By Greg Woodman, Connect Happy Valley
When Lane Kiffin left Ole Miss for LSU in the middle of a playoff push, a lot of college football fans felt something snap. It wasn’t just frustration. It wasn’t just shock. It was clarity.
For years, the sport has tolerated the big-personality, ego-forward, mercenary coach who jumps from job to job the moment a bigger offer appears. Kiffin didn’t invent that model. But his exit, right as his players were preparing for the biggest moment of their lives, exposed exactly how outdated that leadership style has become.
College football finally saw the truth: the old model of ego over loyalty, personality over culture, and careerism over community has run its course.
And this week, here in Happy Valley, Penn State stands at its own moment of clarity.
The Game Has Changed. Leadership Has Too.
NIL and the transfer portal have completely reshaped college athletics. Players now have choice. They have leverage. They have a voice. The locker room is no longer a place where young men follow out of fear. Today’s athletes stay where they feel valued, believed in, and connected.
Culture has become the new currency of winning.
In business, companies like Costco, Southwest Airlines, and Toyota have already learned this lesson. They built their success on humility, service, and community, not ego and noise. Leadership research from Robert Greenleaf and Jim Collins shows the same truth: the most successful organizations are led by people who serve first and lead from a deep sense of responsibility.
And now college football is catching up.
You can see it in the coaches players love and trust:
- Marcus Freeman at Notre Dame
- Dan Lanning at Oregon
- Kalen DeBoer at Alabama
- Kalani Sitake at BYU
These coaches are not selling a brand. They are building a culture. They are not chasing the next opportunity. They are building homes where young men can grow.
Why Sitake Matters. Why Terry Smith Matters Even More.
Kalani Sitake is everything the new era of college football is asking for. He is relational, grounded, emotionally intelligent, and steady. He builds belonging. He builds trust. He builds a sense of home.
BYU knows exactly what he means to them. They will fight to keep him because he is more than a coach. He is their identity.
And that is the key point.
Sitake is BYU.
Which brings us back to Penn State.
Terry Smith is Penn State.
He carries our identity. He has lived it. He has earned the trust of our players, our lettermen, and our community. He is the heartbeat of what is right about Penn State football. He represents everything that this new era values:
- humility
- loyalty
- deep community roots
- service
- cultural clarity
- leadership without ego
What Sitake is to BYU, Terry is to Penn State.
This is the leadership profile that will define the next decade of coaching hires. Culture-first. Community-rooted. Servant leaders who stay.
Thankfully.
Penn State Has a Choice. And It Is Bigger Than a Coaching Hire.
This week, Penn State will choose who stands at the center of a program supported by:
- 700,000 alumni
- 50,000 students
- tens of thousands of local families
- and a valley that treats football as a civic institution
This is not a decision about playbooks or scheme. It is a decision about identity. About leadership. About who we want to be in the next era of college football.
Do we choose:
- the ego-forward, transactional, mercenary model the sport is finally waking up from?
- or the culture-first, stay-and-serve model that actually wins in this new environment?
Every signal points to a shift toward the latter. And if Penn State chooses Sitake, we will be choosing correctly. He fits the right side of the leadership equation.
But if BYU keeps him — and I hope they fight to do so — then Penn State has its own Sitake already inside the building. Terry Smith carries that same leadership DNA, rooted not in personality but in belonging and service.
That is the model the sport is moving toward. That is the model players trust. That is the model communities rally around.
The Kiffin Moment Was a Warning. This Moment Can Be a Beginning.
Lane Kiffin’s jump to LSU was not about Lane. It was about the end of an era. Ego-driven leadership finally hit its wall. The players felt it. The fans felt it. And athletic departments everywhere are starting to feel it too.
The next decade of college football will belong to coaches who lead with:
- humility
- service
- place-based loyalty
- cultural clarity
- and fierce, quiet conviction
If that sounds like Kalani Sitake, it is because it is.
If that sounds like Terry Smith, it is because it is.
Penn State now has the rare chance to choose a leader who reflects what this community values at its core.
Culture beats scheme. Service beats ego. Belonging beats branding.
And finally, the sport is catching up to what Happy Valley has known all along.
