STATE COLLEGE – Many in the announced crowd of 105,038 Saturday night at Beaver Stadium chanted their support for interim head coach Terry Smith in the fourth quarter Saturday night.

Then, once Penn State’s 37-10 rout of Nebraska ended, players carried printed signs that read, “Hire Terry Smith.”

“I saw them in the stands and then on the field after the game,” quarterback Ethan Grunkemeyer said. “I love it. Toward the end, I did grab one, for sure.”

The chants, the signs and the endorsements were all for the sake of director of athletics Pat Kraft, who fired James Franklin as head coach in the middle of his 12th season and named Smith interim head coach on Oct. 12.

Since then, the Nittany Lions (2-6 Big Ten, 5-6) have gone 2-3, losing to Iowa, Ohio State and Indiana and beating Michiga

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