Interim head coach Terry Smith of the Penn State Nittany Lions is the only coach who was with James Franklin throughout his 11-year run with Penn State. 

Smith also played college football at PSU in the 1980s and 1990s, showing that he loves Penn State perhaps more than anyone on the coaching staff with Franklin.

 However, since Franklin has been fired, there are many questions about what his future at Penn State might look like. He’ll have an opportunity to earn a job as the head coach if he does what's needed for Penn State moving forward, but after a rough lost against Iowa and the two most challenging games in the country coming up against Ohio State and Indiana, it doesn't look like he has much room to really show boosters and others who will be making these decisions that he deserves to be the head man.

Despite that, it sounds like Smith would love to stay in State College if the opportunity presents itself.

“I love Penn State,” Smith said, per PennLive. “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.”

The likeliest option here is that Smith will be let go at the end of the year as the interim head coach, and he won't be retained by whoever they decide to bring in. 

Unless he goes on a ridiculous run towards the back end of the scene, perhaps beating Ohio State and Indiana, there isn't much of a reason for Penn State to even consider hiring him as its next head coach. 

Penn State has to go out and hit this hiring out of the park, and unfortunately, Smith hasn't proven enough as a head coach, due to his lack of experience, to suggest he should be the head man for the Nittany Lions.

Perhaps another coach will want to keep him on staff because of his ties to the program, but many other coaches prefer to bring in their own guys.