How Terry Smith is helping kickstart Matt Campbell’s tenure at Penn State
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Smith stayed at Penn State despite other opportunities.
- Smith’s associate role grew; he’s consulted frequently by Campbell.
- Smith aids staff transition, providing institutional knowledge and recruiting help.
In late November, then-interim head coach Terry Smith stood at the front of the visiting media room in SHI Stadium, not long after his Penn State football team beat Rutgers, smiling as he delivered a message.
“So uh, last week I came in with a lot of energy,” Smith said with a laugh about advocating for the full-time job the week prior. “This week, I’m just thankful we won a game. I’m thankful we have an opportunity to go to a bowl game. Thankful for these guys that played their hearts for all of us.”
Smith had been who the players on the team wanted to get the job — they paraded around the field after a win over Nebraska with “Hire Terry Smith” signs and Smith made his case for the gig in the postgame press conference — but that was not going to be a deciding factor. Smith’s response following the win over Rutgers seemed to temper expectations for what was to come. In a way, it created an avenue to return to the Nittany Lions even if he wasn’t named the permanent head coach.
And 2.5 months later he sat in the Beaver Stadium recruiting lounge, fielding questions as Penn State’s associate head coach and cornerbacks coach under new head coach Matt Campbell — choosing to stay despite not getting the head job he coveted at the time, and helping the program transition to a new era.
Smith had plenty of options. But he chose to stay with his alma mater, and the program he’d been with for the previous 11 seasons. That was a common theme among those on staff who played for the Nittany Lions.
“The staff members that stayed were basically the Penn State lettermen,” Smith said in early February. “We love this place unconditionally. ... Having the ability and the opportunity to stay for all of us, was what we wanted to do. We all had different opportunities to go wherever, but there’s no place like this. And this place has impacted us in many different ways and all of us positively. We want to just continue to do that.”
Despite being in the same role he had by the time James Franklin was fired, he does not necessarily have the same responsibilities. Sometimes titles like associate head coach can be added as an excuse for a pay bump, while having no material impact on what a coach does.
That’s not the case for Smith, who has seen his role change under Campbell.
“My associate role is different and bigger than under James,” Smith said. “Coach Campbell has conversations with me about how he wants to do certain things, and I’ll share my insight to certain things. Ultimately, he has to make that final decision, but I’m called on a lot more. ... James would ask me certain things, but it’s different under Matt. Everyone in a building knows that I’m the associate head coach. Under James that wasn’t clear.”
His new responsibilities can only be helped by Smith being the only person to sit in the seat Campbell has. He may not have been the permanent head coach, but he and other interim head coaches around the country have remarked on the difference between being an assistant and leading a program.
Those seven games over 2.5 months allowed him to develop a new perspective. One that will only help his career and help Campbell adjust to the biggest job he’s held. But despite the growth, there are plenty of aspects to the role that he doesn’t miss.
“I don’t miss all the decision-making. I don’t miss all the pressure. I don’t miss the media,” Smith said with a laugh. “You go from this meeting to that meeting, to this meeting, to that meeting, to this meeting. We all leave for the night, and he’s still in meetings. And so I don’t miss none of that.”
It’s not just Campbell that Smith can be an asset to. He’s the oldest coach on the staff and brings his decade of experience at Penn State with him, while the rest of the staff adjusts to life in the Big Ten.
And Smith has already begun to assist some of the Nittany Lion coaches in making their adjustment while helping them hit the ground running.
“He’s been pivotal to us coming in and getting the lay of the land,” safeties coach Deon Broomfield said. “... He knows everything of how this place works. When you talk about it from a recruiting standpoint. Every coach that you run into on the road, they’re like, man, Terry’s our guy. To have somebody who’s been a prominent figure within the program, and for him to choose to stay around, it’s been pivotal to us getting off to a fast start.”
That will be part of who Smith is as long as he remains at Penn State — he’s now one of the program’s elder statesmen, and knows more about it than anyone else on staff. He’s played there, he’s been an assistant coach there and he had his brief stint as the leader of the program there.
Even if he isn’t in that last role any longer, he’ll still be a part of what the next era of the program turns into.
And, it seems, there isn’t anywhere else he’d rather be.
