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What's Next for Tyler Warren, Penn State's 'One of a Kind' Tight End?

"I am really enjoying trying to find creative ways to get him the football," Nittany Lions offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki says.

Mark Wogenrich

Penn State tight end Tyler Warren prepares to throw a 17-yard touchdown pass to Nick Singleton in the first half of an NCAA football game against Kent State.
Penn State tight end Tyler Warren prepares to throw a 17-yard touchdown pass to Nick Singleton in the first half of an NCAA football game against Kent State. / Dan Rainville / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
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Before they arrived at Penn State, the team's two new coordinators had studied Nittany Lions tight end Tyler Warren. Andy Kotelnicki, Penn State's offensive coordinator, watched film of Warren playing basketball at Virginia's Atlee High, marveling at the 6-6 Warren's athleticism and spring on the court. Tom Allen, Penn State's defensive coordinator, plotted against him for several years as Indiana's head coach, and wanted no part of it anymore.

Together, Kotelnicki and Allen now view Warren from the same sideline as the nation's best tight end. One can't wait to scheme what's next, the other empathizes with his fellow coordinators trying to defend what's next.

"I've always said this: It's the one position that can put the most amount of duress on a defense," Allen said. "A highly talented tight end that can block, can run well enough to honor that and stress you in that area and has great ball skills. He has all those things, and they're so hard to find."

Warren has become the most unique, and uniquely deployed, tight end in college football this season, headlining a Penn State offense that continues tinkering with his tool box in different ways. The team's leading receiver (40 catches, 533 yards), Warren ranks top-5 among the nation's tight ends in receptions, yards, yards per game, yards per catch, first-down catch percentage, 100-yard games and touchdowns. He set a Penn State record, and tied an FBS record among tight ends, with 17 catches at USC. He has thrown for a touchdown, run for a touchdown and snapped and caught a touchdown pass on the same play.

Penn State coach James Franklin has gone from calling Warren the nation's "most complete" tight end to calling him the nation's "best" tight end to calling him one of the nation's best players overall. Which is why the coaching staff, Kotelnicki in particular, is comfortable putting the senior into so many different positions. He has the athletic resume, football savvy and why-not attitude to try anything Kotelnicki can scheme.

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For instance, Warren briefly played center in high school, giving him some familiarity with snapping the ball, which he did on the game-changing touchdown at USC. He was an all-state, dual-threat quarterback at Atlee High (of which he reminded Kotelnicki earlier this year), making him a natural for Wildcat formations from which he could run and throw. And he has the leaping ability and strength to make one-handed catches or wrestle touchdown passes from defenders in the end zone.

What Warren is doing runs to the unprecedented. Against Kent State he recorded a 16-yard touchdown catch, a 17-yard touchdown pass and a 16-yard run. He compiled 224 receiving yards at USC, which ranks second on Penn State's single-game list. He has caught a touchdown pass from a running back (Trey Potts in 2023). Since 1956, he is among six Big Ten players, and the only tight end, to record 15+ career receiving touchdowns and at least three rushing touchdowns.

"He has been everything that I anticipated he was going to be [from watching him] on film," Kotelnicki said. "But then to work with him, I was unaware of how football smart that he is. Everything that we put on his plate, ... he has to be invested with that. There’s him understanding it. And he's able to understand and pick up things quickly, mostly because he's older, he's an athlete, he played high school quarterback, and he's intelligent, smart, and he works at it. So doing those things, you don't need to invest as much because of who he is."

Fittingly, Warren also played high school baseball, because he has been a five-tool player on the football field. Penn State has lined Warren wide as a receiver, in his natural tight end spot, in the backfield, at Wildcat quarterback and on the line at center. He has caught, thrown, run with and snapped the football this season. While doing all this, Warren continues to meet his conventional tight-end responsibilities of blocking in the run game for Nicholas Singleton, Kaytron Allen, Drew Allar and Beau Pribula.

"Some guys you do that [with], and they're going to have a bunch of missed assignments," Penn State coach James Franklin said. "They can't handle moving to a ton of different spots. So the fact that Tyler has the ability to do that really allows him to be a matchup problem, because although the defense is trying to do everything they possibly can to take him away, now you can line him up at No. 1 receiver, No. 2 receiver, No. 3 receiver. You can line him up in the backfield. You can motion him. You can shift him. His intelligence allows him to do all those things at a really high level."

What's more, Warren can run quarterback shotgun. In fact, he has. The tight end has run for touchdowns (against Auburn and Villanova in 2021 and Illinois this year) making dives from the Wildcat spot. Franklin has plenty of ideas for his tight end. The Nittany Lions could run actual mesh plays with Warren rather than just decoys. They could run a quarterback sneak with Warren. They're open to just about anything.

"He's done zone reads before," Franklin said. "You can do the mesh with him, and you can actually read it. Now that package becomes even more valuable. Well, God forbid anybody take a snap under center before, right? People don't do that anymore. Well, he's done that. ... So,yeah, it sounds good to say we're going to run a quarterback sneak, but running a quarterback sneak with actually somebody like Tyler, who is 260 pounds and has actually taken a snap from under center. So [it's the] combination of Andy, his creativity, but also having a player that allows you to take advantage of that creativity."

What's next for Warren? Kotelnicki wouldn't preview the rest of his Tyler Warren offensive package but hinted that there's more. And the plays aren't just "grab-baggy," as Kotelnicki termed it, but pieces that compliment each other. For instance: the double-pass touchdown against USC? That began with a screen, morphed into the throwback to Drew Allar and added the snapping component. In future play-calling, Kotelnicki will go as far as Warren will take him.

"Yeah, he's pretty unique that way, probably one of a kind in that sense," Kotelnicki said. "And so I am really enjoying trying to find creative ways to get him the football, and I appreciate his willingness to want to do creative things. ... He's a fun football player to use in a lot of different ways."

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Mark Wogenrich
MARK WOGENRICH

Mark Wogenrich is Editor and Publisher of AllPennState, the site for Penn State news on SI's FanNation Network. He has covered Penn State sports for more than two decades across three coaching staffs and three Rose Bowls.

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