Everything Penn State interim head coach Terry Smith said after losing to Iowa 25-24

IOWA CITY — Penn State interim head coach Terry Smith’s voice was hoarse by the time he arrived at his postgame news conference following a 25-24 loss to Iowa. The Nittany Lions battled for four quarters but yet again did not come up with enough plays when they needed them. It’s a theme of the team’s four-game losing streak.

“Obviously very disappointing loss,” Smith said in his opening statement. “Very disappointing the way we lost. I don’t feel like we made them earn it at the very end. All three areas [offense, defense, and special teams] need improvement. Our special teams, we continue to have problems handling punts and kicks, just making good decisions with the football there.

“Offense, we continue to not be able to throw the ball down the field or even throw the ball in the intermediate zone. We got to get that fixed. Defense. We can’t get stops when we need stops. It’s glaring, and I have to get it fixed. We’re going to take the bye week to try to get those three areas cleaned up and better for when we go to Ohio State.”

Read everything else Smith had to say below.

Did Penn State show enough grit and toughness on Saturday?

“I don’t think anyone in that stadium would say they didn’t see that,” Smith said. “Our guys played hard. I think our guys left it out there. Think they gave everything. There was nobody that turned anything down. There was no one that didn’t give great effort. We just have to execute. That’s where our problem is, and that’s my job, to get it fixed. I’m super proud of those guys and the way they play. We just got to clean it up so that we can finish games.”

On the offensive and defensive lines and impact on fourth down play calling

“I thought our offensive line did a nice job,” Smith said. “Kaytron had a had a great game. He was running the ball effectively. He had zero carries for negative yards. Everything was positive. 28 touches. I’m super proud of those guys for that. I think we might have had one sack, I think the stats read. So we protected when we went to throw. We just have to be able to push the ball. It’s tough. You know, I’m a DB guy by nature. It’s tough when the secondary is sitting on your intermediate zones. There’s no separation. Every throw has got to be in a tight window. We just have to be able to push the ball down the field to make that better.”

On Ethan Grunkemeyer’s performance

“I thought Ethan played a pretty solid game,” Smith said. “Obviously, he had the two interceptions. The one interception down by the four yard line, that wasn’t a bad interception. That’s like a punt. I mean, that was like pinning them back. It turned out to be a positive. The second interception right before the half, you know, we tried to force a slant in there. He’s just trying to make a play. So, you know, the ball was tipped and intercepted. I thought his game was solid.

“I thought he managed the line of scrimmage and the calls at the line of scrimmage. He handled the crowd. The crowd was electric. We didn’t have any miscues with communication at the line of scrimmage. So he did a terrific job with that. I’m super excited. He used his legs on some critical third downs and second down runs to move the sticks. It’s really, really positive in the direction we’re going. We’ll be able to build this thing him.”

On using backup quarterback Jaxon Smolik

“Smolik, he brings some more athleticism to it, and just wanted to give those guys a lot to prepare for. And, if we could see a play or two to be made by him, which he did, it turned out to help us move the sticks.”

On how Smith came to make his in-game decisions

“Sometimes in the [analytics] book, it says it’s a 50/50, then that turns into your gut,” Smith said. “We knew coming into the game, we wanted to be aggressive. You know, when you’re on the road at night at a place like this, you have to come to win, and you can’t want to try to just lose your way into victory. We came to make plays, and that’s why we were super aggressive.” The last fourth down that we didn’t get, we just didn’t get a push off the ball, and they stoned us there.”

On Iowa’s two long runs from its quarterback

“Yeah, we had a game up front, and we didn’t get the wrapper to get back to the middle of the field,” Smith said. “And that was the first one. The second one, we had one of the players just miss the tackle, and it just from there, it got into a foot race, and we saw the result.”

Is there an update on the status of Penn State guard Vega Ioane, who did not travel to Iowa?

“He’ll be available moving forward,” Smith said.

How was the Penn State sideline operation between Smith and his coaches?

“Yeah, I thought the communication was great,” Smith said. “I was able to switch back and forth offense, defense and talk to [Justin Lustig] on special teams. There was complete communication. We use the analytics book. There’s communication to both sides of what they’re trying to do and what we want to do. I thought that went really smooth.”

On the 4th and 1 on the 40 run and the team’s pregame ‘IF’ shirts

“Yeah, fourth and one, we had a call that we thought would work,” Smith said. “We thought we’d get a little bit more push, and we didn’t get the initial push, and then it just failed, simply. But the IF is, you know, it’s a belief. It’s infinite possibilities. It’s if we focus, if we play harder, if we buy into each other, it just, it means a lot of different things. And it gave us this endless, limitless, possibilities of the outcome, right? So we did some really, really good things tonight. The big thing we have to learn is finish that. That has been a problem right now. And you have to learn to play four quarters and finish at the end.”

Did Penn State do enough to get its playmakers in position to change the game?

“We played a couple of younger receivers,” Smith said. “You know, Koby had a catch in there. We’ll continue to push those guys to get more as we develop this pass game. We got to develop Ethan to be able to utilize the pass game and be comfortable with it. We’re just trying to find the play makers and get the best guys on the field that can make the plays. That’s what my job is, to get those guys out there. And I thought those young guys did a decent job for the reps that they got.”

Did Smith watch James Franklin’s interview on ESPN College GameDay?

“No, I didn’t see it,” Smith said. “Some people told me some snippets of it, but I don’t have a comment. I just, I didn’t see just, to be accurate.”