Penn State football players, fans rally behind interim coach Terry Smith after win
Penn State interim head coach Terry Smith hugged his family tight as they shouted in celebration. He got hugs from coaches as players like Zion Tracy and King Mack ran around the field with pieces of paper saying “Hire Terry Smith” pointed at every camera they could find.
The players encouraged fans to get louder as they chanted the coach’s first name at various points during, and after, Saturday night’s 37-10 drubbing of Nebraska.
Smith — who wore a button that said “Joe” and “409” in honor of former head coach Joe Paterno — has brought the team and the fan base together. And on Saturday the former Nittany Lion player and longtime assistant coach made his case to be the full-time head coach of the program.
“I’ve always been a head coach,” Smith said. “I’m very confident in what I do. ... I’m a leader of men. You guys see it. You’re witnessing it every day.”
Smith has resuscitated a team that was left for dead when it was 3-6 with little hope to do anything. The group had lost six in a row (three of which came under his stewardship) and was facing the prospect of missing a bowl game. But even during those three losses when he was the leader, something changed with the Nittany Lions.
Defensive end Dani Dennis-Sutton saw the accountability difference right away with Smith. While he said former head coach James Franklin held the team accountable, there was something different about how Smith did it.
“I love it,” Dennis-Sutton said. “... I told him when he first got the job, I want him to hold me accountable. Hold all of us older guys accountable and make an example out of us when we do make a mistake, whether big, small, whatever it is.
“Because I remember when I was a young guy, older guys makes mistakes and it just goes unrecognized. But if a young guy makes a mistake, it’s like the end of the world. I know what it’s like to be a young guy. So Coach Terry holding all of us older guys accountable, it makes it easier to hold the young guys accountable.”
It helps that the schedule lightened up, with games against Michigan State and Nebraska rather than on the road at Iowa and Ohio State and at home against Indiana, but those were also games the Nittany Lions weren’t winning this year under Franklin. His losses to UCLA and Northwestern were a large part of the reason he was fired. And now Smith at the very least has the team taking care of business against the teams it should beat.
And it happened because Smith was able to get the best out of his players. That’s part of why the players believe Smith should be the next leader of the program. And they were happy to see those papers that made the same plea.
“I’m glad we had them,” Dennis-Sutton said. “Because I believe Terry Smith should be the next head coach. It shouldn’t be no other question. He’s gotten this train back on track. In the midst of chaos, we all looked at him, and he’s been a leader for us. ... It sounds like all the players want Terry. All the fans want Terry. So I think the choice should be very obvious after the season, but that’s above me. But in my opinion, I think it’s great. And yeah, I think the fans want him too.”
Smith was forceful in his desire for the job. He laid out his case for being the next head coach and didn’t mince words. He believes in himself, and his players believe in him.
“We are going to roll up our sleeves and fight every day,” Smith said. “We’ll come to work with a lunch pail every day and show up. ... That’s what Penn State football is. We fight together. We fight for one another. We’re not conditional love; we’re unconditional love.”
He, at the very least, has put pressure on Penn State AD Pat Kraft. There is now an unavoidable tension because the players and many of the fans in the stadium so badly want their interim head coach to remain in that role.
The question now is whether that’s enough to get real consideration to be the head coach. The story is a nice one — a former player and dedicated assistant who has spoken emotionally about what Penn State means to him getting to coach it full-time — but the reality is much more complex.
While Smith cited his 12 years as a high school coach as further proof that he’s a leader of men, there are many more complexities that come with being a head coach, especially in the modern era with the transfer portal and NIL. It will be off-the-field skills — essentially, working like a CEO of a big-time company — that will be key in deciding who the next head coach will be.
It’s possible Smith is the right man to do that, too. That will be up to Kraft to decide.
And while it’s still a longshot, Smith seized his opportunity on Saturday night. He made his case — and did so loud enough that Kraft may not be able to ignore it.
