STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — Ethan Grunkemeyer was immediately swarmed by reporters as he emerged from the locker room after the Penn State football team’s midweek practice.
As bodies and cameras enveloped him Wednesday night, the quarterback’s eyes glanced back toward his teammates. One shouted: “Yeah, Grunk! Man of the hour!”
Grunkemeyer, who will make the first start of his collegiate career when the Nittany Lions visit Iowa on Saturday, finally allowed himself to smile.
“I definitely feel prepared,” the redshirt freshman said. “There’s definitely some things in this role that are a little bit different, but I think just (assistant coaches Danny O’Brien’s and Trace McSorley’s) understanding of our offense and just the quarterback position in general has really helped me this week. I feel super ready.”
With all the Nittany Lions (3-3, 0-3 Big Ten) have been through over the past three weeks — falling from the No. 2 spot in the AP Top 25 with three straight losses, then enduring the firing of longtime coach James Franklin on Sunday — it’s a small sign of progress.
Senior quarterback Drew Allar sustained a season-ending injury in Penn State’s 22-21 loss to Northwestern the day before Franklin was fired. It will be up to Grunkemeyer to try to salvage a season that he and his teammates hoped would end with a deep run in the College Football Playoff, perhaps the program’s first national championship in four decades.
Now, Grunkemeyer and the rest of the Nittany Lions have little room for error if they want to make any bowl game. After this week’s game at Iowa (4-2, 2-1), Penn State visits No. 1 Ohio State on Nov. 1 and hosts No. 3 Indiana on Nov. 8.
Interim coach Terry Smith said the 6-foot-2, 207-pound Ohio State has made the most of his first-team reps this week.
“Grunk’s looked really good,” Smith said. “He’s excited for the opportunity. We sat down and met (Tuesday), we had a really good conversation. Fortunately or unfortunately, he and I have been thrust into a role that neither one of us saw coming for this week.”
As Smith said when he was introduced as Franklin’s replacement Monday, the focus is on simply having fun again. There hasn’t been much of that all season in Happy Valley.
While Penn State hasn’t executed a bunch of long scoring plays or snagged big game-changing turnovers, there hasn’t been much energy on the sideline or in huddles when they have.
Grunkemeyer has noted the hanging heads and thousand-yard stares from his teammates over the past few weeks. He has taken it upon himself to invigorate them.
“If the wide receivers make a big play, we’re going down there celebrating that,” Grunkemeyer said. “Coach Smith has really done a great job emphasizing that. If we get a big play, he wants to see you down there giving some props. Running back breaks a tackle and makes a play? Give them props. O-line pancake? Same thing. We’re definitely taking that to heart and really trying to work with it.”
There’s plenty more to improve on, though.
Even before the Nittany Lions dropped out of title contention with consecutive losses to Oregon, UCLA and Northwestern, coordinator Andy Kotelnicki’s offense was uneven and coordinator Jim Knowles’ new-look defense was leaky.
Through six games, Penn State sits 79th nationally in total offense. Meanwhile, the Nittany Lions’ 22nd-ranked defense is just 71st when it comes to stopping the run.
Grunkemeyer has had a unique view of all of it from the sideline.
He completed eight of 11 passes for 105 yards and a touchdown when Penn State finally built big enough leads against its nonconference opponents. And while fans called for him to replace the struggling Allar, Grunkemeyer didn’t get on the field the last three weeks until Allar was hurt on Penn State’s final possession against Northwestern.
It happened on a third-down play where Allar was sandwiched between two defenders short of the first-down marker. Grunkemeyer entered to try to keep the drive alive on fourth-and-3, but he was crushed by a pair of Wildcats to all but end the game.
Smith, a longtime Franklin assistant, knows a little bit about how his 20-year-old quarterback is feeling, being the man tabbed to lead the Nittany Lions back into bowl contention with half a season of football left.
‘We have every bit of confidence in Ethan,” Smith said. “He has a strong arm, he is athletic, super-smart kid. We’ve entrusted him. He’s been thrown in there just like I’ve been thrown in there, so we’ve got something in common. He’s going to be ready.”