Dumping Them Out: Penn State Should Hire Terry Smith

Welcome back to another episode of Dumping Them Out. Happy best weekend of college football of the year to all who celebrate. The penultimate week of the regular season where the SEC takes a welcome week off, and for one glorious weekend, we aren't force fed game from that overrated quarterbackless league of mediocre football for 12 straight hours.

I'm just kidding. As much as I'd like to, I can't make that argument with a straight face. Really wish the non-SEC teams would have put up a fight this week. 

Penn State beat the shit out of Nebraska yesterday. Since they fired James Franklin, Penn State has lost by 1 point at Iowa. They were beat pretty handily by Ohio State (but who isn't). They should have beat Indiana if it weren't for a miracle catch at the end of the game. Then they whooped both Michigan State and Nebraska. As a result, Penn State's entire football team (the player, that is) are demanding Penn State hire interim head coach Terry Smith.

Which at first, I thought seemed like a dumb idea. Is Penn State really going to fire James Franklin, then hire his assistant? That seems super ill advised. But the more I thought about it, that might be the move. For starters, the coaching carousel this off season is going to be ridiculous. Penn State is competing with LSU, Florida, and Auburn. Florida State is probably going to open up. If Lane Kiffin fills any of those jobs, Ole Miss is going to need a backfill. So Penn State could always hire a low stakes coach like Terry Smith, and if it doesn't work out, then a couple years down the line they could wind up with the premier head coaching vacancy in the country. 

Secondly, compare Terry Smith at Penn State to Ryan Day at Ohio State. Ryan Day wasn't qualified to take over for Urban Meyer. Certainly not when it comes to head coaching experience. But he'd worked under Urban Meyer for years. He saw how Urban Meyer ran that program. So he was able to take over the reigns and just kinda keep the ship steered in the right direction. For the most part, he kept everything Urban Meyer had built in tact. And last year, he won a National Championship. 

Obviously, replacing James Franklin is a little different than replacing Urban Meyer. But James Franklin had the bones the national championship caliber program at Penn State. The talent was there (or at least really close to it). So if Terry Smith can take over the reigns from James Franklin, keep everything he built in tact, but actually has the respect of his players?

 If Terry Smith is able to get more out of that roster than James Franklin, that might be all Penn State needs. It's probably a safer bet than blowing up the program by brining in a new head coach who's going to install a drastically new system, and basically start over from scratch. I mean look at Wisconsin right now. To be fair, Wisconsin has a nice little 2 game win streak going right now. But Luke Fickell got to Wisconsin and tried to change their whole identity. And look how that's been working out? 

Alternatively, Penn State can always strike gold with a Curt Cignetti type hire who's going to bring in a bunch of transfers and make the playoffs in year one. But with all the competition there is for head coaches right now… I'm starting to think Terry Smith might be their best bet. 

On a more hilarious note, did you see UCLA's fake field goal attempt last night?

All things considered, that might be the worse fake field goal attempt I've ever seen. I just feel like when you send your kicking team out, and you're planning on running a fake, if the defense comes out lined up like this…

You should probably pull the plug on it. I honestly think Washington would have been more caught off guard had UCLA actually attempted the kick. The fact that holder airmailed the pitch might have been best case scenario for UCLA. Had that pitch been on target (or flip?.. not sure what to call that), they might have been out a kicker for the rest of the game.