Penn State Brought a New Battle Cry to Iowa. It Didn't Work

IOWA CITY, Iowa | Penn State players and coaches arrived at Kinnick Stadium on Saturday afternoon wearing T-shirts that read "IF," which interim coach Terry Smith said meant "a lot of different things."

One meaning was "infinite possibilities." Another, well, reverse the letters and pply them to a two-word phrase you might use when nothing's going right and you've got nothing to lose. Considering the week Penn State just had, the T-shirts seemed fitting.

"It’s been a long week, but sometimes you’ve got to go through adversity," running back Kaytron Allen said. "You’ve got to try to get through that storm."

Penn State arrives at Kinnick Stadium wearing “IF” T-shirts. pic.twitter.com/kwRQNfCNWG
— Mark Wogenrich (@MarkWogenrich) October 18, 2025

The Nittany Lions are still in the storm. Leading Iowa by 11 points in the second half at a vitriolic Kinnick Stadium, Penn State gave up scores on three consecutive drives in its latest 2025 crash. Iowa beat Penn State with a running quarterback (sound familiar?) and just enough pressure on its rookie quarterback in a 25-24 victory Saturday.

Penn State interim coach Terry Smith promised to field a team that would play through the shock of, as captain Nick Dawkins said last week, getting their head coach fired. While the Nittany Lions were in meetings at their hotel Saturday morning, former coach James Franklin was on ESPN College GameDay, explaining how he planned to go win a national championship somewhere else.

Smith said he didn't watch the interview ("Some people told me snippets of it," he said), and players said they didn't, either. Instead, they put on the T-shirts, new for this week and lifted from a speech Smith gave the team, and headed into their new season.

Falling into familiar patterns

Penn State Nittany Lions interim head coach Terry Smith looks on against the Iowa Hawkeyes at Kinnick Stadium. — Penn State Nittany Lions interim head coach Terry Smith looks on against the Iowa Hawkeyes during the second quarter at Kinnick Stadium. | Jeffrey Becker-Imagn Images

Smith was disarmingly honest in his first week as a head college football coach. He described a team that was alternately tough yet "fragile," one that wanted to play for its fired coach but also to just stop losing. Smith told them they could if they believed in the power of "IF."

So the Nittany Lions tried to shed the weight of the past three games, which they lost by a combined total of 12 points, and play without the crushing fear of making mistakes, falling behind and losing. Again, reverse the letters in "IF." That's how Penn State approached this game.

"It's actually a pretty cool T-shirt," said defensive tackle Xavier Gilliam, who made what could have been the play of the game. "It meant, the possibilities are endless. So it's just going out there with that mindset that anything could happen, so stay strong for your team."

Penn State looked like a team reborn just before halftime, when Gilliam blocked Iowa's absurd attempt at a 66-year field goal (on the second try no less). Cornerback Elliot Washington II produced the first Penn State blocked field goal scoop-and-score since Grant Haley against Ohio State in 2016, and the Nittany Lions took a 14-10 lead into halftime. Smith was euphoric.

"Everybody was hyped, momentum swung our way," Gilliam said. "It felt like it was fuel for that second half."

Run it back! pic.twitter.com/rTlZZiuLb3
— Penn State Football (@PennStateFball) October 19, 2025

Penn State has played with gasps of momentum before this season, tying Oregon in regulation, rallying from a 20-point deficit at UCLA and taking a fourth-quarter lead against Northwestern. But the Nittany Lions simply have been unable to sustain it each time. That contributed to Franklin getting fired. It didn't end at Kinnick Stadium.

Iowa began its turnaround by stuffing tight end Luke Reynolds on a fourth-quarter 4th-and-1 sneak from under center, the play that tightened Penn State's sideline again. Iowa turned that into a field goal.

In the fourth quarter, Penn State quarterback Ethan Grunkemeyer, making his first career start, had a potential touchdown pass dropped and nearly got decapitated on a third-down scramble. A Ryan Barker field goal gave Penn State a 24-19 lead with 5 minutes left. Get a stop and potentially win. But Penn State hasn't done that during the entire Big Ten season.

Iowa quarterback Mark Gronowski gutted the Nittany Lions with a 67-yard run, the Hawkeyes' longest this season and the longest play Penn State's defense has allowed all year. One play later, Iowa had the lead for good.

Looking for the other side

Iowa Hawkeyes defensive end Max Llewellyn pressures Penn State Nittany Lions quarterback Ethan Grunkemeyer. | Julia Hansen/Iowa City Press-Citizen / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The other thing Penn State hasn't done is put together a game-winning drive on offense. Grunkemeyer was game but didn't get any help. Allen, who had a monster 145-yard performance, was called off the field on 3rd-and-5 (he likely was exhausted) for Nicholas Singleton. A gut run lost a yard, and Iowa sent half its defense at Grunkemeyer on a fourth-down blitz. Game over.

"It was very disappointing the way we lost," Smith said. "I don’t feel like we made them earn it at the very end."

Smith looked spent after the game, which ended a week that pulled him in a thousand directions. Smith went to meetings he had never attended before. He worried about new issues, like how to walk out of the tunnel before the game and what to say during a halftime TV interview. He had those T-shirts made this week as well and spent the week telling his players to "IF."

Smith handled everything with grace and energy but couldn't will a victory and couldn't hide his dejection. Penn State is in the middle of a storm right now. The team has no idea when it will end.

"I'm just going to keep playing ball with my team," Allen said, "and come out on the other side."

Falling into familiar patterns

Looking for the other side

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