John L. Smith 9-10

Head Coach John L. Smith (opening statement) -"To begin with, I would like to just say, obviously we are disappointed and we came back on Sunday and we sat down with the team and went through the things that we have to do to get better, and we talked about it as a team. We have to take the field starting tomorrow and continue to work. This is part of athletics that they know exists. You are going to get knocked down and you have to get back up. You have to continue to fight. We have to continue to analyze and try to decide what it is we have to get better at. We have to go out to the field and make sure that we get that done. Anyway that's where we are. As far as our injury report goes, Tyler (Wilson) was back for the team meeting last night. He still has some symptoms, grogginess. He will not go to the field until the doctors OK him and he is symptom free. With that being said we are making some preparation for Brandon (Allen) as quarterback, which we have to do at this point. We have to kind of assume, and if we get Tyler back it will be icing on the cake. Tevin (Mitchel) was released from the hospital in Little Rock. He is on his way back and he will be here today. Again his is a deal that he will meet with specialists here and discuss their findings. Everything that we get from the scans and all of that stuff was all very positive, from the standpoint of there is nothing wrong. We are optimistic there. It's a deal that he's not going to play this week for sure. Going to Kody (Walker), they ended up having to operate to fix his broken leg. That means of course he will have to miss the season. The rest of it is basically bumps and bruises. Injury-wise, we should be ready to go other than that. I'd like to go ahead and clear up the hand shake that has been brought to my attention. To explain exactly what happened, we're closer to the 25 (yard line). They go into the end zone, score and the game is over. I start to walk towards the middle of the field towards our locker room and looking across (to the other sideline) there is no one. By the time I (look at) the middle of the field I don't see (ULM head coach) Todd (Berry). Not seeing anybody there, not seeing a coach, my belief was this, he is down with his team in the end zone celebrating and probably patting that quarterback in the back who just ran it in and that's where he should be. It made sense, at least to me. Again, Todd and I are friends, and I think if I had done anything wrong, or if I offended anybody by that I am sorry about that, but we are good enough friends that I would expect him to call me if I there was any offense taken. I totally thought, 'He's down where he should be. He's down in the end zone celebrating.' That's what took place. Looking forward, let's move on to Alabama. As we all know they are a very, very good football team. I think we need without a doubt a great job of preparation. It has to be a positive week. We have to go to the field. We have to practice that way. We are still undefeated in the league. We still have the same goals in front of us to win an SEC Championship. We just have to bounce back and get it done. We have to prepare well and play well. That's where we will start. We will start tomorrow."

Head Coach John L. Smith (on what yesterday was like) -"I've been through it some other times. It was a disappointing day. You're disappointed, but what you have to do is think 'Hey, all of our guys are disappointed, so try and be positive with them.' It was more that than anything. Let's get our chin up off the ground. We're all feeling bad, yes, but this isn't going to be the first time in your life you are going to feel bad. You're going to have adversity all through your life. How are we going to deal with it? It was more that, more about them."

Head Coach John L. Smith (on if he thinks the team can rebound from the loss) -"Yes. Attitude is so much a part of this game, and the mental aspect of this game. We have to make adjustments. We are going to have to stay healthy. Now we just have to bounce some guys around. We have lost three fullbacks. We are going to have to try and find, and we will, other guys and move them into those spots. We are going to have to make some adjustments, but that is part of the game."

Head Coach John L. Smith (on QB-Brandon Allen) -"I think Brandon is going to be fine. To be honest with you, I think he is going to bounce back and he is going to prepare himself. He knows he can play the game. We know he can play the game. It's kind of an unfair situation for him to be placed in at that point in time. By no means are we attaching any blame to his performance by any means. He was OK. He needs people around him to play well also and give him some help."

Head Coach John L. Smith (on if he sees hesitancy from RB- Knile Davis) -"I don't know that I sense some hesitancy. Is Knile back where he was? Not yet. Is Knile going to get back to where he was? Yes. I think it's a period of time, and I think each week he'll get better and better. There were times last week that he ran like Knile of old. What we have to do and he will do is build on those things and that will continue to get better each week. He's not back to where he was by any means I don't think."

Head Coach John L. Smith (on FB-Kiero Small) -"Kiero is anywhere from six weeks at a minimum to 12 weeks probably at a maximum. What you have to count on is somewhere in the middle there, about 8-10 weeks. That's usually a season. He does have a redshirt available, so if it's late enough we certainly wouldn't bring him back and say 'OK let's use your year on a game or two.'"

Head Coach John L. Smith (on if Morgan Linton and Austin Tate will fill in at FB) -"Exactly. There's a few others, or at least one that you didn't mention. (Grady) Ollison needs to do some extra work. He's going to have to be kind of a tight end, a lineman, a fullback, all of the above. He has enough ability to do that. You don't want to put so much on his plate that he doesn't have success with that."

Head Coach John L. Smith (on if Brandon Mitchell should have played QB vs. ULM) -"You can look back and say yes we would have liked to have him, but we have not second guessed that part of it at all. The only thing we've said is we really try to get the 11 best on the field. I think that's our obligation to the football team and our obligation to each player. If you are one of the 11 best we want to get you out there, we want to get you playing. That worked hand-in-hand to limit his time at quarterback because we are getting our 11 best out there. Now he is going to have to come back and do some extra work out there. At that time no it's not one of those times where you think, 'Gosh, I wish we hadn't used him at wideout' because he's one of the 11 best."

Head Coach John L. Smith (on his connection to Alabama OC Doug Nussmeier and OL Coach Jeff Stoutland) -"Their coordinator was actually the first quarterback I had recruited at the University of Idaho. He was the Walter Payton winner in D-I AA. He was a great player for us at Idaho and then after he finished his pro career he came to work for me and now he is at Alabama. Jeff Stoutland is the offensive line coach there, who was my offensive line coach at Michigan State."

Head Coach John L. Smith (on coaching against former coaches) -"The day you play them you have great loyalty and great love for people. They have been a part of you and a part of your family. Going against them is like wanting to beat your brother. You never want to lose against your brother. I'm sure you've gotten in fist fights with your brother growing up right? You'd come out all bloodied up, but you still wanted to beat him right? That's the way it is. You want to get after each other."

Head Coach John L. Smith (on Arkansas' secondary) -"(Kaelon) Kelleybrew got a little banged up and he only played a portion of the game last week. He should be back and ready to go. We expect (Darius) Winston to go. He came in and played quite a bit of the game so we expect that. (Will) Hines came in and played a lot as well. We have to count on him. I guess that's the three heads right there that you are going to work with at this point. You hate losing Tevin (Mitchel)."

Head Coach John L. Smith (on making plays in the fourth quarter) -"That's what we tried to take to our team last night as we looked at this film. There is a block here that wins us the game. There is a catch here that wins us the game. There is a tackle here that wins us the game. Go take a look at that film and see that if we do the little things and we have a discipline to take care of the little things we win that football game. That was the message to the guys. You have to take a look. We have to become more disciplined. Assignment discipline with our eyes, discipline with our tackling, discipline with our clocking, discipline with our catching et cetera and you win that football game."

Head Coach John L. Smith (on what a win this weekend would mean) -"A win this weekend would be tremendous. That's the great thing about athletics is that you get to go this weekend and you get to play it again. The bad thing is that you have to go the next weekend and play it again. You're never as good and you're never as bad. It's never as good and it's never as bad as you think. That's kind of the way we approach it."