The 2025 Bad Boy Mowers Pinstripe Mowers saw a premier matchup come to Yankee Stadium as the Penn State Nittany Lions and Clemson Tigers faced off. After appearing in the 2024 College Football Playoff, both teams looked to close out difficult seasons in the Bronx. Penn State is entering a new era, as the school recently hired Matt Campbell to take over a program in transition. For Clemson, Dabo Swinney was looking to quarterback Cade Klubnik to finish his Clemson career with a victory.
On a cold day in New York City, led by their defense, Penn State defeated Clemson, 22-10, to win the 2025 Bad Boy Mowers Pinstripe Bowl in front of 41,101 fans. The win was Penn State’s second Pinstripe Bowl, with the first coming in the 2014 edition of the game. It was the 34th bowl win in program history, fourth in FBS history.
"It was a tremendous effort, team effort, special teams, offense, defense, all played major factors in it," said Penn State interim head coach Terry Smith.
Penn State started its first drive in excellent field position on the Clemson 32-yard line after a three-and-out and a failed fake punt by the Tigers. A 22-yard field goal from Ryan Barker put the Nittany Lions on the board, despite getting down to Clemson’s two-yard line. Both teams went three-and-out as defenses stiffened, a bright spot for both squads over the last few weeks of the college football season. As the first quarter came to a close, Clemson’s biggest issue was dropped passes. In a category they led the ACC in, the Tigers had three dropped passes in the opening quarter as they trailed by just a field goal.
Penn State opened the second quarter by going for it on fourth-and-4. Andrew Rappleyea caught a pass from Ethan Grunkemeyer but slipped after just a one-yard gain to give Clemson possession on the positive side of the field. The Tiger offense started making progress down the field during their second drive of the second quarter as Klubnik scrambled and completed a 44-yard pass to T.J. Moore as Clemson moved to the Nittany Lions’ 15-yard line. Nolan Hauser was unable to finish the Clemson drive, missing a 33-yard field goal, and the game remained 3-0 in favor of Penn State.
Clemson drove down the field, moving down to Penn State’s 30-yard line with 1:01 left before halftime. Hauser nailed a 48-yard field goal to cap a 10-play, 42-yard drive to even the game at three. After Penn State countered with a 10-play drive in 52 seconds, culminating with Barker nailing a 48-yard field goal as Penn State took a 6-3 lead into halftime. Clemson’s miscues (a missed FG, failed fake punt and three drops) were the story for the Tigers as the Nittany Lions found their groove offensively after struggling for the majority of the first half.
"Just poor critical awareness from some situational stuff," said Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney. "One minute to go and they've got no time-outs and we're just giving up the outside throw. I mean, just giving it up. No time-outs. Just poor awareness of what we need to do in that situation and they get a field goal. That's a critical field goal in that moment."
Penn State opened the second half similarly to how they ended the first half, with a smooth drive down the field into Clemson territory. Even though they were in field-goal range, the Nittany Lions elected to go for it on fourth-and-4, but they were unable to convert, giving Clemson possession. Penn State had Clemson on the ropes with a third-and-8, but Audavion Collins committed pass interference to give the Tigers a new set of downs and new life in Penn State territory. Clemson was unable to capitalize and was forced to punt once again.
As the third quarter ended, Penn State was driving and moved deep into Clemson territory after a 17-yard pass play from Grunkemeyer to tight end Luke Reynolds. Once again, the Nittany Lions found themselves looking at a fourth down within field goal range going into the fourth quarter. Unlike in the third quarter, Penn State elected to settle for the field goal as Barker hit from 43 yards to extend Penn State’s lead to 9-3. After forcing another Clemson punt, the Nittany Lons struck paydirt as Pinstripe Bowl MVP Trebor Pena caught a slant pass, broke two tackles and took it 73 yards for the first touchdown of the game with 12:51 left in regulation. The two-point conversion was no good as Penn State led, 15-3.
"Having another chance to play a game, like, that's special," said Pena, who finished with 100 yards receiving on five catches. "You've got to take advantage of it. Like Dani [Dennis-Sutton] said, it was a no-brainer for me to play in this game and finish it out the right way with everybody else."
Clemson started their crucial drive on the 35-yard line and converted on fourth down as the Tigers knew that a touchdown was needed to stay alive in the game. Once again, Penn State hurt itself as Daryus Dixson was called for pass interference, setting up a first-and-10 at PSU’s 15-yard line. Clemson finally reached the end zone as Adam Randall ran it in from two yards out to cut the Tigers’ deficit to 15-10 with 8:47 left in the fourth quarter.
Penn State got the ball and started to drain the clock as Grunkemeyer completed a 35-yard pass to Devonte Ross on third down to keep the drive and the clock moving. The combination of freshman running backs Tikey Hayes and Quinton Martin dominated on the ground until Rappleyea caught Grunkemeyer’s second touchdown of the day, an 11-yard pass play, as Penn State went up 22-10 with under five minutes left. Clemson made a couple of big plays on their ensuing drive, but the Nittany Lions' defense shut down the Tigers as Vaboue Toure sacked Klubnik to end Clemson’s day. The Nittany Lions got the ball back and ran out the clock to end their season, winners of four games in a row after a 3-6 start.
Grunkemeyer finished with 262 yards and two touchdowns through the air, while Martin picked up 101 yards on the ground. Dani Dennis-Sutton led Penn State’s defense with two of the team's four sacks, and the Nittany Lions picked up eight pass breakups in the win.
"Coach [Anthony] Poindexter did an amazing job getting these guys ready," said Smith after the game of the team's co-defensive coordinator. "He limited the pass game, completely shut down the run game. He's a great leader. He's a great leader of men. He's a great human being."
In his final collegiate game, Klubnik finished with 193 yards passing as Clemson was held to just 236 yards of total offense and 43 yards on the ground. Sammy Brown finished with 14 total tackles.
"Yeah, just wanted to go out with a win. Just didn't get it done. Just didn't get it done," said Klubnik. "But just thankful for everybody that I've been able to spend life with over the past four years. Yeah. It's been a good four years. Thankful for it."