It couldn’t be clearer that Penn State needs to keep Terry Smith in Happy Valley

Penn State entered the season with national championship expectations. It would have been hard for the team to fall much shorter. Three straight losses to open Big Ten play led to James Franklin’s dismissal, and three more meant the Nittany Lions have to win out just to go to a bowl game. 

Yet, the Nittany Lions keep fighting. It would have been easy for the team to give up after Franklin’s firing, or after a gut-wrenching loss to Iowa, or a ninth-straight loss to Ohio State, or last week’s blown fourth-quarter lead to Indiana. Yet, the Nittany Lions keep fighting. 

Penn State finally got its first win over a Power 4 opponent of the season on Saturday, beating Michigan State 28-10 for the Land Grant Trophy and interim head coach Terry Smith’s first win. While the difference between a bowl game and a five-win season for the most disappointing team in college football is ultimately meaningless, Smith has the team bought in, and that matters. 

Penn State hasn’t given up on Terry Smith

“We are playing for our life to make a bowl game,” Smith said in his postgame press conference, and it looks like it. 

Smith got a Gatorade shower after the game and was carried off the field to celebrate his first win. The Penn State alum and Pennsylvania native is in his 12th season with the program after he was a standout receiver from 1988-91. While he shouldn’t be the program’s next head coach, whoever that is, shouldn’t let him go anywhere. 

It’s obvious how much Penn State means to Smith and how much Smith means to his players. That’s why he’s such a dominant recruiter on the defensive side of the ball and was such a huge asset to Franklin throughout his tenure. It’s also why he was the obvious choice to become the interim head coach for the rest of the season despite Penn State having highly-paid and highly-regarded coordinators on both sides of the football. 

Assistant coaches like that don’t come around often, and while his game management has left a lot to be desired, his tenure as the interim head coach proves his value. 

Some coaches come into their new school and want a complete program overhaul. That would be a mistake for Franklin’s replacement, at least when it comes to Smith. 

Maybe Smith, after getting a taste as a head coach this season, will look to leave for a head coaching opportunity at a lower level, or seek out a chance as a coordinator, but it will likely be difficult for him to leave Happy Valley, and especially if Penn State does pull together to make a bowl game, everyone involved in the program should make it impossible.