Source: Penn State OC Andy Kotelnicki’s deal for 4 years, reaches $2 million in final season
The market rate for high-quality offensive coordinators is going up in college football, and Penn State’s latest hire is evidence of that.
OC Andy Kotelnicki, who was officially announced Friday as the new offensive coordinator, will make $2 million by the final year of his deal, according to a source with knowledge of the contract.
Penn State Board of Trustees’ subcommittee on compensation met Friday afternoon and unanimously approved a contract for the new staffer.
Kotelnicki, according to the source, will make $1.6 million in his first year, $1.7 million in his second year, $1.8 million in his third year and $2 million in the final year of the deal.
The offensive coordinator signed a five-year contract in January with Kansas that paid him $1 million in base salary each season, with a $100,000 retention bonus.
Kotelnicki engineered the No. 9 offense in 2022 and No. 24 offense in 2023, according to ESPN’s SP+ — a tempo- and opponent-adjusted measure of college football efficiency — and did so with his star quarterback Jalon Daniels only playing in the team’s first three games this season due to injury. Daniels played in only nine games in 2022 when Kotelnicki led a top-10 offense.
Prior to his time at Kansas as offensive coordinator, he spent 2015-2020 with head coach Lance Leipold at Buffalo and 2013-2014 at Division III Wisconsin-Whitewater with him.
He joined Leipold from the Div. II Mary Marauders, where he was the offensive coordinator in 2011 and 2012, after spending 2006-2010 at Div. III Wisconsin-River Falls as the offensive coordinator.
Kotelnicki began his coaching career at Western Illinois, where he was an offensive assistant from 2004-2006. He played collegiately at Wisconsin-River Falls, where he served as an assistant in 2003 before his return to be OC in 2006.
A Penn State spokesperson did not immediately respond when asked to comment on, or confirm, the contract details.
This story was originally published December 1, 2023 at 2:11 PM.
