Terry Smith knows he did not have to stay. He also knows exactly why he did.
“Yeah, my love for the university,” Smith said at the Bad Boy Mowers Gasparilla Bowl press conference. “I have expressed that time after time. I love the university.”
For seven chaotic weeks, the former Penn State receiver stepped into the big chair and tried to rescue a season that was slipping out of control. He did not sugarcoat any of it.
“For me personally this has been the greatest seven weeks of my coaching career,” Smith said. “The opportunity to represent my alma mater and sit at the very top of it to try to salvage a season that did not start off the way we wanted. It was a tremendous opportunity for me.”
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When the coaching search tightened, players publicly backed him. The locker room wanted him. Smith heard it. But he also knew what aligned with who he is and who Penn State is supposed to be.
“I have known Matt Campbell probably 15 plus years when I was a high school head coach at Gateway High School,” Smith said. “At this point in my career I truly can only work for certain types of individuals, and we are aligned at the point of he is blue collar, he creates toughness, discipline, and just the core values of what Penn State represents.
“I felt like he was the right leadership at the time and I wanted to stay a part of it.”
He did not pretend the decision was simple. He did not pretend it was effortless. What mattered was the honesty.
“I was not aware of who the choice was going to be until it was the choice,” Smith said. “But it was full transparency. I felt really, really good with the selection, the choice. 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.”
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With the future beginning to take shape, Smith still has one more game to coach and one more locker room to steady.
“The message that I just gave our guys was we want to keep the main thing the main thing, and that is play ball.”
He returned to the analogy that carried this team through the chaos.
“You get a pencil. It is dull. You go into the sharpener. You have to give some of yourself to be able to produce a result. Every day of practice, every day of sacrifice, every day of giving of ourselves to come together as a team.”
Now he will stay to see what that sharpened version becomes once the Gasparilla Bowl is finished.