Penn State's Terry Smith Derives Inspiration From Urban Meyer

STATE COLLEGE | Before he became Penn State’s interim head coach after James Franklin was fired, Terry Smith was Coach T — the team’s “truth-teller” in addition to its cornerbacks coach. Smith, 56, is one of the Nittany Lions' elder coaches and the only member remaining from Franklin’s original 2014 staff.

“Now they see me in a different light,” Smith said during his press conference Monday. “Like the building sees me different. It’s kind of like everyone gets quiet when I walk in now.”

Smith has taken it upon himself to unite the locker room and bring fun back to Penn State football. Yet Smith also said that his “interim” title could be “portrayed as the substitute teacher.” But in the face of that challenge, Smith promised to put a better product on the field and doubled down on that pledge this week as the Nittany Lions prepare to visit 1 Ohio State.

“Obviously, no one is giving us a chance,” Smith said of his team being a 20.5-point underdog. “I'm going to re-emphasize that to our team. I don't think we’ve ever been 20-point underdogs since I've been here. But it's motivation. No one believes in us, and we're going to come out and fight like we did at Iowa. We're going to fight a little harder.”

Despite coming off the bye week, Penn State doesn't face an easier road. The Nittany Lions have not won in Columbus since 2011, but Smith said the team has bought into his system and that the leadership in the locker room has been strong.

“It's positive in the sense that I'm still Coach T, I'm the guy that still gets along with everyone,” Smith said. “It's my job to rally us together. I want to give the players a voice to how this story ends and how we write this next chapter.”

Penn State interim head coach Terry Smith on his team being a 20.5-point underdog at No. 1 Ohio State.

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Not afraid of the tough conversations

Penn State Nittany Lions interim head coach Terry Smith looks on against the Iowa Hawkeyes at Kinnick Stadium. — Penn State Nittany Lions interim head coach Terry Smith looks on against the Iowa Hawkeyes during the second quarter at Kinnick Stadium. | Jeffrey Becker-Imagn Images

While he compared himself to a substitute teacher, Smith said he’s not afraid to have tough conversations when evaluating how Penn State got to this point. Smith is known as the “truth-teller” for a reason.

“It’s just the way I’m built,” Smith said. “I would want to know if I was falling short so that I can fix it. It’s how I was raised and brought up. The one thing that I work very hard on in my truth-telling is trying not to be so direct yet deliver such a hard message. Working really hard on that.

"I’m a work-in-progress, so please bear with me. We’ve had those conversations with staff members. They’ve been great. Everyone is understanding, everyone is open to it.”

Smith has adjusted Penn State’s process to reflect his own coaching vision. He also showed his staff a video of Urban Meyer discussing Florida interim head coach Billy Gonzales, who took over for the fired Billy Napier.

Meyer told Gonzales, who worked with him at Bowling Green, Utah and Florida, to remember that the most important thing “are these darn players.”

“[Meyer] basically said that we have however many opportunities, games left in the season. We have to put it on film,” Smith said. “If we want our next jobs as coaches, we have to coach so that the film shows we're deserving of our next job.

“I showed that to our staff, and we owe it to these guys to pour into them and give everything we can. So we're going to work our tails off. It's my job to make sure that staff doesn't come up short. We're going to demand excellence, as we always have here. You know, I promised that, when we went to Iowa, we were going to play hard. I'm going to double down on that when we go up here to Ohio State.”

After Billy Napier’s firing, Urban says his former player Billy Gonzales called him for advice on stepping in as Florida’s interim coach. pic.twitter.com/MVRHj56EpE
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There are five games left for Smith to make this job his own. Two of them are against the No. 1 and No. 2 teams in the country, with Indiana visiting Beaver Stadium on Nov. 8. Penn State Athletic Director Pat Kraft is conducting a national search for the program’s next head coach, and Smith wants to be part of that conversation.

“I love Penn State,” Smith said. “Any opportunity that will present itself, I would pray on it and would entertain the opportunity to always stay here. We just don't know what's next, so I'm grounded in my feet right now, and my job is to lead this team the rest of this season and just worry about beating Ohio State.

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Not afraid of the tough conversations

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