Penn State’s Terry Smith draws strength from his daughter [opinion]

Terry Smith has been reliable, direct and effective since he joined the Penn State football staff as James Franklin’s first assistant coach in 2014.

That hasn’t changed since he became the interim head coach last month when director of athletics Pat Kraft fired Franklin.

“He’s a straight-up guy,” linebacker Amare Campbell said. “He calls everybody out. It doesn’t matter who you are, what your role is or whatever. If you’re putting bad stuff on film, if you’re not doing what you’re supposed to be doing, he calls it out.

“And that’s the way I like it to be. Don’t sugarcoat anything.”

Smith’s first three games as the interim coach were a gauntlet – a night game at Iowa, followed by back-to-back games against No. 1 Ohio State and No. 2 Indiana.

Despite facing high-caliber opponents and li