What Penn State's Players Said After Their Loss at Iowa

On how he played: I played all right. We didn't get the [win], so that's all that matters.

On what the week was like: Just playing for my teammates, trying to get a [win] for my team, for my coaches. You all know what happened this week, so I was just trying to geta [win] for everybody. It's been a long week, but sometimes you've got to go through adversity. You've got to try to get through that storm. It was heartbreaking, but sometimes you've just got to keep going.

On quarterback Ethan Grunkemeyer: He played well. He came into a tough environment and stood up to the challenge and played well. But I knew he was going to play well, because he prepared like that all week and each and every week, even when he wasn’t the starter. He's chill, has swag, calm and poise. He's going to be a great quarterback.

On interim coach Terry Smith: Coach Terry did a great job lifting us up, bringing us together, bringing the swagger. He’s going to be a great head coach one day. He lifted us up, told us to keep going. That’s what he did. We tried to play for him and for coach Franklin. He just brought the energy back. It’s a down time right now, and he lifted us up. He did great today, we just came up short.

Quarterback Ethan Grunkemeyer

On how he played: Not good enough. We lost the game. We've got to get better and learn from it.

On how the offense operated: It went smooth on that front. We got the plays in well. It was loud, but I think we handled it well.

On identifying Iowa's late fourth-down blitz: We saw it on film. I just have to execute better against it. We knew they like to do that in those positions.

On what he learned in his first start: As a team, we’re resilient. Went down and kept battling back. It was good to see the resiliency in a tough environment like this. I was proud of the guys.

On breaking down the huddle before the game: That was a good experience. First time doing it here. We've got each other. It’s just us. It starts with family. It’s what Coach Smith
preaches. We have to stick together.

On what the week was like: It’s definitely been tough. Obviously a lot has changed. I think we came
together as a team. We had a super strong week and really just came together.

Defensive tackle Xavier Gilliam

On the blocked field goal: Right before the half, I felt like I had an opportunity to get that and come up big for my team. I went through, put my hand up and got a good piece of it, actually got the whole ball, got the block and Elliot [Washington II] was able to scoop it. Great play for us, great momentum going into the half.

On coach Smith's pregame message: Just leave it all on the field and don’t have any regrets.

On stopping Iowa's run game: We know Iowa. They’re a big run-the-ball team, so they definitely called on the D-line for us to come up big for the team and get stops.

On Penn State's "IF" T-shirts: It's actually a pretty cool T-shirt. It was coach [Smith's] message to us, and it meant, the possibility are endless. So just going out there with that mindset that anything could happen, so stay strong for your team.

On where the team takes that message now: I’m not really worried about it. Me, just the person I am, I’m going to go out there 100 percent play for my teammates, play for my brothers, because for all those times during summer workouts when everybody was dying together, it would be wrong for somebody to give up because of a couple losses. We’ve still got a season to salvage.

Linebacker Dom DeLuca

On the defensive performance: We've to to improve. We’ve got to be able to make the stop at the end of the game and get the offense the ball back.

On the team's effort: I would definitely say we’re moving in the right direction of where we want to be and we have to just finish games. That’s what it comes down to.

On how the team responded last week: We tried to keep it similar. We were going about our business, staying locked in and being focused on Iowa.