Terry Smith signed a four-year extension last week to become the highest-paid non-coordinator assistant coach in college football. The decision came the same day Matt Campbell was reported to have joined the Nittany Lions as their 17th head coach.

Campbell said on Monday that one of the first questions he asked Pat Kraft was if he could keep Smith on staff. The former Iowa State head coach said he got a resounding yes from everyone in the room.

“I know he’s the cornerstone of this program as a player, as a student athlete, and now as an incredible football coach, and it is my honor to work hand in hand with Terry [Smith] to build on this great foundation moving forward,” Campbell said.

The 46-year-old also talked about how impressive Smith has been when thrown into the interim head coaching role. Campbell knows the difficulties of getting through the tough times as of a coaching change, and praised the former Penn State receiver for having the chance to end the season on a four-game win streak.

The two have known each other for over 15 years, originally meeting when Smith was the head coach of Gateway High School. Campbell was the Toledo head coach at the time and was recruiting players from Smith’s team.

“Terry was always such an inspiring human to be around. I loved going to watch him interact with his players,” Campbell said. “We loved to go recruit his players because you knew if you got a great player from Terry, you know what they stood for, and it was bigger than just football.”

Smith said in the Bad Boy Mowers Pinstripe Bowl’s press conference on Tuesday that a large part of the reason he stayed was that it was Campbell who was hired. He also said the communication from Pat Kraft was clear throughout the entire hiring process, something he really appreciated.

“I’ve known him. I know what he’s about,” Smith said on Tuesday. “At this point in my career, I truly can only work for certain types of individuals, and we’re aligned at the point of he’s blue-collar, he creates toughness, discipline, and just the core values of what Penn State represents.”

After the Nebraska game, players and fans began pushing for Kraft to hire Smith as Penn State’s next head coach. Some believed this went far enough that Smith would be sure to leave if he did not get the job.

The 56-year-old also received interest from Memphis and UConn to be their next head coach, per Jordan Schultz. Players and lettermen reacted to this by furthering the push for the former Penn State receiver.

“If we have any common sense, if they ever want me to come back, they’d better put Terry there. I’mma be honest with you,” Micah Parsons told reporters on December 4.

Kraft was able to find a compromise, though, keeping Smith and bringing in a big-name head coach to get recruits and donors excited about the future of the Nittany Lions. While the initial player reaction is not known, the lack of players opting out of the bowl game and the lack of transfer portal entries could be a positive sign.

“The Terry [Smith] decision was an absolute no-brainer, easy. That’s a testament to Terry,” Kraft said on Monday. “I think I’ve got the best football coach in the country, and I’ve got a partner for him who is Penn State, who will fight for Penn State, lead his kids. I don’t know about you, but I feel really good about our chances moving forward.”

Smith and Campbell will have to work hard to build relationships quickly to retain as much of the 2025 roster as possible. Campbell admits it can be awkward to join a team while they are still preparing for a game, but he still has to meet with everyone in the building.

“To watch these guys climb back, it’s been super impressive. My respect for Terry [Smith] and the seniors on this football team, going to win four in a row, that’s huge,” Campbell said. “I think we’ll figure out, Terry and I, where is the best place that I cannot be a hindrance to this team.”

Smith said Tuesday that he has already met with Campbell and gone through the entire auxiliary staff. The former interim head coach said Campbell will have some decisions to make in the coming days about who to bring back.

Campbell said he will also meet with the entire roster to get to know the young men in the building and what they are about. If you want to win in modern college football, there has to be a lot of trust in the player-coach relationship, he said.

“I want to meet individually with every player on our team,” Campbell said. “Why did you come to Penn State? What’s going on here? Who are you, and where are you going, and what’s your thought process, and how do we move ourselves forward? When you do those things, you start to understand how we move ourselves forward.”