James Franklin Says Respect for Lance Leipold Helped Led to Andy Kotelnicki Hire
While Kansas fans are still dealing with the adjustment of life with a new offensive coordinator, Penn State Head Coach James Franklin gave an outstanding compliment to Lance Leipold following the hiring of offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki.
Franklin spoke on his relationship with Leipold and the decision to hire Kotelnicki to On3’s Dan Morrison saying, “Ton of respect for him, friend of his, friend of mine. So, when I talk about tough to leave, that’s kind of what I’m talking about. Tremendous amount of stability, and obviously to your point, that’s what excited me.”
Kotelnicki has worked under Lance Leipold since 2013, and followed him to three different stops along the way, beginning at Wisconsin-White Water for two seasons, at Buffalo for six seasons, and in Lawrence over the last three years.
His final season with the Jayhawks was one of his best, as Kotelnicki helped coordinate a Kansas offense that ranked 30th in scoring with 33.6 PPG, ninth in rushing with 211.33 YPG, 29th in total offense with 434 YPG, and eighth in yards per play with 7.01.
With Kotelnicki now on Franklin’s staff at Penn State, Leipold and the Jayhawks elected to bring in former Baylor OC Jeff Grimes to run the offense.
“You look at the head coach and the offensive coordinator, there hadn’t really been that type of success and productivity in a place like Buffalo,” Franklin said. “They go to Kansas, there really hadn’t been that type of success and productivity at a place like Kansas before. So, that was a big reason for me being attracted to him in the first place and then also coming up under a guy that I have a ton of respect for within the profession.”
With the Jayhawks working to continue their rebuild in Lawrence, hearing praise from coaches like Franklin is a pretty good measure of the type of person Kansas has wearing the headset.
Leipold and the Jayhawks now turn their focus to UNLV in the Guaranteed Rate Bowl as the two square off on Tuesday, December 26th at 8:00 p.m. CT.
