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Penn State coach Terry Smith sports '409' button in honor of Joe Paterno in final home game as interim head coach

Greg Pickelby: Greg Pickel4 hours agoGregPickel
NCAA Football: Nebraska at Penn State
Penn State State Nittany Lions interim head coach Terry Smith walks on the field during a warm up prior to the game against the Nebraska Cornhuskers at Beaver Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Matthew O'Haren-Imagn Images

STATE COLLEGE — Terry Smith is honoring his former head coach with a button in his final game at Beaver Stadium as the Penn State interim head coach. He’s leading the Lions against fellow letterman Matt Rhule and Nebraska while wearing a circular button reading ‘409’ horizontally, a reference to Joe Paterno’s career wins, which are the most in NCAA history. The 0 is used to spell out ‘Joe’ vertically. You can see it in the photo above.

It’s the first time anyone associated with Penn State football has worn something to honor the late Paterno, who was fired at the end of the 2011 season at the start of the Jerry Sandusky scandal, in years. Smith, though, has made no secret about what Paterno has meant to him.

“I’m fortunate that I played for Coach Paterno and now I worked for another very successful coach here at Penn State in Coach Franklin,” Smith said at his first news conference since taking over for the fired James Franklin in mid-October.

Asked what he learned from Paterno this week, Smith said: “You’re never as good as you think. And, you’re never as bad as you think.”

Penn State leads Nebraska 23-3 at halftime. The Lions get the ball to start the second half. Nick Singleton has two rushing touchdowns and is now one away from breaking Saquon Barkley’s career rushing and total touchdowns mark. Kaytron Allen, meanwhile, is 49 yards away from breaking Evan Royster’s all-time career rushing yards mark.

“We go as they go, and they’re going so far,” Smith told NBC at halftime. “We’ve just gotta finish this game. They’ve had a great first half, but that doesn’t mean anything now. We’ve got to come out in the second half, make some adjustments and keep running the football.”

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