What They Said After Penn State's Win Over Michigan State

The Nittany Lions ended a six-game losing streak with a Big Ten win on the road vs. the Spartans.

Penn State's interim head coach Terry Smith is carried by players after the game against Michigan State. | Nick King/Lansing State Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Penn State delivered its first win for interim head coach Terry Smith on Saturday, beating Michigan State 28-10 in a matchup of teams that were winless in the Big Ten Conference. Penn State's victory ended a six-game losing streak, tied for the second-longest in program history, and kept the Nittany Lions (4-6) in contention for a bowl game.

"Tonight, we celebrate," Smith said after ending a personal three-game losing streak as head coach. Here's what else they said after the Nittany Lions' first win over a Power 4 team this season.

RELATED: How Penn State celebrated Terry Smith's first win as head coach

Penn State interim head coach Terry Smith

For the love of each other.
For the love of Penn State.#WeAre | @CoachTerryPSU pic.twitter.com/gOgaC7s7Op

— Penn State Football (@PennStateFball) November 15, 2025

On the Nittany Lions' 13-play, 76-yard touchdown drive in the fourth quarter: "That was a critical drive in the game, game-saving drive, bigtime drive. We hadn’t finished at all this season, and this was the first game we truly finished and that drive there was the statement to finish. ... I thought our offensive line controlled the line of scrimmage and dominated the game."

On what the win means: "I’m just super happy for our kids, super happy for our program, super happy for our fans and our following. We deserve this game. We now know again what it feel likes to win and we’ve just got build on this with momentum."

On the celebration: "It’s always a special moment when people celebrate that way. It’s very humbling. I love those guys to death. I would do anything for them. They played so hard for us, and it was just a great moment. I’m sitting here soaking wet, with hypothermia or something, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. It was just a great moment for Penn State football."

All love for our guy @CoachTerryPSU 🤍 pic.twitter.com/YDzAynI4im

— Penn State Football (@PennStateFball) November 16, 2025

On what he was thinking at the end of the game: "I was a little bit distracted. I told the offense to take a knee. They were asking, should we go in and score or should we take a knee?I said, victory formation is the best football formation. Let’s end the game on our teams. Then [quarterbacks coach] Danny O'Brien walked up to me and he said, 'I don’t normally get emotional' and I’m looking at him sideways like, we don’t ever have these conversations, and the bucket hit me. As a coach, you relish those moments, because you pour your heart and soul into the players and you hope that they respect and honor you back by playing hard."

On Penn State's run game: Win by any means necessary. We know between Kaytron [Allen] and Nick Singleton, they have to touch the ball. … I always say to you guys, if they're touching the ball, we have a chance to win, and man did we win today behind those guys. So we’re going to play Penn State football. This was an old-school Big Ten game. We dominated up front and threw the ball when necessary."

On defensive end Dani Dennis-Sutton: "In today’s times on some teams, guys like that will opt out. His effort today … was incredible. His relentless pressure, he just plays so hard. I really appreciated his leadership. It means everything to me, to us and to our defense."

On his message to the team: "Tonight, we celebrate. Tomorrow, we reset. … We have Nebraska coming [to Beaver Stadium on Nov. 22]. These games are pivotal. We’re playing for our life to make a bowl game and we took a huge step today getting back in the win column."

Michigan State coach Jonathan Smith

Michigan State Spartans head coach Jonathan Smith leaves the field after the game against the Penn State Nittany Lions at Spartan Stadium. | Nick King/Lansing State Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

On the game: "We got beat tonight. Congratulations to them, they earned that win, beating us. I thought in the game, we really wanted the game to kind of be tight throughout in regards to, you want to call it sloppy, physical. I thought that was taking place, and the score sat at 14-10 for a lot of the game. Punting, field position, they are good on defense, and we did think we had to create a couple of opportunities situationally to take a shot, and we just did not capitalize a couple of times."

On the key series: "In the first half, we get a possession start on their 45-yard line, we go four and out, you're not going to get many opportunities like that on a short field. Didn't take advantage of that.
And then into the second half. I think about the first series, we go down there and its third-and-4. Really, we're going two-play thinking, and get into the wrong direction on the play and hit us in the backfield, and now we end up punting.
But that was an opportunity with field position to continue to drive. We didn't do it. And then at the end, you got one red-zone chance, they are up two scores at that point, then we got the sack-fumble and they were to separate from there."

On what the offense couldn't accomplish: "Well, selectively, a couple of shots. I do think [on] one sack, we've got a play way down the field open. Schematically, some selective explosive plays, but we needed to be efficient in the run game and in some of the possession pass game to stay and maintain some drives, and we didn't do it that well enough."

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