Chris Smith 9-17

DE-Chris Smith (on QB-Tyler Wilson's comments to the team Sunday night) -"It meant a lot. He talked to us after we got done running last night and he just told us that he's going to do everything in his power to get back this week. He's a team leader and I could see it in his eyes that he really wanted to play with the atmosphere and everything about Alabama, but he had no control over it. It was a good speech he gave last night. I just feel like we'll be ready to go this week."
DE-Chris Smith (on the team's mentality) -"We're okay. We've been through adversity before. This isn't the first time. There have been a lot of teams, not just us, that have been 1-2. It's not how you start, it's how you finish. That's the motto we're going by now. It all starts Tuesday."

DE-Chris Smith (on the defense's progress) -"I feel like we came out in the first quarter and played well. The short field, that was tough. When you make a lot of mistakes, defensively and offensively, to a great team like Alabama, you can't do that. You can't give them giveaways like that. We have to do the little things right, and just execution is the big thing."

DE-Chris Smith (on tackling) -"Coach (Paul) Haynes wants us to be aggressive tacklers. We just have to keep on working at it. That's one thing that's going to take time, but we're going to get better."

DE-Chris Smith (on adjustments in practice) -"We came out and practiced hard last week. I think that execution is the big thing. The coaches, they can only do so much. We just have to go out there and make plays. It's just execution, and we're going to try and get better at that. It all starts tomorrow."

DE-Chris Smith (on what the team needs to focus on this week) -"Just execution. Coach Smith, he's a great coach. There's only so much the coaches can do. They can go out there and call the plays, but it's up to us to go out there and execute the plays. That's what we're going to try and do defensively and offensively. A lot of guys after the game were sad, but we just have to keep on moving forward. Moving forward is the main thing."

DE-Chris Smith (on QB-Tyler Wilson's comments after the Alabama game) - "It was tough love. And he's the captain, and he saw it better than we did. I don't feel like guys gave up. Mistakes were just the biggest thing to me. We do that to the number one team in the country, we just gave them too many turnovers, and you can't do that to a really good team like Alabama. We just have to lessen the mistakes, play mistake free football this weekend. Rutgers is a great team. They're coming in 3-0. We looked at their receiving corps and they have good receivers. Just move forward."

DE-Chris Smith (on simplifying the defense) -"Things are still simple. We have a lot of young guys coming in, especially in the secondary, and it's hard to learn things sometimes. They're coming along. Things are going to get better. Like Tyler (Wilson) said, we know how to win. We've been doing that in the past, and we know what it takes to win, just more focus and more execution. As far as simplifying things, like I said, it's a lot of young guys in the secondary. And they're playing hard. We just have to clean up the mistakes."

DE-Chris Smith (on the lack of takeaways from the defense) -"We need to make more plays. But as far as executing the calls, that will make us have more turnovers. We say we have the offense's back, and that is how we have to do it, get interceptions or get strip sacks. It goes back to execution. Make plays and the turnovers will happen."

DE-Chris Smith (on the same message being preached all season) -"It's harder sometimes. The coaches can only say so much. It's up to us as players to step up to the plate and tackle better. And we're going to do that. I trust in my teammates. I wouldn't have signed at the University if I didn't. All our defensive players, we're going to get better at that."

DE-Chris Smith (on the importance of Saturday's game vs. Rutgers) -"It's real important. Every game is important. Especially playing in the SEC all of the games count, we just have to get this win this weekend, and we're just going to come out and play hard."