The 2025 Penn State football season has been one giant roller coaster. The preseason hype surrounding the team was immense, and it was one of the most hyped up teams in the history of Penn State college football. Then, the wheels fell off, and a season full of promise turned into disaster, with the Nittany Lions struggling to get to a 6-6 record under interim head coach Terry Smith after James Franklin was fired.
The Penn State coaching search has been nothing short of a disaster, with the Nittany Lions taking big swings and nothing coming from that yet. It has resulted in many coaches receiving extensions and raises. On3's college football reporter and insider, Pete Nakos, recently reported that some of Penn State's most prominent donors have started to lobby athletic director Pat Kraft to hire interim head coach Terry Smith as the full-time head coach.
Nakos said, “Top-level Penn State donors are pushing for athletic director Pat Kraft to promote interim head coach Terry Smith.”
After the win against Nebraska, Penn State players held up signs expressing support and urging the university to keep Smith as head coach.
Smith played at Penn State from 1987 to 1991 and has been an assistant with the program since 2014.
The Nittany Lions were the first of the big coaching jobs to enter the coaching carousel, with Franklin getting fired after the Nittany Lions fell to 3-3 following a home loss to Northwestern. It represented a massive fall for the Nittany Lions, after they went to the College Football Playoff semifinals and were an interception away from the national title game.
The dominoes started to fall after Virginia Tech hired James Franklin in November. Then, LSU hired Lane Kiffin, and everything seemed to fall into place from there. However, Penn State still has no coach despite being the first big-time program to make a coaching decision.
The coaching search has turned chaotic. The Nittany Lions thought they were going to bring in Kalani Sitake, but BYU swooped in and gave him a massive offer for him to stay home. The fact that the Nittany Lions have struck out on everyone makes hiring Terry Smith all the more likely, especially if the donors are pushing for it.
