Interim head coach Terry Smith has made it abundantly clear that his team is aiming for bowl eligibility by beating Rutgers this coming Saturday.

The Nittany Lions (5-6, 2-6) would need a win over the Scarlet Knights to earn an automatic bid to a postseason game. However, Rutgers (5-6, 2-6) is trying to reach the same goal this weekend.

“My focus right now is, obviously, we have to beat Rutgers,” Smith said Monday. “We approached these last couple weeks as do-or-die, playoff-type games, and this is another playoff game for us in our own reality of our world.”

In a whirlwind season in Happy Valley, it would have been easy for Penn State to call it quits in the middle of a previous six-game losing streak. But Smith has turned things around, and his team is playing well.

The Nittany Lio

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