It’s been a tumultuous couple of weeks for Penn State football. Since its last bye week ahead of the White Out against Oregon, the blue and white suffered four consecutive losses, underwent a coaching change, and saw their three-year starting quarterback go down with a season-ending ankle injury.

After a hard-fought loss on the road against Iowa on Saturday, the Nittany Lions came home for a much-needed bye week ahead of the two most daunting games on the calendar. While they continue to try to pick up the pieces from a program-altering month, their next two games feature a trip to Columbus to face No. 1 Ohio State and coming back home for the first time since James Franklin’s firing to battle No. 2 Indiana.

“The message right now is stay together. We went and fought; those guys played extremely hard. Now, the key is to finish,” said interim head coach Terry Smith on Tuesday when asked about his message to the team heading into the bye week. “The defense has to get off the field when the offense scores and puts us up, the offense has to score touchdowns instead of field goals late in games, we can’t mishandle kicks on punt and kick return.”

Those three components have been big parts of Penn State’s back-to-back one-point defeats to Northwestern and Iowa. In both games, the Nittany Lions led in the fourth quarter, but got gashed on the ground en route to go-ahead touchdowns that would ultimately lose them the game.

However, the offense’s inability to convert a goal-to-go situation with a two-point lead in the fourth against Iowa led to the ensuing drive deciding the game. Ethan Grunkemeyer had a low throw that hit Trebor Pena in the chest in the end zone, but the wide receiver wasn’t able to haul it in. Two plays later, the redshirt freshman was blasted in the backfield on a designed quarterback draw on third down, ultimately having the team settle for a Ryan Barker field goal that only made it 24-19.

The coaching staff will be spending the bye week focusing on recruiting, something that’s massively increased in importance with the aftershock of Franklin’s firing. As of Tuesday night, the team has lost seven previously committed recruits from the classes of 2026 and 2027 in the last nine days, and has had a dozen more reopen their recruitment while staying committed.

“We’re going to touch base, especially with all our commits and the guys that are on the fringe,” Smith said. “My message to them is that Penn State’s had three coaches in 60 years. We’re going to hire a great coach. This place is still Penn State.”

It’s been a whirlwind of a month for the team, and especially so for Smith. However, the former defensive backs coach believes that he’s been transitioning well and things are starting to slow down for him.

“This week has slowed down tremendously from last week,” Smith said. “You’re running everything, so all of that was rehashing some old memories from when I was a head coach [with Gateway High School from 2002-12] times 10,000. I’ve already watched more film on Ohio State than I watched on Iowa all of last week.”

The bye week also comes at a good time for a Penn State team that is suddenly facing an injury bug that similarly damaged the team’s postseason hopes in 2021. While no bye week will get Drew Allar or Tony Rojas back from their long-term injuries, the team is hopeful that several players who missed time recently will be ready to go when they head to Columbus on November 1.

Defensive linemen Zuriah Fisher and Jaylen Harvey missed some or all of the game at Kinnick Stadium on Saturday. While there’s no update on them as of Tuesday, Smith was optimistic that both would be good to go at some point, indicating neither is concerning long-term. Harvey was ruled out before the game and Fisher did not play in the second half.

Also on the defensive line, freshman standout Chaz Coleman has had a limited number of snaps recently, which Smith chalked up to an illness and the run-heavy attacks of recent opponents. With Ohio State featuring one of the nation’s best passing attacks, Coleman could get more snaps in Columbus.

Backup quarterback Jaxon Smolik, who got a career-high 11 snaps last game as a change-of-pace look, also exited the game with a left hand/wrist injury. There was no update on him from Smith, but he said it was another case of seeing where he’s at after the bye week. In the event Smolik misses time, the backup quarterback spot could go to true freshman Bekkem Kritza, who’s missed the entire season with an undisclosed injury, but Smith indicated he’s close to being ready to go.

The goals that this Penn State team had at the beginning of the season are no longer feasible, but there’s still a lot to play for. Two massive opportunities lie ahead for the team to try and get a statement victory and build some positive momentum into what will likely become the biggest offseason in program history. Coach Smith emphasized that this group has not checked out and will continue to play for each other.

“They don’t have a choice. ‘Quit’ isn’t in my vocabulary; we’ve all got a job to do. You got to give your soul,” Smith said. “Things aren’t going our way right now, but the only way to get out of the storm is to run through the storm. We’re going to run through the storm until we get out of the storm, and we’ll come out and the sun will shine on us, and we’ll all be better for it.”