Penn State’s coaching decision is already drawing heat, and the sharpest argument is pretty simple: the Nittany Lions may have missed on both Bob Chesney and Terry Smith before landing on Matt Campbell.
Campbell isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. The school still owes him $61 million, so the idea of moving on is off the table. That means Penn State is stuck with a coach who, at least for now, points toward a rebuild that could be uncomfortable.
That’s why the alternate paths matter. Chesney was there for the taking at any point in the process, but AD Pat Kraft spent too much time chasing a long-shot run at Kalani Sitake from BYU.
Chesney, a Kulpmont native from eastern Pennsylvania, would have jumped at the Penn State job after taking James Madison to the College Football Playoff last season. Instead, he’s now at UCLA, where there’s no rebuilding happening at all and where the Bruins are 5-0 with a win at Oregon.
Still, the stronger case is for Smith. He handled himself well as the interim coach last year after James Franklin was fired, and he came close to pulling off an upset against Indiana.
Yes, hiring him would have been a gamble because he had never been a full-time college head coach. It also would have brought plenty of outside criticism, though Penn State fans likely would have welcomed it.
What may have hurt Smith was not just the uncertainty around his résumé, but his connection to the program’s history. Last year, I was told by a few people I trust that Penn State was hesitant to hire him partly because of his ties to the past. Like it or not, there are people in charge who would rather focus on the present than keep dealing with the Joe Paterno era.
And yet the university has still moved in that direction in other ways. Not long ago, Penn State announced it was opening a Paterno exhibit in the All-Sports Museum, and Campbell has gone all in on embracing lettermen and other pieces of Penn State tradition. If honoring the past was part of the plan, Smith could have fit that better than anyone.
He might have fit the present and future better, too. There’s a real belief here that Smith may have kept a lot of the Penn State players who transferred after the season.
He was Ethan Grunkemeyer’s head coach late last year, so maybe the quarterback would have stayed instead of following Franklin to Virginia Tech. Perhaps tight end Luke Reynolds would have stayed, too.
With Grunkemeyer and Reynolds still around, this year’s team almost certainly wouldn’t be 0-3 in the Big Ten.
Smith also brings the kind of recruiting ability that matters in a job like this. He probably could have held onto at least some of the recruiting class that disappeared after Franklin left.
Maybe Smith wouldn’t have been the answer for the next decade. But he could have been a strong unifying fit for about five years.
I can’t say for certain that Smith would have been the best hire. But I do believe he would not have been worse than Campbell has been so far.
In Other News...
Penn State Heads Into Michigan With One Big Concern
Penn State heads to Michigan with the kind of early-season test that can tell you a lot about where a team really stands. Both programs are still chasing their first Big Ten win of the year, and this will be the 28th time they have met in a rivalry that has taken on plenty of weight over the years. With first-year head coaches on both sidelines, the matchup also brings the usual October concerns into sharper focus, from injuries to questions about how steady each defense can be.
PennLives experts see plenty to monitor beyond the final score, from key players who could swing the game to the units that have to hold up under pressure. For Penn State, the bigger issue is not just whether it can compete in Ann Arbor, but whether the team can clean up the defensive problems that have surfaced and survive another week of attrition. The answers may not come easily, which is why this trip feels less like a midseason checkpoint and more like a revealing measuring stick. [Read more 🡒]
Michigan Brings A New Concern Into Penn State Week
Michigan is walking into Week 7 with a battered offensive line, and that is the kind of development Penn State will notice immediately. Six linemen are listed as out, questionable or probable, including four starters, which adds a layer of uncertainty to a matchup that already figures to hinge on how well the line can hold up against pressure.
The Wolverines do have real strength on the edge, where Tariq Boney and Nate Marshall have been performing well, but even there the picture is not fully settled with John Henry Daley and Dom Nichols still uncertain. For Penn State, the bigger takeaway is simple: the front-line health of Michigan's offense now looks like one of the week's most important storylines. [Read more 🡒]
Pat Kraft Still Faces Pressure As Penn State Seeks Answers Under Campbell
Matt Campbell is only six games into his Penn State tenure, but the questions around the program have hardly eased. The Nittany Lions sit at 3-3, and the reset that came after Pat Kraft fired James Franklin following three straight losses has already given way to a different kind of scrutiny as Campbell tries to steady things in his first year on the job.
Kraft was the one who made the bold move to start over, then completed the coaching search that brought Campbell to Happy Valley. Campbell has already acknowledged Krafts willingness to support him, and with Michigan next on the schedule, the urgency around the pairing feels obvious. The athletic directors decision is still being judged, and the early returns under Campbell have only sharpened the focus on what comes next. [Read more 🡒]