When Things Went South as Northwestern Beat Penn State, New PSU Coach Christian Smith Was on the Opposite Sideline

As Christian Smith sat in the Penn State football team meeting room in the Lasch Building, surrounded by a small handful of local media types on Tuesday — just 11 days before the Nittany Lions’ season-opener against Marshall — the irony was not lost on Penn State’s new edge rusher coach. 

Ultimately, James Franklin’s loss was Smith’s gain. My words, not his.

Less than a year ago, back on Oct. 11, 2025, when the Nittany Lions lost 22-21 to Northwestern on the gloomiest of late Saturday afternoons in Beaver Stadium history, Smith was coaching the Wildcats’ defensive line.

Thanks in large part to Northwestern’s deep, talented and disciplined defensive line — tutored by Smith — the Wildcats held Penn State’s offense in check and even sent PSU QB Drew Allar to the sidelines with a season-ending injury. The Nittany Lions passed for just 137 yards, with one interception, and they also ran for 137 yards. Penn State scored just seven points in the second half, while Northwestern — which led in time of possession, 35 to 25 minutes — had nine in the final quarter.

The defeat was preseason second-ranked Penn State’s third in 15 days, and the second consecutive loss to an unranked Big Ten foe — having been stunned 42-37 the week before by cellar-dweller UCLA and the five-TD performance of Bruins quarterback of Nico Iamaleava in the Rose Bowl.

The defeat in California to UCLA was stunning. But the subsequent loss at home in Beaver Stadium to Northwestern, Smith & Co. was utterly devastating to Penn State’s fans, players, coaches and athletic director Pat Kraft.

Franklin, too. The very next day, Kraft climbed the steps of the Lasch Building to Franklin’s second-floor office, and subsequently and swiftly fired the longtime Penn State head coach. Wasn’t Smith’s fault, of course, but he could be charged as an accessory.

Just 90 days later, on Jan. 9, Penn State’s newly-minted head coach, Matt Campbell, hired Smith away from Northwestern to coach his edge rushers. It was a quadruple-layered reunion for Smith and Campbell:

• Smith played D-end at Toledo in 2010-13. Campbell was the O-line coach there from 2009-11, and the head coach from 2012-15.

• After one year as an intern with Ohio State, Smith returned to Toledo football and was a G.A. under Campbell for two seasons (2014-15).

• In 2016, Campbell went to Iowa State as head coach, and Smith followed as a G.A. with the Cyclones for one season before moving on to South Dakota State and Northwestern.

The 2026 season at Penn State makes eight seasons together for Smith and Campbell. For Smith, a very circuitous route to Happy Valley. And unexpected, to say the very least.

In that vein, Smith was legit surprised the day after his Wildcats beat Penn State last fall, as he and the team were back home in Evanston, when news broke that Franklin had gotten the ax.

“You never want to see a coach get fired, though it happens all the time,” Smith said on Tuesday, sitting in the same auditorium where Franklin reigned supreme for a decade-plus. “Some people say there are two types of coaches: The ones who have been fired and the ones who haven’t been fired yet. 

“Obviously, I wasn’t a part of anything, not knowing anything about James Franklin at all. You just hurt for his family and the support staff — the people that don’t get to stay here.

“Nothing against Coach Franklin. What he did — he took Penn State to the playoffs in the year prior. Crazy. But I’m sure there were other things outside of my control and knowledge. It just hurts to see coaches get fired, for not winning games with 18-year-old guys. There are people who have different jobs, do worse at their job and don’t get fired. I always have sympathy for coaches.”

FROM NW TO PSU: WHAT SMITH LEARNED

Here are six Tuesday takeaways from Smith on Penn State, Beaver Stadium and his experience being on the opposing — and winning sideline — just a season ago. 

1. MORE THAN TALENT. “It’s an unbelievable atmosphere here. Our players at the last spot were extremely excited to circle Penn State on the calendar and come here and play here, just because of the tradition. When the team got here, it was like, ‘Don’t be bigger than the moment.’ Penn State had more talent than we did at the time at Northwestern. But we played hard for four quarters and played as a team. That’s what gave us the opportunity to win that game.”

2. CIRCLE THE DATE. “The difference was, we at Northwestern understood that urgency against Penn State. At Northwestern, we circled that date. The last time we played Penn State [a 41-13 loss in Evanston in 2023], they blew us out. You have that constant reminder.”

3. SMITH’S D-LINE VS. THE PSU O-LINE. “We were pretty talented on the D-line at Northwestern. There are three guys in the NFL who played defensive end at Northwestern. Those guys obviously held their own. And knowing that [Anthony] Donkoh and Coop[er Cousins] and those guys are all good players, we knew last year was going to be a battle. We may have won some battles, Donk may have won some, Coop may have won some. But at the end of the day, up-front we won the war — the game. We had to be ready to play. We couldn’t come in here sleeping, because of who we were playing. Credit it to the guys at Northwestern. They did a good job.”

(BTW: Penn State plays at Northwestern on Friday night, Oct. 2, in the opening game of Northwestern’s new $870 million Ryan Field.)

4. 1-0, FOURTH-AND-1. “A blue-blood program that you look at like Penn State, everybody like Marshall or Temple, they’re going to have that game circled. So we have to be at our best, no matter who we’re playing — not just get excited for USC and the White Out game. We have to take everybody seriously. That’s the biggest takeaway I have: We have a target on our backs and we need to attack every single day like it’s fourth-and-1.”

5. FAN OF THE FANS. “This is an unbelievable fan base, which is what I learned since I’ve been here, with the passion behind this place. As a coach, as a program, we owe it to them to give back and to put our best product on the field and do it the right way. It’s one of the best atmospheres, if not the best, I’ve played in as a visiting team. I’m definitely excited to have the home crowd cheering for us, for me now, and our team.”

6. CAMPBELL’S SOUP. “A lot of the same things we instilled into Northwestern are the same things that Coach Campbell is instilling in the program here. We’re a family, the accountability, celebrate with your teammates — not by yourself, because you don’t do anything by yourself.”