Penn State football lost on Saturday. Shocker.
The Nittany Lions (3-4, 0-4 Big Ten) found new ways to disappoint their fans since Week 2 when they were still winning. After Week 8, they endured their fourth consecutive loss after starting the season as a national championship-favored team. The 2025 season took such a turn that losing to Iowa at Kinnick Stadium was just another box to cross off on Penn State's updated bingo card.
Even in knowing that the Nittany Lions faced a mountain of adversity to climb over and an inevitable loss on the horizon on the road, Saturday night's outcome still had a slight kick to it — or it would have if Penn State fans still allowed themselves to care and put faith into a shattered team.
It was interim head coach Terry Smith's first game leading Penn State and quarterback Ethan Grunkemeyer's first time starting in his collegiate career. In the locker room and on the field, it was evident that the Nittany Lions were playing for more than just themselves. They were playing for those who aren't wearing or representing the blue and white anymore. Player-wise, quarterback Drew Allar's collegiate career came to a brutal end with a broken ankle sustained against Northwestern. Coach-wise, Penn State wanted to pull out a win in honor of James Franklin.
Ironically, losing the lead and being defeated with a one-point difference seems like a very fitting way to fail in honoring the former head coach.
The Nittany Lions had the win at their fingertips. Smith said before the game that he and his team were prepared to "shock the world." At halftime, he said that all the impact plays that turned into Penn State taking the lead after two quarters was all a part of what he and his team intended to do in Iowa City.
Nobody wanted it more than the Nittany Lions. There was nothing to lose, but so much to play for. There were opportunities to latch onto hope at so many moments in the game and they genuinely had a real chance to kickoff the back half of the season with an identity-claiming win. The locker room came together. It had a much greater purpose on the field compared to the first six games of the season. All the pieces are there for Week 8's defeat to sting.
After falling to Northwestern, though, all the passion from the fanbase subsided. The emotional cries and charged energy from Penn State fans died after their cries for Franklin's job were fulfilled. Now all that's left in the wake of losses is numbness. Smith and Grunkemeyer don't have enough enemies yet to fuel anger, and fans are smart enough now not to grasp at faint glimpses of hope that disappear in a flash.