NEW ORLEANS | Alabama defensive coordinator Kirby Smart spoke with the media Sunday, his first public comments since his preseason press conference. He talked about this year's defense, his coaching future, offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin and more.
Q: What do you think of Ohio State's offense?
A: Explosive. We haven't had to play anybody who has had as many explosive plays as they have. They're averaging, what, 45 points a game and almost 500 yards. It's a daunting task and not always fun to watch because they do a really good job offensively.
(Ohio State OC) Tom Herman is as good as I've ever faced as mixing things up and doing a great job. He's going to make a great head coach and he's one of the best (offensive coordinators) in college football."
Q: How have you seen your defense develop through the year?
A: We've improved. We've obviously had a mixed bag of tricks in the secondary giving up more big plays than we're used to giving up, but we've grown. We've gotten more depth in the D-line, we've gotten some young players better, we've been able to play well in some big games and we're hoping to continue that development. But all in all, I think those guys have improved and they've got to continue to. That's what these last 20-30 days have gone towards, getting better at each position. We've challenged every guy - just get better at you, and we'll worry about Ohio State when we get closer to the game.
Q: You said there's a mixed bag in the secondary. What do you mean by that?
A: "We haven't played well, we haven't had a consistent starting lineup, we've mixed at corner there - Tony (Brown) playing some, Eddie (Jackson) playing some, Cyrus has been the one mainstay. Nick (Perry) missed a little time with the suspension in the Florida game and then we had Geno (Smith) in, Geno out, Jarrick (Williams) got injured and we had 3-4 games when he was out with a foot. I think the continuity there has affected us and we've got to play better. I haven't always put those guys in great situations, we put them in tough situations. There's a reason why we stop the run really well, we put a lot of pressure on the secondary and expect them to make plays and we haven't always made plays. So a lot of that is as much on me as it is on them."
Q: With more players going pro early, how does that affect you as a recruiter and in player development?
A: "It's hard to replace those holes. We went through a year when Kareem (Jackson) went out early, Dre (Kirkpatrick) went out early and it drains you at a position where you can't recover fast enough. It's a blessing for them, but it's just harder to recover. So when you recruit, you've got to recruit more guys ready to play because those guys are going to walk in and be ready to play, they've got to play, they're going to have to play. We've had a lot of guys come out early, so have a lot of other big programs. We don't need to make excuses, you've just got to continue to improve and get good players and develop them faster than you've had to do.
Q: Do you see any Percy Harvin plays on Ohio State's film?
A: "Sure. There's a little bit there from the Florida days, but everybody runs Percy Harvin plays (laughs). Ole Miss runs them, Tennessee runs them, everybody is running that kind of offense in college football now. A lot of them don't have Percy Harvin thank goodness, but everybody runs those type plays and they do it with different people. They do it with non-quarterbacks at quarterback, they do with quarterbacks at quarterback, they do it with running backs at quarterback, so we've got to be ready for that. But being ready and stopping them are two different things.
Q: What has Jarran Reed meant to the defense this year?
A: "He's got a really good attitude, he's got a nasty attitude, a fun attitude, he brings a little bit of calmness in guys getting anxiety, he's very confident in his abilities, he's very physical, he's very aggressive, and I think that group takes on his persona. We didn't have a bellcow in that group, but with him, we do. A lot of the guys were young, even A'Shawn (Robinson) and Jonathan Allen coming into this season. Well, Jarran gives them a little bit of an edge and I think Coach (Bo) Davis has done a good job of giving them an edge which has helped us up front.
Q: How important has Landon Collins been for the defense this year?
A: "He's been a great leader. Landon is kind of the bellcow of the secondary, he's got the most physical toughness, he makes a lot of plays down in the box, he made some really big plays in the Florida game that kind of set the tone for him to have a good year whether it's blitzing off the edge, playing the deep part of the field, he's a commander-in-chief and he's got a kind of a physical attitude and toughness that you want your whole defense to take on.
Q: How impressed are you with Blake Sims and his development?
A: "The maturation of Blake Sims has been something special to watch. It will always be, wherever I'm a coach at, a speaking point to the team. I was fortunate enough to recruit Blake out of Gainesville, Ga. We didn't know what Blake was going to be, we knew he was a great kid and a great athlete. Blake has matured and matured. Even last year, Blake's favorite part of practice - he was the backup quarterback last year, he came over to the scout and Blake gave us a great look. He would come over and run these spread offenses because we didn't have someone who could give us a realistic picture. So he came over and he would run 10 plays with the scout team. He played those plays like he was playing in a game. He looked at the card, he did the play, he didn't have a bad attitude about it, then he sprinted back over to the offense and got his reps over there. His attitude, it's just infectious to be around a guy that doesn't complain about being on the scout team, he just likes playing football. And that's kind of the way he plays out there. He plays the game with passion and energy and if every kid took that on and got better like Blake got better every year, it pays off in the end. He stuck it out, fifth-year guy that's the leader of our program.
Q: What do you remember about getting Trey DePriest out of Ohio?
A: It was exciting for us to get a player out of Ohio which is hard to do. He's a great leader and great kid who comes from a great family, he has done nothing but been an asset for our program. He's a quality person who has improved each year and that's important in any program that you get better. I can remember him having to go in and play as a true freshman against LSU in the Sugar Bowl when C.J. (Mosley) went down. He came in and played and played good and he's played every good ever since.
Q: Was it tough getting him out of Ohio?
A: It was tough. Sal (Sunseri) actually recruited him and he did a great job of recruiting Trey. Sold him on our program, on our defensive system, growing as a player, and we were fortunate to get him. I think he was pretty good friend with Braxton (Miller) at the time so it was a shock for us to get him with Braxton going to Ohio State.
