How one diehard fan’s love of Penn State helped fuel the ‘Hire Terry Smith’ moment
As soon as Matt Wolosz heard Penn State fired its head football coach, he felt Terry Smith should be named the program’s next head coach — and he wanted to be part of the effort to make that happen.
During Penn State’s game against Nebraska on Saturday, the 41-year-old Wolosz was the person behind making 150 signs that said “Hire Terry Smith,” many of which ended up in the hands of players and displayed on national television.
He bought tickets for the Nebraska game on the 50-yard line behind the bench. And he posted on his Instagram (@pennstatejerseys) that he would be handing out those signs throughout the night. Some people took them while tailgating and, later during the team arrival, he held up a larger sign with the same message.
More and more people started asking for a sign, including Smith’s family, Wolosz said.
Eventually, some players saw the signs during the game and a staffer went to Wolosz to get a handful.
“When you hold a sign and you’re physically holding something, it resonates with people. There’s a certain deeper-connection message when you’re physically holding and seeing something,” he said. “And I think there’s such an innate human nature to be able to make that extra connection in a world where we just scroll and scroll and scroll and scroll.”
He never imagined the kind of response he would receive.
Becoming a fan of PSU — and Terry Smith
Wolosz is a mega fan and collector of all things Penn State football. Growing up, he always wanted to play football, but because of a serious injury his dad’s old football teammate sustained while playing, his dad wouldn’t let Wolosz play. He settled for basketball but knew his true passion was football.
The closest he could get to that was watching and following football on TV.
“We didn’t have cable growing up, so it really was whatever’s on ABC or Channel 4 or Channel 2, and Penn State was on TV in New Jersey, and they always played very well,” Wolosz said. “I love the uniforms, the pageantry … they have the Goodyear blimp, and they’d start the game, and it’s spanning the whole tailgating lot and the road in, and Mount Nittany and the giant stadium. And it was always sunny and very picturesque.
“There was a certain charm to it, and it really drew me into wanting to follow college football.”
In 2004, Penn State was in the middle of a second consecutive losing season and there wasn’t a lot of optimism that they would attract blue-chip recruits. So when Wolosz learned that widely recruited Justin King, a five-star running back/defensive back from Gateway High School and Terry Smith’s stepson, had committed to Penn State, that resonated with him as a fan.
“When he committed, I was like, ‘That’s my guy.’ I wouldn’t care if he scored zero touchdowns and never saw the field,” Wolosz said. “There was something special about someone who wanted to come to a place that we cared about and be part of the solution, not just to be another one of those guys.”
Wolosz became a fan of King, and he bought a high school DVD that gave an inside look at King’s senior year, program highlights, the hype, and practices that featured Smith. That DVD had two clips that stuck with Wolosz for the next 20 years.
One was a clip of Smith addressing the team before it went out for senior night, about the importance of the game, how appreciative he was of the players, and how they should finish their careers.
“Then you fast-forward, they win the first round of their playoff game, 27 to nothing, and (Smith) comes out, he’s upset,” Wolosz recalled. “Like, ‘This is not the standard; we didn’t play well. I don’t care what the scoreboard is, I’m expecting more from you. We’re going to put our pads on, and we’re going to come in on Sunday.’ ”
When he heard Smith say that, he thought of his own coaches who had that same high standard for young boys to turn them into young men, he said. “When I heard that, that all came full circle for me,” he said. “And I’m like, there’s something special about this guy. Keep an eye on him.”
A guy ‘who loves the program’
Smith is a Penn State alum who played under Joe Paterno as a wide receiver from 1987 to 1991. He was hired at Penn State in 2014, as a cornerbacks coach, shortly after former head coach James Franklin was hired.
After Franklin’s firing earlier this season, Smith was named interim head coach. Wolosz said he texted his wife minutes after hearing the news of Franklin being fired and shared what he hoped would happen: “Terry Smith head coach; Justin King general manager.”
Smith earned Wolosz’s respect even more after seeing him in the interim position and hearing his answers at press conferences, like Smith’s story about his father giving him and his family a better life thanks to his Penn State education.
“Here’s a guy who knows the program, who loves the program,” he said. “We tell college kids and our young adults, ‘Find a job you love and it will not be a job. You will succeed, and that positive energy will be infectious, and you will raise the level of the organization.’ And if ‘We Are Penn State,’ and we believe in the men and women that we’ve developed, how do we not look at Terry Smith and say he is one of us?”
Response to the signs
Because Wolosz has long been a fan of Smith, he never hesitated in sharing his opinion with other blue-and-white faithful: “Hire Terry Smith.”
He just never expected the reaction he received.
Several Penn State players posed with the signs, some taking them to clicking cameras to make their own statements. The signs helped create a memorable scene, one with fans chanting for “Terry!” while players made silent pleas and Smith absorbed it all. So did Wolosz.
“I’m a 41-year-old fanboy,” Wolosz said. “I’ve never played. I’m not an offensive coordinator. I just, I have a certain passion for this and the ability to give back and to help — if I can show my kids, I helped contribute to a possible positive change of the Penn State football fandom and culture and how we interact outside of all the wild stuff we see online, I felt I did my job as a fan. And I’ll be grateful to be in that book when that story is written.”
During a press conference Monday, Smith said his focus is on trying to beat Rutgers and become bowl eligible but thinks there will be an opportunity to talk with Penn State athletic director Pat Kraft.
He reiterated that he loves Penn State and would like to be the next head coach.
“I think no one knows Penn State better than me of all the candidates out there. I know the history of Penn State. I know the culture, the DNA. I know the locker room. I know administration. I think I’m a good leader. I think I’m a leader of men,” Smith said. “That will take care of itself when the time comes. My focus right now is obviously we have to beat Rutgers. We approach these last couple weeks as do-or-die, playoff-type games, and this is another playoff game for us in our own reality of our world.”
