This starkly illustrates the problems with Franklin early in the year. I don’t know what was going on with him, but something was up? Smith came in tweaked, simplified and cleaned up some things and played to the team’s strengths. Common sense coaching and leadership.
Official PSU - Nebraska '25 game thread
- Thread starter Tom McAndrew
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I didn’t say it was a reflection on Terry.
Whether it’s a reflection on Terry, the water, Greek mythology, it’s still 19 guys that left. Keeping Terry means a punt year on talent procurement unless we assume Terry will be a prolific portal recruiter, the likes of which we’ve never seen.
The way you don’t have 26 be a punt year is bring in a HC who will bring portal guys plus his own commits.
Would keeping Terry keep guys in the roster from portal? Who knows. Enormous gamble.
I don’t put the kids leaving on Kraft. Or anyone. Doing so assumes there’s something he could have done differently, and I’m not sure who was available to hire in early October that anyone would want.
That sounds exactly like Franklin's resume
If you believe MRob, many of the players in the locker room said they will stay if Smith is hired. There’s still a lot of young talent on the roster. The DEs, the RBs, the TEs, the WRs (?), the secondary. I’m sure Smith helped recruit many of the players that have decommitted. Maybe he can convince some to stay? Then get a few guys in the portal. The portal isn’t a magic bullet. You can’t live in the portal and have success. Saban just said it the other day. For every Indiana portal stories, there’s two Colorados. Plus, and this sort of bothers me to say this, but it is true. The big donors that supposedly were going to withhold donations unless it was a “PSU guy”, this would satisfy them. I wasn’t on board with simply hiring Smith, but I don’t think a home run hire is much of a possibility now and Smith may provide the most stability and unity for the program. He’s also a stand up guy with principles.
I don’t believe MRob. He’s good at his job, providing content for NBC Sports.
The portal, absolutely not a magic bullet, another issue with having no recruiting class.
I just don’t know why 2/3 of a recruiting class leaves if they otherwise would stay if the interim coach were to be kept. They didn’t “wait and see”. Why am I to believe he brings any of them back in when he never left? They left the program.
It’s not a crime to accept Terry Smith as a viable option but also be realistic: It’s a punt year on roster addition doing so.
But I do think there are better coaches out there available that provide stability just the same. We’re all basking in the afterglow of a blowout.
MRob is part of the letterman’s club. They are pretty influential and in tune with the current situation. It is a recruiting punt year with a new guy also plus the possible mass exodus from the current roster. The portal is not the answer.
There's absolutely zero downside with Terry. You could give him a 3 year contract at a third of the going rate top contracts with an even more diminimus buyout. This would allow him to nail-down the basis of the 2026 roster and allow him to start trying to salvage what he can of the 2026 recruiting class. If they don't like the direction of the program midway through the contract, they can do their due diligence as to what top names or up-&-comers they want to pursue after the 2nd season so they can move quickly after they make the announcement that their hiring a new coach. Again, zero downside relative to bringing on a $10 - $12 million coach with a massive multi-year guarantee and literally no playing roster for 2026 - this type of hire has very little chance of succeeding in the current "win now" environment because of how long, if ever, it will take them to gain traction. They will have no hope in 2026 and this will make it very difficult for them to recruit or bring in elite NIL players (who are looking to succeed immediately so they will attract attention for the NFL) in 2027.... rinse-&-repeat 2028.... etc...
In essence, you'd pay someone else 3x more with a massive long-term guarantee, who has a no chance in 2026 (Smith has a way, way, way better chance of salvaging 2026 if you put him in a position to go to work to stabilize and rebuild the roster - at a third the salary and no huge overhanging long-term guarantee if it's determined another switch needs to be made. People ignore that Smith has this team playing better-&-better week over week. There's no saying that Smith doesn't make it to a bowl, win there.... solidify the 2026 roster and carry some momentum into 2026.).
Given the amount of $$$ and long-term guarantee you're going to have to pay a new "name" coach to bring them over and they are going have zero shot in 2026 and a bigger risk to do worse than Terry Smith over next couple years at 3x the cost WITH a massive long-term guarantee that may not be mitigated once they fail at PSU, Smith is a much lower risk option (especially financially) with the same upside and a much better shot of getting there (and his tie to PSU's "Tradition" and Pennsy is a huge +++).
People have harped and harped that Smith has no NCAA head coaching experience - guess what, Ryan Day, Sherrone Moore, Brent Key and many other now successful P4 coaches had ZERO Collegiate head coaching experience at any level before being promoted to HC from a top assistant coach position.
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I said it earlier referring to the players, and MRob’s perspective is probably similar with regard to supporting TS and admiring him through all of this, BUT, I think there is a ton of responsibility for the position beside having the players respect. Sure, the kids love him, but that doesn’t mean he has what it takes run an elite championship level program.
Not at all. Portal can’t be the answer.
I don’t believe new guy is a punt year because he’ll bring the guys he wants to bring and you get the bump of the newness of a hire.