Q: Talk about Nick Perry's consistency this year.
A: "Nick is a guy that didn't play last year if you guys don't remember, he was injured and was out and it was like 'Well, is he going to be the same guy when he comes back? Will he be able to handle everything when he comes back? He's done all that and more. He's played really well towards the end of the year, very smart player, heady player, gets us in the right defense a lot, makes a lot of the checks and has made a lot of good plays. Really improved as a tackler, and came back better this year after having kind of a year when he was out of it."
Q: What positives did you take from the Auburn game?
A: "(Laughs). I think it woke our kids up for one thing. They realized they got exposed, Auburn did a great job passing the ball, throwing it deep on us and attacking us and I don't think our kids respected their wideouts enough. They have good wideouts just like this team does and they challenged us out there vertically on the field and hey we didn't make some plays that we should have made and we put them in some tough situations, I put them in some tough situations. And I think that was a wakeup factor. Look, you've got to play good, you've got to play good consistently, you've got to play good against good people and you can't get the ball thrown over your head."
Does having a limited amount of film on Ohio State QB Cardele Jones make preparation more difficult?
A: "It makes it more difficult I would say. The unknown is there. How is he going to respond to certain situations? They jumped out on Wisconsin and they had a big lead, he play really confident. How's he going to respond? I don't know. If it's tight, if it gets a long way into the game, I don't know. A lot of things I don't know where if it's another guy you've seen him play whether it's in overtime, late in games. You don't know how (Cardele) is going to respond to those things."
Q: What is your standard for the defense?
A: "Yea, the standard for us is to stop the run, force turnovers and not give up big plays. We've always done that. We want to hold teams to 13 points or less, which is a really tough goal this day in age of college football. With the numbers going up, we've never changed what our standard is. We hold every defense to the same standard we held the best defense to, and that's stopping people, that's holding people to less than 3.3 yards per carry and less than five yards a catch. You don't always do that nowadays, but you sure enough have to leave your goals where they are otherwise you are sacrificing things we don't think you should sacrifice."
Q: Is that hard? You know the game in changing…
A: "But that doesn't mean we change. We've got to get good players, we've got to play well, we've got to play hard. Why should the numbers change? I mean, if we play a wishbone team we're not going to say we can give up five yards a carry. We've got to hold them to 3.3. If we play a passing team we've got to hold them to under five yards a catch, which we think is reasonable and we demand it of our guys. We don't want to change our standards."
Q: Looking back this year, what are your impressions of how your team adjusted to stopping the tempo offenses?
A: "We've practiced differently by going against our offense who now has a tempo package and they can go fast. So we've been able to practice it more against our guys which I think helps us. We try to start every practice with tempo to do things to get better. I think we've been able to improve on that. But as we grow in it, so do they, so offenses do a good job of mixing it up. Sometimes they go tempo, sometimes they check at the line. We've exposed our guys more this year than ever to that. And we still haven't done enough."
Q: What does having 9-10 guys who can play on the defense front do for this team?
A: "I think it allows you to stay fresh and in the fourth quarter it has an effect on the game because you've certainly got guys in the game who have played only 30-40 snaps instead of 60 or 70 snaps and that helps us. It helps us in recruiting because we play a lot of players up there."
Q: What has having a guy like Lane Kiffin who has been a head coach at a high level do for the dynamic of the meeting room, practice, prep, etc?
A: "I think it's great to have another opinion, how somebody else has done it. Anytime you bring new blood to the staff, it's always good to have a guy that has kind of done it a different way. And he always gives us the way he's done it, and we can take it or leave it. But he gives you new ideas, fresh ideas, he's new energy, he's fun to be around, the kids really like him. He's a players coach and they really enjoy him."
Q: Does he add levity to the meeting room? Do you guys maybe laugh a little more?
A: "Absolutely. Can you imagine? I'll say this: He's not afraid to speak his mind. That or he hasn't learned yet."
Q: Was there any concern when (Kiffin) he came on staff?
A: "I didn't know Lane when he came in so for me it was unique. We had gone against him and coached against him, but I didn't know Lane, I know knew him through other people. But I really enjoy being around him, he's really smart, makes really good gameday decisions, a really good manager of players, a good overall football coach. You can see why he's had the opportunities he's had because of the job he's done with our group.
Q: Are there misperceptions with him?
A: "I don't know what the perceptions are so it's hard for me to say. I think he's a good coach, the guy is a really good leader, I enjoy being around him, he's made me a better coach, he's brought things up to me, really good ideas defensively, his dad always shares things with him. I've enjoyed being around Lane.
Q: What about his sideline demeanor? Do you want to celebrate as much as he does?
A: (Laughs). "No, I don't. He's a good one though. He always gives me a good fist pump when he scores, he gives me knuckles … I definitely like the scoring."
Q: Are you getting the itch to be a head coach?
A: "Always."
Q: What's it going to take?
A: "The right job."
What job is that?
A: "I don't know. I don't know what that is. It's a hard question. I just want to beat Ohio State right now and worry about the rest later."
[parseHTML]<embed src="http://c.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f8/294377112" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" flashVars="videoId=3963167037001&playerId=294377112&viewerSecureGatewayURL=https://console.brightcove.com/services/amfgateway&servicesURL=http://services.brightcove.com/services&cdnURL=http://admin.brightcove.com&domain=embed&autoStart=false&" base="http://admin.brightcove.com" name="flashObj" width="450" height="300" seamlesstabbing="false" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" swLiveConnect="true" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download/index.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash"></embed>[/parseHTML]
Last edited by a moderator:
