Penn State QB, others face big questions about future, what went wrong in 2025
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Penn State closes 2025 with a Pinstripe Bowl, sparking coaching and staff questions.
- QB Ethan Grunkemeyer improved in six starts and now weighs staying or transferring.
- A team leader (safety King Mack) cited lack of leadership and buy-in.
Penn State’s 2025 season was not supposed to end like this. It was not supposed to include a Pinstripe Bowl matchup in Yankee Stadium, or conversations about a new coaching staff, or questions about whether the starting quarterback will be a Nittany Lion next year.
But that’s where things stand.
And instead of preparing for a first round College Football Playoff matchup, the Nittany Lions are left to ponder what went wrong and what everything means for their futures in college football.
That starts with that starting quarterback, Ethan Grunkemeyer, who has improved steadily throughout his first six games as the team’s starter. But he’s not ready to make any type of declaration.
“Nothing decided yet, just focused on this game, and then making decisions after that,” Grunkemeyer said during a video call with the media Wednesday morning. “... The goal is (to) find the best situation possible. That’s kind of what my agents are helping me out with and my parents as well, just finding the best situation for me, and then just going from there.”
He will have options. Grunkemeyer could stay and either start or compete to start with whoever new head coach Matt Campbell brings in at quarterback, or he could go elsewhere and presumably walk in to a program as its guaranteed starter. He’s earned that opportunity with how he’s improved.
But if he decides to return, he will have to help fill a leadership void that, according to safety King Mack, helped submarine the 2025 season.
“It’s more inside that goes on in a football team that outsiders don’t really see as much. And some lack of leadership, some lack of having people buy in it doesn’t seem as big of an issue. But it is,” Mack said. “Not having all 100 people locked in and focused on one thing at one time — it’s hard to be successful when people on your ship isn’t all in on one mission.”
That included the leaking of audio from a private meeting between Penn State AD Pat Kraft and players on the team. The meeting was with roughly 10 players that are on the leadership council and was requested by them, according to a source.
Recording it violates wiretap laws, which is a third-degree felony, but also violated the trust of the people in the room. That was a big part of the problem for Penn State.
“A meeting like that should never have been broadcasted,” Mack said. “...That shows the lack of leadership and accountability. The fact that someone in that room would jeopardize everyone — anything could have been said in that meeting and could have jeopardized anyone’s future or career. I feel like that’s part of the selfishness and the lack of leadership around the team that we have to fix.”
Mack, like Grunkemeyer, said he’s not thinking about his future until after the game. But he spoke like someone who is confident in Campbell and his staff, and is excited by the thought of returning to Penn State.
That would make sense, since the safety began his career with the Nittany Lions and transferred to Alabama for a year before returning to Penn State. He has the makings of one of the leaders of the defense next season if he returns, and could be the kind of truth-teller who can help hold teammates accountable.
Those are the kinds of players Campbell will need to keep — players who want to be at Penn State and will buy in to the collective. And according to Mack, Campbell made that clear when he met with the team.
“He said, it’s his job to fix [the issues],” Mack said. “And he said, straight up, he doesn’t want no one who doesn’t want to be here to be here. So we had a team meeting, and they made it very clear, if you don’t want to be here, the door is open. We don’t want no one here who doesn’t want to be here. So they’re not forcing no one to be there.”
That shift will have to take place for Penn State to get where it wants to go. The Nittany Lions need players to buy in so they can build a strong culture. Because Penn State has to prove it can win at a high level again, and that this season is an outlier and not a trend. Losing could just as easily tear apart even the strongest program’s foundation — as evidenced by 11+ years of James Franklin’s tenure as head coach falling apart in seven weeks.
That culture is what Campbell will have to rebuild and maintain and lean on to win games — and a lot of them.
The future of Penn State football depends on it.
