Penn State defensive back Zakee Wheatley, left, tackles Ohio State receiver Jeremiah Smith during the first half of an NCAA college football game, Saturday, Nov. 1, 2025, in Columbus, Ohio. (AP Photo/Jay LaPrete)

So here we are with Penn State sitting at 3-5 with no chance of anything it hoped to accomplish this season on the table.

After being hammered 38-14 on the road at No. 1 Ohio State last weekend, the Lions welcome the No. 2 team in Indiana to State College.

The question now is simple: What else is there to play for this season with four games remaining?

Count Zakee Wheatley as one of the seniors that isn’t taking anything for granted in his final season in a Nittany Lion jersey.

“Every time I come on the field, I want to get a win for my brothers,” Wheatley said.

“Ultimately we have a lot of football left to play. Someone like me as a senior, I just want to take it all in with my brothers. We don’t have forever to be here in a Penn State locker room.”

A win over Indiana would probably be even more shocking than the collapse of the previous five games, and that would put the Lions at 4-5 and in need of two wins in its final three games to be bowl-eligible.

The good news is all three games are winnable, even a home contest with Nebraska, which just lost quarterback Dylan Raiola for the season to injury last week.

Road trips at Michigan State and Rutgers could possibly be the worse losses of the season, even with everything that has gone wrong for PSU.

Nittany Lion interim coach Terry Smith sure sounds like a coach who still wants to play in a bowl game in December.

If the Lions end up being bowl-eligible, chances are they’d be invited to be a place that’s not so glamorous, such as the GameAbove Sports Bowl in Detroit the day after Christmas or the Pinstripe Bowl at Yankee Stadium a day later.

Smith sounded open to it.

“Why wouldn’t we want to play football? This is what we signed up to do,” Smith said Monday. “We want to take advantage of every opportunity that’s in front of us.”

So what is it going to take to get things moving in the right direction?

“We need all 11 guys doing their job,” PSU linebacker Amare Campbell said. “Too many times there’s 9 or 10 guys doing their job, and that just doesn’t cut it.

“We just have to keep going. There’s nothing else we can do. We can’t quit. We just have to keep preparing every week and finish games and finish halves. We have to do better.”

Even if the Lions do better, it’s still going to be quite the forgettable season for one that had such promise only six weeks ago.

Andy Stine can be reached at astine@altoonamirror.com