Penn State quarterback Ethan Grunkemeyer was thrown into the fire as a redshirt freshman, earning his first career start just over a month ago in a hostile Kinnick Stadium, followed by a game at No. 1 Ohio State.
Understandably, his stat lines weren’t pretty as he navigated his new role and got his first meaningful college snaps. Grunkemeyer was a combined 34-for-56 (61%) for 238 yards and no touchdowns with three interceptions. Since then, he’s “sling shotted,” as interim head coach Terry Smith described it.
“I think just working on slowing down my feet and eyes, trying to see it more clearly,” Grunkemeyer said Tuesday morning. “Making sure you’re getting through all your progressions, seeing the guys out of the break, not just trying to get through everything as fast as possible, just trying to take a second and really analyze it more. That’s something we’ve been emphasizing.”
His third start also came against No. 2 Indiana at Beaver Stadium, a third consecutive top-10 scoring defense, but he showed clear signs of growth, completing 22 of 31 passes for a career high 219 yards and one touchdown with one interception in a 27-24 loss.
Then, he earned his first win at Michigan State, albeit it with a limited workload. Grunkemeyer went 8-for-13 for 127 yards and two touchdowns, avoiding being picked off for the first time. He followed it up with a near-perfect 11-for-12 showing against Nebraska last Saturday for 181 yards and a score, tying the program record for single-game completion percentage.
Grunkemeyer’s only incompletion against the Cornhuskers was a catchable ball in the end zone intended for Kyron Hudson, who was arguably being interfered with. Despite the small sample size, five of his passes were for 20 or more yards, his career high and the most all season for the Nittany Lions.
“I thought he played outstanding,” Smith said. “We had two calls where we threw the ball down the field and got pass interference. Those don’t show up in the stats, but those are positives to the offense, because we’re giving our guys an opportunity to make a play … I’m really looking forward to his week this week, and really closing out the season on a high note.”
Even when he struggled at times against the Hawkeyes and Buckeyes, the offense never had any pre-snap issues, despite both games coming in some of the Big Ten’s most hostile environments. He’s also protected the ball and opened up the vertical passing game in recent weeks.
Grunkemeyer’s 15.1 yards per pass attempt against the Spartans was the highest by a Nittany Lion signal-caller since Sean Clifford’s 15.4 against Villanova in 2021.
“I think it’s an ongoing progression, and you know, it’ll continue to slow down even more,” Grunkemeyer said. “But I think just getting those reps, it helps the offense kind of run more smooth and efficiently … seeing what the defense is doing pre-snap is key if you’re not really worrying about whether you’re comfortable and in control of the situation.”
Grunkemeyer also credited the run game, which accounted for 471 yards across the last two games, opening up the middle of the field for the passing game and allowing for play-action success.
With one regular season game remaining against Rutgers to clinch a bowl berth, Grunkemeyer still pointed to an area for improvement.
“There’s still some things on Saturday that we missed, especially on third down,” Grunkemeyer said. “There’s a few that we wanted to stay on the field for, so really just capitalizing on all those, and we’ll have a good opportunity coming up.”
