Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/260491
NEWS & NOTES The Penn Stater Magazine Terry Smith hadn't intended to get into coaching. He had taken his shot at an NFL playing career, played a few sea- sons in the Canadian Football League and even tried arena football. By the mid-1990s, he figured he was done with the game. He was wrong. After Smith's final sea- son of pro ball – with the Albany Fire- birds of the Arena Football League – his father recommended that he try coach- ing. He got his start at Hempfield High near Lancaster, Pa., and it proved to be the start of a journey that would eventu- ally circle back to the place where his football career really took off. In January, James Franklin approached Smith about joining the coaching staff he was assembling at Penn State. Smith, who ranks 11th in Nittany Lion history with 1,825 receiving yards on 108 catch- es from 1988-91, was thrilled to come back to his alma mater, calling the op- portunity "surreal." "I almost had forgotten how nice it is here," he said. "It's just a great place. I have a lot of fond memories here. Hope- fully we can create a lot of good memo- ries in the future." The Nittany Lions are banking on that, and the coaches are confident that Smith can help them build a champi- onship-caliber program as the assistant in charge of cornerbacks. His return to Penn State after a stellar playing career has been one of the big storylines of Franklin's brief tenure. When rumors began circulating in mid-January that Smith was set to join Franklin's staff, the former star wideout picked up more than 1,000 Twitter followers in two days. "Most of them were alumni," he said. "They were all just happy and excited that there was a guy from the past who had success here [coming back]. They're hoping that we can do really good things. I'm going to contribute in every ALL SMILES After spending last season at Temple, where he served as receivers coach, Smith is returning to his alma mater. He will coach the Nit- tany Lions' corner- backs and double as defensive recruiting coordinator. Smith happy to be back at Penn State F O O T B A L L