Chants of Terry Smith’s name rang through the stadium Saturday night, but emotions aside, is he the right pick to lead the program next?
The coaching carousel is at a fever pitch and Penn State is well in the middle of it with its coaching search well underway.
Less than a year removed from a College Football Playoff Semifinal run, Penn State is in a tailor made position to have success with their coaching hire.
Let’s take a look at some of the candidates and why it makes sense or doesn’t for both the candidate and the program:
Terry Smith – Penn State interim head coach
Pros for Penn State
Add Nittany Sports Now as a preferred source in Google! Click here to add us.- This is the most unified the program, lettermen and fans have been in recent memory based on the product Smith has been putting on the field.
- Smith has this team on the cusp of bowl eligibility despite a six-game losing skid that saw the university fire James Franklin after starting 3-0.
- Smith is the safe hire. He’s a Penn Stater through and through and has rejuvenated a program that was in desperate need of a makeover mid-season.
Cons for Penn State
- Smith is the safe hire. Typically, a school doesn’t fire their head coach who’s No.2 on the all-time wins list only to promote from within, but Smith has completely turned things around.
- The expectation was a splash hire and that’s just not come to fruition yet. With Smith, the safeness of the hire could easily put more pressure for more success immediately on Kraft.
- Is this a good long-term solution in this era of college football? This is a question that could be asked about any coaches, but especially so from a coach who is the leading candidate emotionally based on recency bias.
Pros for Smith
- This is undoubtedly a dream job for Smith and he’s advocated as much each time he’s in front of a microphone recently. He bleeds blue and white and it’s well-known he wants this job.
- There isn’t a single person in the program who knows as much about the history of the program and what it means to be a Nittany Lion.
- It continues his reconstruction of the culture at Penn State, something that was seemingly far worse than those outside the program knew leading up to the departure of Franklin.
Cons for Smith
- What if this goes wrong for Smith and Penn State? Smith has spent all but one year of his college coaching career in University Park. What would be next for Smith if this were to have a messy ending?
- As the lone on-the-job interview participant, what would it do to the psyche of Smith if despite everything going on outside the program with the fans, students, lettermen and his players?
- Smith will always have to fight to get out of the shadow of Franklin who had him on his staff from day one. Smith is already doing a great job of putting his touches on everything, but one thing he hasn’t been shy about is supporting who he played for in Joe Paterno and while many think it’s refreshing he’s honoring him and the past, it’s brought up a lot of feelings from those outside the walls of the program.
Terry Smith is the safest hire Kraft could make and has done an admirable job of turning this program around for the Nittany Lions in his time in charge. Smith could make a great head coach at Penn State, but it’s up to Kraft to make that a reality.
