Penn State’s football team is in uncharted territory.

After all, it took 133 years before the esteemed program saw its first 0-5 start to a season.

But in the resounding disappointment that has been this season, there has been a common sight in all five of Penn State’s setbacks.

Turnovers.

During its latest defeat, a 41-21 loss at home to Iowa at Beaver Stadium on Saturday, Penn State turned the ball over four times, twice on interceptions and twice on fumbles.

“You can’t turn the ball over,” coach James Franklin said in a video conference with media Saturday. “And that’s been the story of the season, turnovers. Four turnovers by us and one by our opponent. You can’t turn the ball over, and when you have opportunities to get turnovers you’ve got to get them. That is the story of the game. That is the story of this season.”

For the season, Penn State has 13 turnovers (eight interceptions, five fumbles). In contrast, the opposition has turned the ball only over four times.

On Saturday, each of Penn State’s quarterbacks were careless with the football. Backup-turned-starter Will Levis was fumbled twice while starter-turned-backup Sean Clifford was intercepted twice, the last of which resulted in a 71-yard return for a touchdown at 1 minute, 58 seconds of the fourth quarter by Iowa’s Daviyon Nixon, a 6-foot-3, 305-pound defensive tackle.

“The whole reason for the change (at quarterback) was the turnovers,” Franklin said. “We made the change to go with Will and did some good things with the quarterback running game and some of the stuff with how he was managing it. But then we started to turn the ball over again, and the whole reason for the change was turnovers. So, I felt like we had to do something, to go back to Sean. It initially helped us, but then the turnovers came back again.”

Franklin seemed at a loss for words over the play of his quarterbacks in the aftermath of Saturday’s defeat.

“It is a concern, there’s no doubt about it,” Franklin said. “We’ll continue to work with those guys each week.”

As it is, there are only three weeks left in a season that opened with aspirations of a Big Ten conference crown or even a place in the College Football Playoff. Now, Penn State can’t avoid a losing record.

The program’s last season with a sub-.500 record came in 2004, when it was 4-7.

“We’ve got to stick together as a family and as a team and stay positive,” Franklin said. “We’re being challenged right now. We’ve had to learn how to handle success, and now we’re having to learn how to handle adversity. And it’s even more challenging when they don’t have the normal support system around them that they normally would have. And that’s all of us, but we’ve got to stay together as a family closer than we’ve ever been and find a way through this.”

Note: Following the game, Franklin announced starting tight end Pat Freiermuth will miss the remainder of the season and will undergo surgery for an undisclosed injury.

Copyright ©2025— Trib Total Media, LLC (TribLIVE.com)