MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — The Penn State locker room was emotional and blunt following Thursday night’s loss to Notre Dame.
Penn State Drops Orange Bowl to Notre Dame in Heartbreaking Fashion
As the tears flowed, players and coaches were tasked with answering questions they might not have known the answers to nor wanted to answer as they stood there mere moments after losing a shot to play for the national championship.
“Well, I think this the first part of getting over the hump, and winning these type of games, I mean, and being able to finish at the end,” running backs coach Ja’Juan Seider said. “We’re so close. I mean, we just can’t let bad ball beat us, and it caught up to us at the end.”
It caught up to them in the worst way at the worst time with Drew Allar throwing an interception with 33 seconds left in the game.
Notre Dame picks off Drew Allar late in the fourth 😳 pic.twitter.com/F0SZvM5fFa
— ESPN (@espn) January 10, 2025
“Kid trying to make a play,” Seider said. “I mean, we just hit an explosive run. You hit that ball you got another first down … you have to take those chances. We have a quarterback who we think the world of and who can make every throw, it just didn’t go our way on that play.”
Now, it’s back to work for Penn State, which will have a different, yet similar look with their roster next year. Over the next few days and weeks, much will be made about looming decisions from those eligible to declare for the draft and those who want to take a chance in the transfer portal.
“I think you take some time to take a deep breath,” Seider said. “You watch the film, you reflect on the whole year, you watch all the cut ups, and then you critique errors. You want to get better. The beauty of it, we got a lot of kids coming back, especially up front, so we got a lot of makings to be as good, if not better, next year.”
The positive outlook for the future does little to nothing to take away the sting of the present and what could have been for Penn State.
“It sucks because only one team can advance and it’s not you,” Seider said. “It’s hard to put in words, man, you appreciate the opportunity to be in here. but it don’t mean anything if you don’t finish and we didn’t finish. So, kudos to Notre Dame they played well. They finished at the end, we didn’t.”
