Monday was a bittersweet day for Terry Maurice Smith, Penn State Class of 1991. (He will definitely put his management degree to good use 24/7 between now and Nov. 29.) The former Nittany Lion co-captain and three-year starter at wide receiver had been named Penn State head football coach the day before, albeit on an interim basis.
As Smith sat at the dais in the media room of Beaver Stadium, with scores of reporters from near and far to witness the changing of the guard after the firing of James Franklin on Sunday, he looked up.
(And not to the heavens, as he did at the end of the presser when he half-joked, “Everybody pray for me.”)
Smith, 56, was scanning the second-floor balcony, where watching the proceedings was a host of his family members, including his father, Harvey Smith Sr. (Accounting, Penn State Class of 1968), and his older brother, Harvey Jr., who played football at West Virginia University.
Smith also was thinking of his son, Justin King, the former Nittany Lions’ star player and a 2007 Penn State graduate in Letters, Arts and Sciences, as well as his daughter, Haley, who is also a PSU alum.
“Penn State has done so much for me and my family,” shared Smith. Now it was his turn to return the favor in the biggest way possible.
Smith had been Penn State’s interim head coach for 23 hours when he stepped into the media room following athletic director Pat Kraft’s press conference of his own. Smith was now the Penn State head coach — 37 years after first arriving on the University Park campus. He ascended from the multi-faceted roles of associate head coach, defensive recruiting coordinator and cornerbacks coach to the top job. (The new CB coach will be alum Jordan Lucas, a 2015 co-captain and Super Bowl champion with Kansas City Chiefs, who was on the staff as a cornerbacks assistant.)
Smith was the first PSU letterman hired by Franklin when he arrived on campus from Vanderbilt in January 2014. And Smith is the last remaining original member of that coaching staff, outlasting even Franklin.
He is just the fifth former letterman to be a PSU head football coach in the 136 years of Penn State football. (The others: Dick Harlow, 1915-17; Bob Higgins, 1930-48; Joe Bedenk,1949; and Tom Bradley, also an interim, for four games in 2011.) It was a proud moment for Smith, despite its genesis.
“Penn State holds a dear place in my heart,” Smith said at the beginning of the presser. “I’m a third-generation Penn Stater. My dad sits up top. He’s a ’68 grad. I’m a ’91 grad. My son is an ’07 grad. And my daughter graduated here recently. I call this place home. I love this place. I love the Blue and White. I’m proud to be sitting in front of you.
“…I’m fortunate that I played for Coach [Joe] Paterno and now I worked for another very successful coach here at Penn State in Coach Franklin.”
Kraft picked Smith to succeed Franklin, for at least the next six games and maybe a bowl game, for several reasons: He knows Penn State like literally no one else in Lasch. He is level-headed and respected (he is affectionately known as the OG of the program). He knows the staff. And he knows the roster: “I probably recruited almost three-fourths of the roster, and a lot of committed guys.”
Smith also knows that he has his work cut out for him, given that the 3-3 unranked Nittany Lions, who began the season ranked No. 2 in The Associated Press poll, are riding a three-game losing skid that ultimately cost Franklin his job. Smith said he talked on Sunday night with Franklin, who often told Smith that he would be The Guy if something happened to Franklin. Which it did. And how.
“Now it’s my job to press us forward,” Smith said. “It’s my job for us to be where our feet are, to be grounded right here, and to be able to represent Penn State in a proud fashion.”
A former star quarterback at Gateway High School in the Pittsburgh suburbs who was recruited to Penn State by Bradley in an interim HC stroke of symmetry, Smith was also a successful high school coach and AD. He knows how to lead. Does he have a shot to be the next fulltime head coach? Kraft said he does. Does Smith want the job? He said he does.
TERRY’S TOP 5
Here are five of Smith’s top tasks, in his own words, as he prepares the Nittany Lions for a super-challenging stretch that begins at 7 p.m. Saturday vs. Iowa in Kinnick Stadium. That game is followed by, mercifully, a bye week. Then there’s a trip to The Horseshoe to face current No. 1 Ohio State on Nov. 1 and a Nov. 8 showdown with current No. 3 Indiana in Beaver Stadium.
1. Toughen up and have fun. “We need to get back to enjoying ball, being tough, gritty and passionate… We have to get our grittiness back, our toughness, our swag and most importantly, we have to go have fun, enjoy playing the game of football.”
2. Be better on the defensive line. “On the defensive side, the biggest thing for us is we have got to get our defensive line to be in sync. Everything starts up front.”
3. Be better on the offensive line. “So, the two things that we have to fix this week are the offensive line [and] defensive line. And not that they’re problems. But they have to be able to control the line of scrimmage. You control the line of scrimmage, you control the game. Those are the two things we’re focusing on this week. And it goes back to part of my original statement of toughness. We have to be tougher up front and that sets the tone for what everyone else does.”
4. Get Grunk ready at QB, starting in place of Drew Allar, who is out for the season. “We have every bit of confidence in Ethan [Grunkemeyer]. He has a strong arm, he is athletic, a super-smart kid. We’ve entrusted him. He’s been thrown in there just like I’ve been thrown in there — so we got something in common. He’s going to be ready. We’re going to rep him all week and drill him all week and put him in class on grass. We’re very confident we’re going to have a game plan for him that fits him. Super-excited to see him go out there Saturday night.”
5. Recruit, recruit, recruit. “We’re going to continue to recruit. We are going to continue to get in front of these guys…. So, we’re going to recruit the young men that want to be here, and when we suit up come 2026 with a new roster, they will be equipped and ready to go. Recruiting is going to work as-is. We’re just going to keep our tedious approach and keep contacting those guys and try to get them on campus to visit and just remind them how beautiful of a place this is. …It’s a twofold question, because you got your ’26 class and ’27 class, which is a whole year-and-a-half out. Those guys are going to be directly impacted by the final decision of who the [next] head coach will be.”
