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What They Said After Penn State's Loss to Indiana

The Hoosiers rallied for a 27-24 win over Penn State, leaving the Nittany Lions' interim coach wondering what went wrong.
Mark Wogenrich|
Penn State Nittany Lions head coach Terry Smith celebrates from the sideline during the third quarter against the Indiana Hoosiers at Beaver Stadium.
Penn State Nittany Lions head coach Terry Smith celebrates from the sideline during the third quarter against the Indiana Hoosiers at Beaver Stadium. | Matthew O'Haren-Imagn Images

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Penn State took another 2025 gut-punch Saturday, falling to second-ranked Indiana 27-24 in their first home game without coach James Franklin. The loss was Penn State's sixth straight, a first since 2004, and came on a touchdown pass from Fernando Mendoza to Omar Cooper Jr. with 36 seconds remaining.

After the game, Indiana coach Curt Cignetti called it "the most improbable victory I've been a part of." Penn State interim coach Terry Smith said his players "deserve victory," and the Nittany Lions struggled to explain another frustrating game.

Here's what they said after the Penn State-Indiana game at Beaver Stadium.

Penn State interim coach Terry Smith

On the game: A tough loss. Very, very difficult one to handle. There are guys in the locker room taking it very tough. Super proud of the effort that our guys put out there. These guys play hard. I feel awful for them. They do everything we ask of them, and we just keep coming up short.

... We have to hit the reset button again tomorrow and continue to figure out how to win a game. I thought we did a better job in the second half throwing the ball down the field. I thought it opened up our run game. We got a long run, and it gave us some opportunities to get back in the game. Our kids fought valiantly in the second half. We fought back from a 13-point deficit and just kept clawing, kept fighting, and it’s a testimony to these kids in the locker room.

On challenging the officials after Indiana's game-winning touchdown: We're all wanting the plays to go our way. We’re talking blades of grass right back to the Oregon game. We're just trying to create, you know, maybe we get the call for the blade of grass, and right now we're in that storm where we can't get the blade of grass. So, just trying to make sure my guys know I'm fighting every way of the storm for the guys, and they just hope, trying to turn the tide.

On Indiana's final drive: When you get in games like this, you have to have players that make plays to win games, and [Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza] won the game for them. He was amazing. He's tough. We hit him relentlessly the entire game. He kept getting up. He delivered throws. You could say they were lucky, but he kept doing it time after time.

You know that last drive, the pressure is there. We get the sack. I don't know if we would do
anything different. The coverage is right there. Those guys made plays. And unfortunately, that's the nature of this game. We can live with results when guys make plays, we can't live with results when we're making mistakes.

On Penn State quarterback Ethan Grunkemeyer: I thought he grew up in the second half. Obviously, coming out of halftime we threw the interception, but he bounced right back. He started making some good throws. He gave us a chance to win. He led us back. He took control of the huddle. I thought he was big-time, and I’m just looking forward to him continuing to get better and continuing to develop. So I thought he gave us a chance to win, and that's all you can ask.

On the expanded vertical passing game: We made calls to throw the ball down the field.

On the team's leaders (Zane Durant, Dani Dennis-Sutton, Nicholas Singleton) playing big games: These guys are busting their butt. And the guys you just mentioned, they're our best players. They’re our old guys. They're leading the way. That's why I feel so bad for them, because they are doing everything we ask.

They're working hard, they're leading the locker room. They're making sure these young guys are following. They're leading by example. We just have to figure it out. I'm not making excuses, but we played at Iowa at night. Then the number one team and number two team. It was a tough road, and we're going to come back next week. We're going to fight harder. No one will ever question if Terry Smith team doesn’t play hard.

Indiana coach Curt Cignetti

On the game: Super proud of our team and our players. We refused to lose in the bleakest, more dire moments when it looked impossible. On the two-yard line with no time outs, barely a minute
to go, and haven’t done anything offensively in quite a while. The quarterback’s been taking a
lot of shots all game. To all of the sudden start making plays like, we made incredible plays, and score at the end like that, it’s a game of inches. It truly is. And the team refused to lose.

I’m proud of this football team. Now, tape tomorrow will give me a lot of things we won’t be
proud of, but Penn State’s a good football team, and maybe they found their quarterback too [in Ethan Grunkemeyer]. A guy that can lead them to more wins the rest of the season here. It was the most improbable victory I’ve ever been a part of and there couldn’t have been a better place to make it happen.

On what bogged down the offense in the second half: You’ve got to keep the quarterback in rhythm, and when that ball is coming out quick out of his hands; when you do that, good things happen, And when you hold the ball, bad things happen.

On what he said when Penn State took the lead: You know, we’ve been in a lot of two-minute situations, just flashbacks in my mind. A little bit of a similar situation in fall camp that we’re in where we scored touchdowns. And this one’s no different, and all of a sudden, we started making those plays.

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Mark Wogenrich
MARK WOGENRICH

Mark Wogenrich is the editor and publisher of Penn State on SI, the site for Nittany Lions sports on the Sports Illustrated network. He has covered Penn State sports for more than two decades across three coaching staffs, three Rose Bowls and one College Football Playoff appearance.

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