Penn State blows late lead against Iowa after James Franklin firing

It’s a new era for Penn State football — but it started in the same crushing fashion.

In their first game since firing longtime head coach James Franklin, the Nittany Lions coughed up a fourth-quarter lead and lost a 25-24 heartbreaker to Iowa on Saturday night at Kinnick Stadium for their fourth straight loss.

Penn State fell to a brutal 3-4 on the season and has dropped its first four games in the Big Ten. 

“I think we gave everything we had,” interim head coach Terry Smith said following his first game at the helm. 

“There was no one that didn’t give great effort. We just have to execute.”

The Nittany Lions held a 24-19 lead with just under five minutes to go, until Hawkeyes quarterback Mark Gronkowski ran for 67 yards to set up Kaden Wetjen for a go-ahead rushing touchdown with 3:54 left on the clock.

Iowa failed to convert on the two-point conversion, leaving the door open for a Penn State comeback — but the Hawkeyes stormed Nittany Lions’ second-string QB Ethan Grunkmeyer near midfield to force a fourth-down incompletion.

Gronkowski — who set a new career high with 130 rushing yards while adding two touchdowns — iced the game with a 14-yard rush on third down that allowed the Hawkeyes to burn the clock.

After dropping their fourth straight game, Penn State tied the record for most consecutive losses in AP poll history for a team that was ranked within the top two in the first poll of the season, according to ESPN.

The loss was a brutal way to kick off Smith’s term in charge following the shock firing of Franklin after 12 seasons. 

Penn State is a far cry from the squad that trudged to the College Football playoff just a season ago. After beating up on inferior competition to open the season, the Nittany Lions completely unraveled in conference play — underscored in back-to-back disasters against UCLA and Northwestern.

The former associate head coach inherited a team in complete freefall, a scuffling squad without its starting quarterback, Drew Allar, who suffered a season-ending injury.

All things considered, Smith was relatively pleased with the fight he saw from his team on Saturday night.

“I’m super proud of those guys and the way they played,” he said. “We just have to clean it up so that we can finish games.”

Things don’t get any easier for the Nittany Lions, who, after a bye week, enter the Horseshoe to face No. 1-ranked powerhouse Ohio State on Nov. 1.