Penn State football’s Tyler Warren has emerged as a star in offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki’s offense.

The tight end began the year with an impressive stat line for the position with three catches for 30 yards and a touchdown against West Virginia. Since then, Warren has taken on a role greater than any one position, amassing six total touchdowns: four receiving, one rushing, and one passing.

After receiving national attention for his performance against USC with 17 catches for 224 yards and a touchdown, the element of surprise is fading. James Franklin has already seen teams attempt to contain Warren, but the better he performs, the more defensive pressure he gets.

Putting extra coverage on Warren should free another facet of the offense, leading to increased chances for wide receivers to get involved. That hasn’t been an issue so far with Trey Wallace, Omari Evans, and Julian Fleming all having big games this season.

“I think that’s helpful too that a number of different guys have been impactful and making plays for us,” Franklin said. “Not only the running backs, but I think we all know No. 44 [Tyler Warren] is going to get a ton of attention moving forward as well, so there should be more opportunity for those guys because of that.”

“But there’s also going to need to be continued growth and production as the year goes on,” he continued.

Adapting to whatever game plan the defense throws at Warren is a large factor in the Nittany Lions’ success during a tough stretch of the season with an away matchup at Wisconsin this Saturday and Ohio State looming the week after.

While Warren may have become the focal point, there are still a host of players around him that Franklin is confident will fill the gap.

“We’ve got to do whatever we’ve got to do to win, and that will be different each week,” Franklin said. “If we go out there to play Wisconsin and they’ve got nine guys in the box, then we’re going to still run the ball because we’re committed to doing that, but the game may go differently in terms of our production throwing the ball and in the run game.”

Scenarios for added pressure on Warren aren’t a surprise to the coaching staff, though. Kotelnicki said last week that he wasn’t surprised at the type of player Warren has become, but did note that Warren is one-of-a-kind.

“He’s been everything I anticipated him to be on film, but once I started working with him, I was unaware of how football smart he was,” Kotelnicki said. “With everything we’ve put on his plate with the reps, he’s invested in that, and he’s able to understand things and pick things up quickly.”

Gaining new skills not seen on tape is important to continue giving different looks to defenses during the later games of the season. Franklin wants to play to his team’s strengths and he said running a quarterback sneak with Warren under center is a competitive advantage over a defensive line.

Without Kotelnicki’s scheme, though, Warren might never have gone under center for a sneak, let alone a touchdown pass in the red zone. Even with defenses aware of the threat the senior poses, Franklin is confident Kotelnicki will continue to find ways for Warren to impact the game.

“It’s a combination of Andy [Kotelnicki] and his creativity, but also having a player that allows you to take advantage of that creativity,” Franklin said. “When your best players are really smart guys, you can move them around. That makes it very difficult for people to take that piece of the puzzle away.”