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For information on submitting an obituary, please contact Reading Eagle by phone at 610-371-5018, or email at obituaries@readingeagle.com or fax at 610-371-5193. Most obituaries published in the Reading Eagle are submitted through funeral homes and cremation services, but we will accept submissions from families. Obituaries can be emailed to obituaries@readingeagle.com. In addition to the text of the obituary, any photographs that you wish to include can be attached to this email. Please put the text of the obituary in a Word document, a Google document or in the body of the email. The Reading Eagle also requires a way to verify the death, so please include either the phone number of the funeral home or cremation service that is in charge of the deceased's care or a photo of his/her death certificate. We also request that your full name, phone number and address are all included in this email. All payments by families must be made with a credit card. We will send a proof of the completed obituary before we require payment. The obituary cannot run, however, until we receive payment in full. Obituaries can be submitted for any future date, but they must be received no later than 3:00 p.m. the day prior to its running for it to be published. Please call the obituary desk, at 610-371-5018, for information on pricing. Ethan Grunkemeyer grew up in Lewis Center, Ohio, less than a half-hour from the Ohio State campus and surrounded by Buckeyes fans. He saw many games at Ohio Stadium and this week he gets his first chance to play there, even though he’ll be wearing Penn State’s all-white road uniform. “Since I was a kid I dreamed about playing in that stadium,” Grunkemeyer said Tuesday. “It’s going to be cool to go back home and have a chance to do that. I’m super excited about that.” Grunkemeyer and the Nittany Lions (0-4 Big Ten, 3-4) are three-touchdown underdogs against No. 1 Ohio State (4-0, 7-0) Saturday at noon (TV-FOX). A redshirt freshman, he had been Penn State’s No. 2 quarterback until three-year starter Drew Allar suffered a season-ending leg injury against Northwestern on Oct. 11. He made his first start earlier this month at Iowa, where he completed 15-of-28 passes for 93 yards with two interceptions. He’s completed 23-of-39 passes for 198 yards and one touchdown this season. He will make his second start Saturday in Columbus, where the Lions haven’t won since 2011. It’s a daunting task. “I have a lot of confidence in Grunk,” wide receiver Trebor Pena said. “I think last week he played well. The stats might not show that. As players, we see the stuff. We know what’s going on. We really feel for him. We believe in him. We know what he can do. “I know the type of player he is. We’re all ready to rally behind him.” The 6-2, 207-pound Grunkemeyer passed for 8,401 yards and 80 touchdowns at Olentangy High School and led the Braves to an 11-2 record as a senior in 2023. Although he was rated a four-star prospect, Ohio State did not offer him a scholarship. “I grew up 20 or 25 minutes down the road,” he said. “I always watched them on Saturdays. Just going back into that environment I grew up in is definitely motivating. But I’d say at the end of the day football is football. You just have to put the football down and play.” Whether Grunkemeyer or Allar has been behind center, Penn State’s pass offense has struggled mightily. The Lions rank 108th nationally in passing yards per game (185.4) and 88th in pass efficiency. They’ve had just six completions of 30 yards or more. The addition of Pena (Syracuse), Kyron Hudson (USC) and Devonte Ross (Troy) from the transfer portal hasn’t improved the pass game as it has been hoped. “Obviously the production isn’t where you want it to be, right?” interim head coach Terry Smith said this week. “That’s the truth of the matter. How do we get it better? Part of it is to establish the run game so that we can use play-action passes and throw some balls behind the linebackers. “I’m demanding from Coach Kotelnicki (offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki) that we are creative in the pass game in the sense that we don’t want to throw the ball so much horizontally. We want to throw it vertically.” Smith suggested that redshirt freshman Tyseer Denmark and freshman Koby Howard will see increased playing time at Ohio State in order to “inject some life into the pass group.” “Absolutely, they’re ready to contribute,” Grunkemeyer said. “I’m a big fan of their games. In the past week and really all year, I’ve gotten to throw to them a lot. I think they do a really good job of creating separation. I’m super excited for them.” Ohio State ranks first in scoring defense (5.9) and total defense (216.9). The Buckeyes have one of the best defensive players in the country in safety Caleb Downs and two of the best cornerbacks in the Big Ten in Davison Ibinosun and Jermaine Mathews Jr. Passing the football successfully will be a difficult task. “They do a lot of different things,” Pena said. “They’re good at disguising (pass coverages). They have good DBs. It will be a good opportunity for us.” And for Grunkemeyer, who has several friends on the Ohio State roster and who would like nothing better than to help Penn State beat the Buckeyes for the first time since 2016. “I just think the opportunity to play in front of my family back home will be super exciting for me,” he said. “I’m just super excited for the opportunity.”
