Midweek Musings – New Offense?

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Midweek Musings – New Offense?

Penn State head coach Matt Campbell was officially announced this past week, and the new regime takeover has begun. Penn State still has a bowl game to play, but we’re already starting to see staffing changes happen.

First, Ty Howle has left Penn State to join James Franklin at Virginia Tech as his offensive coordinator. Ty was the co-offensive coordinator and tight ends coach at Penn State.

Second, Danny O’Brien has left Penn State to be Franklin’s QB coach at VT, the same position he held at PSU.

There will be many more changes going forward, and that will be in large part to which coaches Campbell decides he wants to bring with him – and then which ones he wants to hire.

As discussed earlier this week, there are a few coaches from Iowa State that could follow their head coach to Happy Valley:

  • Jon Heacock, defensive coordinator, has already joined the PSU staff, though his role remains to be seen with Jim Knowles still on the staff
  • Derek Hoodjer, associate AD, has also joined Campbell, apparently as the General Manager
  • Ryan Clanton, offensive line coach, has also been rumored to be coming to State College

Some other names that have been floated and seem at least likely, if not a done deal:

  • Jake Waters, quarterbacks coach
  • Noah Pauley, wide receivers coach

Other than that, however, it remains to be seen exactly who follows from Ames to State College. With Heacock on board, it seems that Knowles’ days may be numbered in State College, but for the $6M that he’s owed on his contract. But Heacock is himself an excellent defensive coordinator, meaning Campbell may jettison the underwhelming Knowles, cost be damned.

If that were the case, then the specifics of the defense would need to be worked out, but the broad brush strokes would be in place very quickly. Heacock’s 3-3-5 could – and likely should – be adjusted to Penn State’s roster, and run a more traditional 4-2-5 (Heacock loves himself some 3-safety sets). But otherwise the defensive side of the ball may be off and running sooner than later.

The offensive side of the ball is where I think there will be some upheaval. For starters, I haven’t seen any inklings that Campbell wants to retain offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki. With rumors that OL coach Clanton is on the way, Phil Trautwein will head off to greener pastures. Given the $17M budget Campbell has for his new coaching staff, it seems like he may largely be good with his defensive staff, and go fishing for some shiny new offensive coaches.

Which brings me back around to the premise of this article, which is what would you like to see out of Penn State’s offense?

If there was one qualm I had about Franklin, it was that I never knew what his teams’ offensive identity was. Run the ball first, second, and third, like under Kirk Ciarrocca? Explosive boom-or-bust under Joe Moorhead (and Ricky Rahne)? Trick play for seemingly no good reason under Andy Kotelnicki?

He never seemed to quite have a theme that he wanted to stick to, instead hiring (seemingly) random offensive coordinators and asking his players to adapt every few years. That’s problematic in its own right, but the recruiting seemed to struggle in that regard as well – how many times did we complain that Penn State had a stellar pocket passer in Drew Allar who was being asked to run an option offense? The square-peg-round-hole discussion was one that happened every year, when it seemed like yet again the personnel didn’t fit the offensive scheme.

While I want Penn State to put up 80 billion points per game, there’s no shocker out there that when a coordinator does well, they interview for head coaching gigs and leave. That’s the way of the world, especially at successful programs. But I would like to see one coach leave and the next one come in with largely the same philosophy. If Campbell brings in an air raid OC, and after a couple years they leave for a HC job, then I’d like to see the next OC also be an air raid OC. The specifics of the plays can change, obviously, but the heart of the team should remain the same.

But I don’t get paid millions of dollars for these decisions. I’m a keyboard warrior. But if Mr. MMQB over here can identify some issues with personnel/scheme mismatches, I’d like to think the head coach at Penn State could identify it as well.

In any case, with the pocketbook open and Campbell hunting for a new OC, what sort of scheme would you like to see at Penn State in 2026?

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