UPDATE: Since this post was originally published, Jordan Schultz has reported that Penn State will retain interim head coach Terry Smith on Matt Campbell's staff.
Curt Cignetti, Matt Rhule, Mike Elko, Eli Drinkwitz, Clark Lea, and Brent Key all signed extensions this season, and after BYU head coach Kalani Sitake rebuffed Penn State to stay in Provo, it seemed as though athletic director Pat Kraft had struck out. More than that, it appeared that the fans, players, and boosters who advocated for Terry Smith to have the interim tag removed were finally going to get their way.
Smith, with his three-game win streak to close out the regular season, has won over Nittany Lion fans and built serious momentum in and around Happy Valley. Players love to play for him, assistants love to coach for him, and reports began to trickle out that both players and staff would only stay with the program if he was named the head coach.
Even former Penn State superstars like Micah Parsons came out in support of Terry Smith, who is drawing interest from Memphis and UConn for their head coach vacancies. This week, Parsons told reporters, "If we have any common sense, if they ever want me to come back, they better put Terry there. I’ma be honest with you.”
Not hiring Smith risks alienating the fanbase, boosters, former players, and worst of all, risks a transfer portal exodus, but with his job on the line, those were risks Kraft was willing to take.
Terry Smith likely heading out the door after Matt Campbell hire
I’ve argued from the start that it makes no sense for Penn State to hire Terry Smith full-time after firing Franklin. The best argument, after his 3-3 finish to the season that included two blown fourth-quarter leads, two top-five losses, and wins over Michigan State, Nebraska with a backup quarterback, and Rutgers, is that he’d keep the players and the staff together. Franklin’s firing was a direct indictment of those players and staff and their inability to reach the program’s lofty expectations.
Yet, after the Sitake debacle, and as the 2026 recruiting class crumbled to just two signees on Wednesday, even I came around to the idea that Penn State’s best course of action was to hire Smith for a year and restart the coaching search 10 months from now. That was before Campbell emerged as a candidate.
For 10 years, Campbell has been rumored for bigger jobs and has been reluctant to leave Ames. He was mentioned as an early candidate at Penn State, but the interest seemed to fizzle until this week. While it’s clear he’s, at best, the backup plan to the backup plan, and maybe even somewhere around Kraft’s eighth or ninth choice for the job in this cycle, next year, he’d be right back at the top of the list of the best possible candidates for the job. So, making that move now makes all the sense in the world.
Players will be upset. Players will leave through the portal. Former players may not return for a few years, and Smith almost certainly will take another job somewhere else. Kraft, however, didn’t have the luxury of handing the program to a beloved former player who has never been a head coach.
After firing Franklin and botching the pursuit of the biggest names available, Kraft’s head was inevitably going to be next on the chopping block. If he punted the coaching search to next fall, he may not be the one leading it. Desperation rarely yields the best results, but in this case, Kraft may have done the best thing for himself and for Penn State.