Penn State’s coaching search continues to drag on, and even the team’s players are fed up with the process.
This week, two players took to social media to blast the school’s process and push the school to hire interim head coach Terry Smith to the position permanently.
After news broke that Kalani Sitake had turned down Penn State’s offer and opted to stay at BYU, safety King Mack said, “Making this harder than it gotta be.”
Linebacker Tony Rojas agreed.
Rojas followed that up by tweeting, “Coach T is right upstairs man all these interviews and ‘Global search’ when the man is upstairs above us.”
On Thursday, Rojas continued his campaign. When a user claimed that Smith was “holding Penn State’s football program hostage,” Rojas said:
The players held up “Hire Terry Smith” signs after the team’s final home game on November 22.
Thus far, athletic director Pat Kraft has not listened to them.
As a consequence of going nearly two months without a head coach, Penn State had the saddest signing day in recent memory on Wednesday. The program only brought in two commitments, and its class ranked 134th out of 136 FBS programs.
Terry Smith’s coaching record
Smith took over on an interim basis when Penn State fired James Franklin on October 12. The school was the first top-tier program to fire its head coach this season and has watched as all the others have found their new hires.
The 56-year-old coach is a Penn State alum who has been an assistant with the Nittany Lions since 2014. After a brief professional career, the former wide receiver coached high school teams from 1996 until 2012. Temple hired him as its wide receivers coach in 2013. A year later, his alma mater came calling.
Franklin hired Smith as the cornerbacks coach in 2014, and he added the title of assistant head coach in 2016, then associate head coach in 2021.
Smith posted a 3-3 record as the interim head coach, but the Nittany Lions finished the season on a three-game win streak.
