Why Terry Smith Accepted Matt Campbell's Offer to Stay at Penn State

Penn State interim head coach Terry Smith reportedly had the backing of top-level Nittany Lions donors, in addition to fans and players, to be named the 17th football coach in program history.
The stretch, from becoming the interim head coach Oct. 12 until now, has been the “greatest seven weeks of my coaching career,” Smith said Tuesday. And it will continue in a new form.

Smith will remain at Penn State as part of coach Matt Campbell’s staff, which Campbell called “critically important” at his introduction Monday. Smith will coach the Nittany Lions in the Pinstripe Bowl against Clemson on Dec. 27 and explained his decision to stay after that despite other offers.

“My love for the university,” Smith said on a media call to promote the Pinstripe Bowl. “I've expressed that time after time. I love the university. I've known Matt Campbell probably for 15+ years, when I was a high school head coach at Gateway High School. Matt was at that time the head coach at Toledo.

“... At this point in my career, I truly can only work for certain types of individuals, and we're aligned at the point of, he's blue-collar, he creates toughness, discipline, and just the core values of what Penn State represents. I felt like he was the right leader at the time, and I wanted to stay a part of it.”

Smith and Campbell developed their relationship over the time they were at Gateway and Toledo, when Campbell invited Smith and his team to Ohio to compete in seven-on-seven camps. Campbell recruited Smith’s high school consistently, saying in his introductory press conference Monday that he knew the players he’d be getting stood for something “bigger than football.”

Matt Campbell is announced as the Penn State Nittany Lions new head coach during a press conference at the Beaver Stadium. | Matthew O'Haren-Imagn Images

Now, the two have reunited after more than a decade, and will work together for the foreseeable future. That partnership began on Tuesday, when Smith met with Campbell and his staff that followed from Iowa State. Smith went through the entire Nittany Lions roster and discussed it and the current staff with Campbell and his crew, since the new head coach has some big decisions to make in the near future.

“Ultimately, [Campbell] has to make decisions, but I informed him of basically the personnel in the building just to enlighten him so he knows who each person is when he sits in front of them and talks with those guys,” Smith said. “He's in the process, starting today, of meeting with all the staff. Then in the next few days he's going to meet with each individual on the team. Then from there he'll start to make some decisions.”

Smith will coach the Nittany Lions through the bowl game as Campbell builds his staff and works on player retention and recruiting. During Tuesday’s press conference, Clemson coach Dabo Swinney praised Smith and the job he has done with the Nittany Lions.

“I've got great respect for anybody who gets put in an interim situation,” Swinney said. “I've been there, done that. That is an incredibly difficult task. All of a sudden, you're thrust into a completely different role and have to kind of redefine roles and responsibilities. You wear a lot of different hats. That is not easy. Especially at a place like Penn State, where there's a lot of people who care and are paying attention to everything that you do.

“I just think he's done an amazing job. And then they've had injuries, but settling them down and finding a way to finish the season just like we have. Disappointing start, both had high expectations. But football is football.

“Football is hard and it doesn't always go your way, but most of the time it gets worse when things go bad. What you've seen at Penn State is you've seen the character of their program, the character of their players, because they've continued to battle. Honestly, there's a couple of other games they could have won. They've competed, and they battled. I think that's a great reflection of who Coach Smith is and the job that he's done.”

Penn State Nittany Lions interim head coach Terry Smith is congratulated by athletic director Pat Kraft. — Penn State Nittany Lions interim head coach Terry Smith is congratulated by athletic director Pat Kraft following the game against the Nebraska Cornhuskers at Beaver Stadium. | Matthew O'Haren-Imagn Images

Smith said that Kraft was transparent with him during the search process, which Smith respected.

“He just continued to have open communication. I wasn't aware of who the choice was going to be until it was the choice, but it was communicated that we were getting close to someone. He called me in and we had direct conversation. It was full transparency,” Smith said. “I felt really, really good with the selection, the choice [of Campbell]. I felt really, really good with how I was approached about it. It was the way I was able to move forward staying at Penn State, because of the communication, the forwardness, the direct communication, and we were all on the same page.”

Smith met with Campbell and some of his new staff members Monday to discuss the roster and entire staff. Penn State resumed practice this week and is scheduled to leave for New York on Dec. 22.

“Ultimately, he has to make decisions, but I informed him of basically the personnel in the building just to enlighten him so he knows who each person is when he sits in front of them and talks with those guys,” Smith said of Campbell. “He's in the process, starting [Tuesday], of meeting with all the staff. Then in the next few days, he's going to meet with each individual on the team. Then from there he'll start to make some decisions.”

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