With all the questions about what Penn State is going to do with its head coaching search, there's certainly a side of the story that suggests that Terry Smith should be the man for the job.
Smith has proven during his short time as the interim head coach that he can lead men, and he obviously has a lot of passion for what Penn State is, not just a football program, but a school. A former Letterman himself, and on James Franklin’s staff for 11.5 years, he has been around this program for a very long time.
But the question is whether he deserves the job, and despite his comments about deserving it, it's still fair to question if Penn State needs to hit this hire out of the park and try to bring in a massive name.
"No one knows Penn State better than me," he said, per the Centre Daily Times. "Of all the candidates out there, I know the history of Penn State, I know the culture, the DNA. I know the locker room, I know administration.
"I think I'm a good leader, I think I’m a leader of men."
It'll likely come down to what Pat Kraft wants to do in the immediate future. If his plan is to keep a lot of this team together, hiring Smith might not be the worst idea.
However, if the Nittany Lions also want to hire Smith for just a few million dollars and allocate the rest of the money to the NIL fund and more, there's reason to believe the roster can be very good moving forward."If I don’t speak for myself, who will?"
"Right now, my focus is trying to beat Rutgers and become bowl eligible," Smith said. "I think there will be an opportunity to sit with Pat, and we'll just go from there."
We’ll obviously see what Penn State wants to do moving forward, but for Smith, he believes he's the man for the job, and in some sense, he might not be wrong.
"I’ve always been a head coach," Smith said late Saturday night. "I’m very confident in what I do. God has blessed me. My mom has anointed me. My wife keeps a covering over me. I have gifts that I don’t even realize I have."