You're wrong, they haven't committed anywhere else yet - signing period is still a ways off. Just like PSU's playing roster with remaining eligibility haven't Portal'ed yet.... and many of them were holding signs that effectively said, "We're staying at PSU if you make Smith the HC.... otherwise, we're out of here.". So you have no clue if Smith can salvage some of the 2026 Class if made HC prior to the signing period. We know for sure that the roster and recruits are evaporated if they do nothing for weeks and then hire a new 10 - 12 million dollar man with a massive over-hanging long-term guarantee (and I wouldn't be surprised at all if the vast majority of the players and recruits headed to VaTech along with Terry Smith who Franklin could name as his new DC).
He’s been the associate head coach, DBs coach, and lead defensive recruiting coordinator at a top 10-15 program for the last 12 years. That’s a better resume than some of the other names being thrown around. They could do a lot worse
Todd Blackledge also said that he thought PSU should hire Terry Smith based on his performance since taking over (especially the way the team has responded and gotten better week-over-week) and he's in a position to solidify the roster.
There’s no guarantee a new guy brings a lot of new guys with him
A few have committed elsewhere already, but the fat lady hasn’t sung yet. She’s warming up though.
I want Chesney but I would not complain if Smith was hired. Give him a 3 yr deal and see if he can truly right the ship. He would have to work incredibly hard to get the key decommits back and also bring in some exceptional portal talent.
I do not recall Todd saying they should hire him rather he has earned a serious interview and consideration.
It may have started with love and ended with love with Franklin, but it clearly starts and ends with effort and honesty with Smith.
It seems he's axed a lot of the gimmicky stuff on offense, opting to play to their strengths instead of repetitively forcing things that don't work. He's honest and straightforward in interviews. The things he says the team needs to do (like throwing downfield), he gets done. There is no more coach speak or hollow words. The better players are seeing the ball and guys are put in better positions to succeed. These are things the prior head coach couldn't figure out or wouldn't do for some reason.
If Smith can dominate Rutgers, get buy in for the bowl game and win convincingly, I think you give him a shot. He may not immediately recruit to Franklin's level, but he's already proven to be a better gameday coach, more willing to adapt, and he clearly will sell the school to recruits first, not himself.
It seems he's axed a lot of the gimmicky stuff on offense, opting to play to their strengths instead of repetitively forcing things that don't work. He's honest and straightforward in interviews. The things he says the team needs to do (like throwing downfield), he gets done. There is no more coach speak or hollow words. The better players are seeing the ball and guys are put in better positions to succeed. These are things the prior head coach couldn't figure out or wouldn't do for some reason.
If Smith can dominate Rutgers, get buy in for the bowl game and win convincingly, I think you give him a shot. He may not immediately recruit to Franklin's level, but he's already proven to be a better gameday coach, more willing to adapt, and he clearly will sell the school to recruits first, not himself.
Terry was director of recruiting so I doubt he can’t get recruits. Might take him a year. I’d get him a GM to manage NIL and portal players and add a known National recruiter. Looks like Terry got AK to drop the fluff and run the ball and Knowles to simplify and constantly use pressure. Team has responded. Since there are no huge targets out there, give Terry a chance.
To be fair, don’t forget he royally butchered the clock management at the end of the Indiana game.
Yes.
I swear, had Franklin pounded these weaker teams the past two weeks, it would be ignored since we did what we were expected to do. But now, it’s a monumental feat.
No, Franklin would have been criticized to high heaven even with the wins because that’s what a certain group in here did since day 1. It’s the same individuals on the Franklin/VT thread still logging on daily like catty middle school girls to make themselves feel better by piling on Franklin. Grown adults my a**.
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Dude, we looked like **** against our first 3 "buy" opponents this year. This is as good as we have looked all year....qb clearly isnt playing scared, the Oline is straining longer, the defense is actually getting to the QBs. Everything looks better against Michigan state, Nebraska, even Indiana than it did against FIU and Villinova.
We beat our 3 “buy” opponents by an average of 40 points…I swear, people somehow remember those games as us squeaking by.
Correct. He did not say they should hire him. Just that he’s earned an interview
There is a rumor on X from a previous commits parent(probably not to be trusted), that the second Franklin got fired the guys running the NIL department reached out to the commits and said whatever the school offered in NIL was now null in void and wouldn't be revisted until a new coach was found. Just this week, a few key members of the NIL group signed on with Franklin. Im not saying this is true, I mean Andy Frank, did leave for Franklin's staff, but it would explain the mass exodus of commits. And if this is true, than there was no plan by Kraft for these recruits or this department at all.
We looked terrible in doing so, regardless of the score. And it did portend systemic problems offensively and defensively against Northwestern and UCLA. 2 teams im near certain we beat with this version of the team.
He sure did, and at the same time, for the first time in 12 years I feel like we won't see that same mistake again.
I don’t think there was a plan. But I also don’t think a plan exists in the situation. I would ask these folks what plan would keep these commits.
There’s equally no guarantee keeping Terry keeps the roster and gets recruits back on board.
Nope, try again. The university pays those teams to come here and get whooped, its a "buy" game.
You keep saying this as though it's true- but it isn't.
The downside risk is that he fails, and the program gets worse instead of better. That could lead to decades of futility.
There is no way to know what the result would be, but there certainly IS a downside risk.
Well the early signing period starts in 10 days but I get your point.
I don’t mind keeping Terry and trying it, but I don’t understand people who want to not give him the contract length and value competitive with peers.
It’s sabotaging the relationship from the start.