Cold as ice: Clemson ends 2025 with Pinstripe Bowl loss to Penn State
The only thing colder than Clemson football’s offense in Saturday’s Pinstripe Bowl loss to Penn State was the temperature at Yankee Stadium itself.
Quarterback Cade Klubnik’s career ended in deflating fashion in a 22-10 loss to Penn State. The bowl-game defeat dropped Clemson to 7-6, its worst final record under Dabo Swinney since 2010 (his second full season as coach).
It was the final blow in a 2025 season full of them, as Clemson went from the preseason No. 4 team in the country to unranked and scrapping for a bowl game to getting outplayed by an under-manned Penn State team on Saturday.
The Clemson offense couldn’t get anything going until the late fourth quarter, and a lack of big plays hurt the Tigers, who snapped a four-game winning streak and a 14-year streak of recording at least one postseason win.
The Tigers, who were down nearly 30 scholarship players for the game because of injuries, opt-outs and transfers, finished with 236 total yards and were 5 of 15 on third-down attempts. They averaged just 1.7 yards per rush.
Penn State (7-6) never trailed in the game. Playing under interim coach Terry Smith in his last game before Iowa State’s Matt Campbell takes over, PSU played a physical, intentional style of football that wore down Clemson.
The Nittany Lions also hit on some big plays, which allowed them to outscore Clemson 16-7 in the fourth quarter of what went down as the second-coldest game in Clemson’s 130-year history with a kickoff time temperature of 28 degrees.
A crowd of 41,101 watched Clemson’s worst offensive output of the season in a unique bowl game held in the usual home of the MLB’s New York Yankees. Swinney described Saturday’s loss as “an incredibly disappointing result.”
“We had great preparation, but it’s all about execution,” Swinney said postgame. “We just did not execute and get off to the start that we needed to have. ... We didn’t deserve to win the game.”
Game recap
Clemson’s rough start began on the Tigers’ first drive, when punter Jack Smith tried a perplexing fake punt pass on his own 32-yard line. Smith threw deep to safety Ronan Hanafin, who was lined up as a gunner and didn’t even turn his head around.
Swinney chided Smith for the impromptu play as his punter jogged off the field and later told the ABC broadcast: “That shouldn’t have happened.”
Gifted with great field position in a game where both teams struggled to move the ball early, Penn State opened the scoring with a short first-quarter field goal.
Kicker Nolan Hauser also missed a game-tying 33-yard field goal in the second quarter. Hauser redeemed himself later in the same quarter, though, hitting a tough kick from 48 yards that tied the game at 3-3 with 1:01 remaining in the first half.
The good vibes of Hauser’s kick didn’t last long. Penn State QB Ethan Grunkemeyer led a one-minute drive so crisp that PSU didn’t have to use its one remaining timeout. Receivers picked up chunk plays and got out of bonds to set up a deep field-goal attempt. Ryan Barker hit it from 48, giving Penn State a 6-3 halftime lead.
Grunkemeyer’s smooth play and a dangerous Penn State running game picked up even more in the second half, and the Nittany Lions made quick work against a Clemson defense down six starters from its last game vs. South Carolina.
Penn State recorded 269 of its 397 offensive yards in the second half, averaged 7.1 yards per play across the third and fourth quarters and went 6 of 8 on third downs. For the entire game, Penn State was 11 of 19 (57%) on third down.
“Horrendous,” Swinney said.
Grunkemeyer, a redshirt freshman who assumed the starting job mid-year after Drew Allar’s injury, completed 23 of 34 passes for a season-high 262 yards and two fourth-quarter touchdown passes. Penn State also ran for 135 yards on 3.9 yards per carry despite being down its top two running backs.
“A game like today where it’s very cold outside and every hit hurts to the core of your body, our guys wore them down, and eventually they succumbed to it,” said Smith, the Penn State interim coach who replaced James Franklin mid-season.
A final opportunity wasted
Clemson’s best chance to win the game came in the mid-fourth quarter. Down 15-3, the Tigers put together a quick touchdown drive that ended with a 2-yard run by Adam Randall (their first and only touchdown). After that, the Tigers backed Penn State up into a third-and-7 on its own 38 with 7:07 remaining.
A stop would’ve given Klubnik and the offense the ball back, with a chance for a game-winning drive. Instead, Clemson’s defense allowed a 35-yard completion.
Penn State converted another key third-and-4 at Clemson’s 21 via rush with 5:24 to go, when a stop likely would’ve prompted PSU to kick a field goal and given Clemson a chance at a game-tying touchdown and two-point conversion.
The Nittany Lions picked up the necessary yardage easily ... and scored a touchdown on the very next snap on a wide-open pass to a tight end to go up 22-10.
Clemson’s offense registered a season-low 236 yards of total offense and scored its fewest points since the Aug. 30 season opener against LSU (also 10 points).
The loss sends Clemson and Swinney into a critical offseason in which they must decide on their starting QB for 2026 and replace tons of defensive talent.
“We’ve been purpose-driven for a long, long time,” Swinney said. “We’ve won a bunch of games and a bunch of championships, more than most. We’ve won a lot more than we’ve lost, and we’ll continue to win a lot more than we’ve lost.”
Clemson football 2026 schedule
Specific dates for ACC games to be announced in January
Non-conference games: LSU (road, Sept. 5), Georgia Southern (home, Sept. 12), Charleston Southern (home, Oct. 17), South Carolina (home, Nov. 28)
ACC home games: UNC, Virginia Tech, Georgia Tech, Miami
ACC road games: Syracuse, Duke, Florida State, Cal
This story was originally published December 27, 2025 at 3:30 PM with the headline "Cold as ice: Clemson ends 2025 with Pinstripe Bowl loss to Penn State."
