Ethan Grunkemeyer thrives, focus turns to Pat Kraft's search, and more of what they're saying about Penn State

Penn State football is being discussed locally and nationally following the Lions’ sixth win of the season, a 40-36 triumph over Rutgers on Saturday that punched its ticket to the postseason.

“It was a hard-fought victory,” interim Penn State head coach Terry Smith said following the win. “Definitely not a pretty victory. But victory counts all the same. Offense was unbelievable tonight. They had their way running for over 300 yards. Kaytron [Allen] for over 200 yards. Nick Singleton breaking the all purpose yards record and having a really good day. I was super proud of the offense. They answered the call.

“One of the things we learned tonight was how to end the game on our terms. We all recall Indiana. It was the same situation with four minutes to. You know, we gave them the ball back, and we all know what happened. This time we had the ball. I don’t know the exact time, but it was around four minutes to go, and we didn’t give the ball back. We ended it on our terms. So that was fantastic.”

Here’s a roundup of what’s being said about the Lions in the media below.

Ethan Grunkemeyer is ready for the spotlight

That’s the take of PennLive’s Bob Flounders, who focused on the very accurate Penn State redshirt freshman quarterback making his sixth start of the season in the Lions’ latest win.

“One thing is clear: PSU has to retain its best young players,” Flounders writes. “One of them is true freshman corner Daryus Dixson, who does not look, or act, like a first-year Nittany Lion. Grunkemeyer is another.

“There aren’t many redshirt freshman quarterbacks playing like “Grunk.””

Read the full story here.

Focus turns to Pat Kraft’s search

The Penn State search for its next head coach is approaching the 50-day mark. With the regular season over, athletic director Pat Kraft’s efforts to find the next leader of the Lions will be squarely in focus.

“Hiring a college football head coach is difficult — there’s no correct formula, no trends to rely on, and an incorrect decision will often cost an athletic director their job,” Joel Haas writes for Statecollege.com. “There have been extremely successful head coaches who were prior head coaches at other schools (Nick Saban), prior coordinators at other schools (Kirby Smart) and in-house promotions (Dabo Swinney). There have also been disasters from each of these options.

It’s impossible to say with any level of certainty that any specific candidate would succeed at Penn State. That said, bringing in an accomplished head coach who excels at all the responsibilities required of a modern-day head coach, including on and off the field, who will retain Smith as an ace recruiter and motivator, is the ideal future for Penn State.”

Read the full story here.

Final word on Penn State-Rutgers

This week, it goes to BWI’s Sean Fitz, who gives one of his game balls to standout Penn State running back Kaytron Allen.

“It was a mismatch from the start, as Penn State’s pair of running backs faced off against the league-worst Rutgers run defense,” Fitz writes. “Kaytron Allen, who passed Evan Royster as the Nittany Lions’ all-time leading rusher last week, finished his final regular-season game with his best-ever output on the ground. He finished with 22 carries for 226 yards and a score, and his 50-yard run on Penn State’s final drive helped to seal the win. It was much tougher than it appeared it would be, though, given how the Nittany Lions ran the ball early. Penn State had four runs over 40 yards in the game, with Allen notching three of them. He also passed the 4,000-yard mark for his career in the win. It was quite a swan song for Allen, if this is indeed his final game as a Nittany Lion.”

Read the full story here.