Penn State doesn’t close out its 2025 season until Saturday, but before the Nittany Lions take the field against Rutgers, with a chance to claw their way back to bowl eligibility after a six-game losing streak to start Big Ten play, they got one more reason not to remove the interim tag from current head coach Terry Smith.
Momentum has been growing both in and outside the program for Smith to take over in a full-time capacity after leading the team to wins over Michigan State and Nebraska. However, one Friday result in Week 14 should temper Nittany Lion fans’ unbridled enthusiasm.
Iowa’s blowout win over Nebraska exposes Penn State’s biggest win
Smith started his tenure as Penn State’s interim head coach with three straight losses, two despite holding fourth-quarter leads, and two against top-five-ranked opponents. Those are exactly the things that got James Franklin fired. Yet, because Smith took a roster built to compete for a national championship and blew out a seven-win Nebraska team with its backup quarterback in Beaver Stadium last week, fans were ready to abandon the coaching search altogether.
Well, if you weren’t willing to listen to reason and pump the brakes last week, maybe Iowa’s 40-16 win over the Cornhuskers in Lincoln on Friday will open your eyes to the reality that Nebraska is just not that good.
Matt Rhule has done a lot to get Nebraska’s NIL operation up to Big Ten standards, but his program still has a long way to go. This offseason, defensive coordinator Tony White left for Florida State, and the Cornhuskers’ defensive line was raided through the transfer portal.
Nebraska lost five of its top seven defensive linemen from last season, either to the NFL or the transfer portal, and didn’t have the resources to replace them. Every team on Nebraska’s schedule with real Big Ten trench play has rolled the Huskers. A week after Penn State ran for 231 yards, Iowa ran for 213 in its blowout win.
Similarly, Michigan ran for 286 yards in its win, and Minnesota rushed for 186 at over five yards a pop. Nebraska’s trench play has been thoroughly outclassed all year, and no matter who was on the headset for the Nittany Lions last week, they would have overpowered Rhule’s team.
Wins over Michigan State and Nebraska should have never created the amount of buzz that Smith has to replace James Franklin. The endorsements that he has received from his players and those close to the program have also helped that snowball pick up speed as it rolls downhill, but hopefully this dose of reality will be enough to knock it off course before the program makes a huge mistake.
The issue is that with Rhule, Curt Cignetti, Mike Elko, and now Eli Drinkwitz and Clark Lea signing lucrative extensions this season, athletic director Pat Kraft could feel as though he's running out of options.