Penn State's Terry Smith, Nebraska's Matt Rhule Share Unique Origin Story

Rhule hired Smith to coach with him at Temple in 2013. They'll meet again when the Nittany Lions host the Cornhuskers in a Big Ten game.

Penn State Nittany Lions interim head coach Terry Smith enters Kinnick Stadium before the game against the Iowa Hawkeyes. | Matthew O'Haren-Imagn Images

STATE COLLEGE | In 2013, then Temple football coach Matt Rhule visited Gateway High near Pittsburgh to recruit a player. He left with an assistant coach as well. 

Terry Smith, then Gateway’s athletic director and football coach, was talking with a former player who needed help. Rhule sat in the office, listening to Smith give advice. The next day, he asked Smith to join him in Philadelphia.

“That was kind of an unplanned hiring, I guess,” Smith said, recalling how he became the wide receivers coach on Rhule’s first staff at Temple. “Matt Rhule is sitting there listening to the conversation and appreciated my care for my player at that point. We just had a discussion, and a day later he offered me the job.”

Twelve years later, Rhule, a State College High grad and former Penn State linebacker whose grandparents had Nittany Lions season tickets, returns to face Smith, who recently broke down describing how much Penn State meant to him. The Nittany Lions host the Cornhuskers on Saturday night at Beaver Stadium in what might be called the Penn State Letterman's Bowl.

Rhule went from Penn State walk-on linebacker to head coach at Nebraska, with that first stop at Temple, where he hired Smith. Smith is a former Penn State wide receiver and captain who spent one season at Temple before joining James Franklin’s first Nittany Lions staff in 2014. In October, Smith took over as Penn State’s interim head coach after Franklin was fired following a 3-3 start. 

After signing a contract extension with Nebraska in October, Rhule likely won’t be in the running for the Penn State job, though Smith would like a chance. And Rhule helped get Smith’s college coaching career started.

“It was a tremendous opportunity for me to grow from high school to college, and I’m thankful for that,” Smith said, reflecting on his year at Temple. “I appreciate Matt for taking a chance on me. I’m thankful for our relationship.”

Also on that Temple staff was Brandon Noble, the former Penn State and NFL defensive lineman who played with Rhule in college. The prospect of seeing Rhule and Smith face off Saturday at Beaver Stadium as head coaches made Noble smile. 

“I think it’s a great story,” he said. 

RELATED: How James Franklin said goodbye to Penn State

Rhule, Smith coached with different styles

"Rhule came in to recruit one of my players... a day later he offered me the job."

Ahead of Nebraska at Penn State Saturday, @PennStateFball's Terry Smith tells the story of how Matt Rhule took him from coaching high school to the college level with him at Temple⬇️ pic.twitter.com/jXjdTyndSl

— FOX College Football (@CFBONFOX) November 17, 2025

Though Temple won only two games in 2013, its coaching staff was young and promising. Rhule was a first-time head coach. He hired well. Smith is is the nterim head coach at Penn State. Fran Brown, his defensive backs coach, is the head coach at Syracuse. ; Mike Siravo, who coached linebacker, is the inside linebackers coach with the Minnesota Vikings. And Noble, the defensive line coach, has coached in the U.S. and Europe.

Noble said it was a hard season, during which he spent a lot of nights sleeping on the office floor. It was the only season in which Noble worked with Rhule and Smith, and the differences in their coaching styles still stand out. 

“We were in the beginning of the culture change, and Terry just had a different way about him as opposed to Matt,” Noble said. “Head coach, position coach, different animals, but [Matt was] very intense, very loud and demanding. And Terry had this kind of quiet drive to him where he got his work done and coached those guys hard.”

Smith might not have been that loud, but players always appreciated his care and dedication. Noble still sees that now from Smith in his role as Penn State's interim coach.

“He’s a good football coach and he’s a leader of men,” Noble said. “I’ve played the game for a long time, and there are guys who you will 100-percent run through a wall for because you know they love you, and they know that you’ve got their best interests at heart and you know that they’re going to do everything they can. And Terry is that kind of coach.”

Smith’s attention to detail was part of what prompted Rhule to hire him at Temple. It was a pivotal move in his career, even if Smith called it “unplanned.”

“It doesn’t really matter where you come from,” Noble said. “Ccoaching football is coaching football, and if you’re good at it, you get these kinds of opportunities. And Terry’s done a great job of running with it”  

Learning from Joe Paterno 

Nebraska Cornhuskers head coach Matt Rhule walks the field before the game against the Maryland Terrapins at SECU Stadium. | Tommy Gilligan-Imagn Images

Growing up, Rhule always knew he wanted to be a coach. He joined Penn State’s football team as a walk-on with that goal. But Rhule failed a physical with a bad shoulder, became a student equipment manager and played scout-team center before he got on the field at linebacker and special teams for the Nittany Lions. 

“He’s carried that into coaching , that intensity, that drive, that chip on his shoulder,” Noble said. “That’s really the biggest thing that makes him such a great program-builder and a culture-changing guy. He’s a guy that, especially early in his career, fought for everything he had, and that drive and that intensity and having a little bit of anger in you to prove people wrong is really important.”

Rhule and Noble both played for Joe Paterno. Rhule said he learned a lot from the way Paterno held his players accountable and brought that messaging with him to Temple, Baylor and Nebraska. 

“The core value I learned from him is, he held his best players the most accountable,” Rhule said. “And as I got into college football, I saw the opposite. It was, 'Hey, if you made plays, you could do whatever you want.' Not there. You’re sitting there on a bowl trip, and you see him send a starter home because he’s late? You're like, 'I'm never going to be late.' That's kind of carried over for me. Hopefully I uphold that ethos."

Getting players to buy in

Penn State's Anthony Donkoh, center, hugs interim head coach Terry Smith after the Nittany Lions' win over the Michigan State Spartans. | Nick King/Lansing State Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Smith has two regular-season games left as Penn State’s interim head coach. He said he would be open to the opportunity of becoming the permanent coach but hasn’t had any formal discussions regarding the job. 

“The way I see it is, my interview is every day that I’m operating in this seat,” Smith said.

Smith’s presence has been essential in unifying the team during this stretch of uncertainty, and his players have bought in. Noble still watches Penn State football closely and talks about it on The Obligatory PSU Podcast. Since Smith took over, Noble said he has noticed a dramatic difference in how the Nittany Lions are playing. 

“The thing that I think is really cool, and that you see that Terry has brought out of them, is they look like they’re enjoying themselves,” Noble said. “They look like they want to be out there on the football field. They look excited to play football for Penn State, and that says a lot about Terry Smith to me.”

Penn State’s win over Michigan State, which snapped a six-game losing streak, proved how much the Nittany Lions care about their coach. It’s also why Rhule hired him at Temple 12 years ago.

“I think it’ll be really cool to watch them go out there and talk before the game and shake hands afterwards,” Noble said. “I’m sure there’s a tremendous amount of respect between the two of them. They’ve both come a long way since we were there in North Philly.”

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