James Franklin made a statement hire when he plucked Andy Kotelnicki from Kansas to be the next offensive coordinator for Penn State football this winter. But rather than reinventing the offense with a new playcaller, Kotelnicki’s hiring signals a return to a familiar scheme for Franklin, one that brought the Nittany Lions much success. Last week, Franklin explained how Kotelnicki will bring to Penn State a similar style to that of Joe Moorhead when he was in Happy Valley.

Last fall, James Franklin took the unprecedented step of firing offensive coordinator Mike Yurcich mid-season, the first time he had done so as Penn State football coach. Yurcich had come to Happy Valley with much fanfare, but the move was likely justified for a unit that seemed mired within itself.

The man Franklin tapped to replace Yurcich was Kansas playcaller Andy Kotelnicki. Regarded as one of the best offensive coordinators in college football last season, Kotelnicki’s dynamic and quirky play style looks remarkably different from what the Nittany Lions’ offense has become recently. But rather than a shift from the norm, Kotelnicki represents a return to a traditional Penn State offense under James Franklin. Speaking to the media last week, Franklin explained that Kotelnicki’s style follows a pattern similar to that of former Nittany Lions offensive coordinator Joe Moorhead.

“I think, based on how we played the last couple years, I don’t think that was an extension of the Joe Moorhead style of spread offense that we were running,” Franklin said on Tuesday. “I made some coordinator hires [recently] that were veteran coordinator hires that I would not say were in that model. If you looked at us over the last couple years, although the last coordinator was more of an 11-personnel guy, that was not necessarily our strength as an offense. Our tight end room is one of the better tight end rooms in the country. I believe you better have enough flexibility within your system to play to the strengths of your roster. I would say