be successful last week. So moving into this game, it's the same thing. Just going to put a goal out there, the run game is going to be a big deal again: quarterback run game, running backs, even the passing game. So we just got to go out there, just leave the field being the best defense on the field.

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