Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1541276
3 8 D E C E M B E R 2 0 2 5 W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M P enn State interim head coach Terry Smith under- stood the hurdle his pro- gram faced at No. 1 Ohio State on Nov. 1. The combination of quarterback Julian Sayin and two star receivers — Jeremiah Smith and Carnell Tate — would be a handful. He was right. After plodding up the field dur- ing the game's feeling-out period in the first quarter, the Buckeyes un- leashed an aerial attack for which Penn State had no answers. In quick succession, Sayin hit Tate for a 45- yard touchdown then followed it in the second half with a pair of 57- yard completions to Tate and Smith to effectively put to rest any threat of a Nittany Lion upset. Summarizing the 38-14 loss, Smith told reporters how Penn State could do better moving forward. "The ball continuously went over our head," Smith said. "That was a point of emphasis that it couldn't hap- pen, and it did." The good news for Penn State's de- fense is that Sayin, S m i t h a n d Ta te won't be seen again this season. In fact, the Buckeyes won't return to the Nit- tany Lions' regular- season slate until 2028, by which time all three will be long gone. The bad news for Penn State's defense is that what followed offered little re- lief. The Lions welcomed No. 2 Indiana to Beaver Stadium on Nov. 8, and more challenges awaited. Going into the game, the Hoosiers were being led by quarterback Fer- nando Mendoza and two of the nation's most productive receivers, Omar Coo- per Jr. and Elijah Sarratt. Sarratt ended up missing the game with an injury, but he was replaced more than capably by Charlie Becker, who finished with 7 catches for 118 yards. And while Cooper was held to just 32 yards on 6 catches, the last of those grabs was a backbreaker, an acrobatic 7-yard touchdown reception that lifted Indiana to a 27-24 comeback win. For a defense that has struggled to find consistent bright spots, the path to future success depends on a complementary ef- fort that has yet to materialize. And now, with the end of the regular season in sight, few opportunities remain for Penn State's defense to work itself out of its season- long funk. Here's a look at how the defensive posi- tion groups have performed since the transition to interim head coach Terry Smith. Defensive Line Against the Hoosiers' explosive offense, Penn State produced one of its best defensive performances in more than a month. And it did so by improving on many of the defi- ciencies that had plagued it a week earlier against Ohio State. Mendoza was pressured in ways that Sayin wasn't. Coordinator Jim Knowles employed blitzes to aid a Nittany Lion front four that was re- sponsible for 17 of 21 hurries on 38 dropbacks for the Indiana quarter- back. Penn State held the Hoosiers to only 20 points for the first 59:24, with Mendoza throwing for only 138 yards until their final possession of the game. The problem? Penn State's 3 sacks and 8 tack- les for loss weren't enough to extin- guish the threat that M e n d o za p o s e d . This despite a 7-yard sack on the first play of Indiana's even- tual game-winning drive. The Heis- man Trophy hope- ful shrugged off the setback and guided his team 87 yards on 5 pass completions. In a game that Indiana coach Curt Cignetti called "the most improbable victory" he had ever been a part of, Penn State's defensive front largely did its part to prevent it. Linebackers Penn State is still trying to recover from the loss of junior Tony Rojas to a season-ending injury in late Septem- ber. Throughout October and into early November, the problems that Rojas' loss created were plainly evident, with quar- terback scrambles repeatedly proving backbreaking. P RO G R ESS R E PO RT: P RO G R ESS R E PO RT: DEFENSE DEFENSE Big Ten opponents have exposed Penn State's vulnerabilities NAT E BAU E R | N AT E . B A U E R @ O N 3 . C O M Defensive tackle Zane Durant sacked Fernando Mendoza on the first play of Indiana's final possession, but the Hoosiers overcame the 7-yard loss and drove for the winning touchdown. PHOTO BY STEVE MANUEL