It’s difficult to remember a more challenging situation than the one facing the Nittany Lions today.

They’re in Columbus, where they’ve won twice since 1978 — in 2008 when Mark Rubin punched the ball loose from Terrelle Pryor and in 2011 with Tom Bradley as the interim coach — to face the nation’s No. 1 ranked Buckeyes.

They’re regrouping from the firing of James Franklin and are under the direction of another interim coach, Terry Smith. They’re down their top quarterback in Drew Allar and will be led by Ethan Grunkemeyer, who is making his second career start.

The entire coaching staff and most of the players, because of the transfer portal and a new regime coming in, aren’t even sure where they’ll be next season.

And you just know Ohio State would like to hang 50 on Penn State defensive coordinator Jim Knowles, who left the Buckeyes after last year’s national championship for a bigger paycheck.

This, my friends, could be ugly.

The Nittany Lions are 20.5-point underdogs — their largest spread since 2013 when they went to Wisconsin behind Bill O’Brien as 24-point dogs and won outright — and Smith sees the gameplan as fairly simple.

“We have to out-rush Ohio State to have a chance,” he said. “(If) We won’t do that, it will be a long Saturday.”

That would help keep the Buckeyes’ explosive offense off the field, and Smith has challenged the Lions’ run game to do it.

While Franklin stayed loyal to Nick Singleton and divided the early-season carries, Smith committed to Kaytron Allen at Iowa, and Allen responded with 145 yards.

That helped Penn State dominate time of possession, something it needs to do again.

“We have a veteran offensive line,” Smith said. “We have to get Kaytron going, and we have to find way to get Nick Singleton going because they’re our two best offensive weapons.”

Smith is also searching for needed answers at linebacker in the wake of Tony Rojas’ season-ending injury and the Nits being unable to defend the quarterback run at Iowa.

“We have to make some critical third downs when necessary and especially in the fourth quarter,” Smith said.

Keep an eye out for newcomers Keon Wiley (32), Cam Smith (26), Alex Tatsch (25) and nickel back Jahmir Joseph (23) to help shore up the defense.

With Franklin gone, young receivers Coby Howard (3) and Tyseer Denmark (4) got a chance at Iowa and may be in the mix today.

Getting to the point

The difference in the press conferences between Smith and Franklin is stark.

While Franklin would go on (and on and on) about anything and everything, such as who is Florida International’s special teams coach, Smith has been direct and concise.

It leads to more questions and a much more refreshing pace.

More importantly, it also makes me wonder whether Franklin’s verbosity bored the team.

Coaching carousel

• Give me the bad timing award by advocating for Matt Rhule to succeed Franklin only to have Nebraska announce his contract extension a few hours after the ink dried from the Mirror’s Thursday edition. The extension can be interpreted that Rhule didn’t want the job or knew he wasn’t going to get it, even though he’s close with Pat Kraft and is a former Penn State player who grew up in State College.

• Franklin, meanwhile, has been linked to the Virginia Tech opening, which would make sense. It puts him in a more manageable league (Atlantic Coast Conference), and he’s had recruiting experience and success in that region. The Hokies’ job opened with the dismissal of former Franklin aide Brent Pry.

• If you want another example on how far college sports are off the rails, look no further than LSU, where the governor of Louisiana Jeff Landry was involved with the firing of Brian Kelly. Landry, who appoints LSU’s board of supervisors, then announced that the athletic director, Scott Woodward, would not select the new coach because Woodward was responsible for lucrative buyouts owed to Kelly and, prior, to Jimbo Fisher at Texas A&M. Those buyouts total $130 million, though Kelly’s was negotiated from $54 million to $27 million, according to reports. Woodward resigned Thursday night.

Neil Rudel covers Penn State footblal and can be reached at nrudel@altoonamirror.com.