	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

PENN STATE UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 20, 2016

Brandon Smith

University Park, Pennsylvania

Q. Now that we know a little bit more about the status of Nyeem for the rest of the season, can you speak to just what kind of things his teammates have talked to him about? Did you speak to him and what is his mentality like right now?
BRANDON SMITH: I haven't seen him too much, just in the training room a couple of times. But he's had a smile on his face. You know, Nyeem's a great guy. He's going to keep working hard. He's going to stay committed. He's going to be a part of this team and be there and encourage guys. Like I said before, he's a selfless guy. You know, he's going to keep being around and be a vocal leader on this team.

Q. You played a lot on the scout team last year. What's that like in terms of are you looking at opposing defenses and trying to replicate that every week? If so, what do you learn about the game by doing that, by looking at other schemes and be somebody you're not every week?
BRANDON SMITH: Oh, yeah. It's kind of a unique experience in that aspect that you get to play in all these different schemes and different fronts in front of you. From that perspective you learn a lot more about the game.

But as far as fundamentals and things of that nature, just play the same as always, just knee bend, pads rolled over, hand strike. So from that perspective, it doesn't really change. They just hold cards up for us. So they kind of tell us where they want us to go a lot of times too.

Q. You talked about this a little bit on Saturday, but I understand you chose Penn State over penn and Princeton. Can you take us back to your college decision, what factors you were weighing and why you ended up at Penn State?
BRANDON SMITH: Yeah, so all three choices were obviously very good academic schools. You know, the Ivy Leagues have a good reputation for academics, obviously, and I really liked all three a lot. I liked the coaching staff of all three programs. You know, I knew if I came to Penn State I'd be a walk-on and the road to playing would be a lot harder, and I was really passionate about football, so that was a pretty big factor in why I wanted to go to Penn for a while. Ivy League education, probably would have played a lot sooner.

But at the end of the day, my faith is really important to me, and I just spent a lot of time in prayer, and it just seemed like thing after thing was showing up like pointing me towards Penn State, and that's ultimately why I decided to come here.

Q. I have to ask you, did you end up going out Saturday night?
BRANDON SMITH: No, I did not.

Q. No, you didn't celebrate with the team?
BRANDON SMITH: No, sorry to disappoint.

Q. We were told you were being told you had to by the coach?
BRANDON SMITH: Yeah, he did tell me that in the locker room, but unfortunately for the guys, they got really excited when he said that. But I had a lot of family up and sometimes you're just too tired to even think about that anyways. I give credit to the guys who can.

Q. You had a big day. Serious question, Franklin mentioned earlier that he thinks that you don't get the credit for your athleticism that you should. He called you deceptively athletic, I think it was. What do you think about that? Do you think you get credit for your athleticism that you showed on Saturday?
BRANDON SMITH: Yeah, I don't know. It's kind of hard to answer. As far as measurable things, I'm pretty average. But I think I'm able to use what I do have well, and things that I can control, I take control of, I work hard with DJ, and our strength staff to improve the measurable parts of athleticism.

But as far as determination and drive and just finding a way, that's something I can control while I'm playing. So I just try to take full advantage of that. Whether it's noticed or not, I can't control that.

Q. Coach Franklin talked about playing in big games like coming up Michigan in the big house, it's one of the reasons why players come to Penn State. You've talked about the other reasons. But talk about the competition coming up and starting Big Ten play and going to the big house and what it's going to be like for you guys?
BRANDON SMITH: It's going to be awesome. I've now been fortunate enough to travel to Michigan since I've been here, and it's going to be an awesome environment. We always look forward to Big Ten play, great competition. You know, Michigan's done a great job these past few years. They're a great team. We really respect their ability. But needless to say, we're still going to prepare and go in there expecting to give a great performance.

Q. Do you remember when you first thought you might want to be a doctor?
BRANDON SMITH: I don't have like a specific memory that made me think, oh, man, I want to be a doctor. To be honest, I'm kind of back and forth like every other week because it's really hard with like the pre-reqs and I think, man, why am I doing this? But I just see a lot of value in human life, and I'd hate to see people struggle, and I want to be a part of people getting healed. So that's been something that's really drawn me to it.

Q. Someone told me I needed to ask you about Amanda Scott and you'd have a good story about that?
BRANDON SMITH: Yeah, Amanda Scott, she dated my cousin. She's an awesome girl. I don't really know what she's up to. I haven't seen her in two or three years, probably. But I remember her name at least.

Q. After James Franklin started speaking about you a little bit on Saturday, he did mention he cracked the joke that you are the married guy on the team and that was the first quality that Marcus Allen said when he was asked to describe you. How did you meet your wife, what's her name and what was that whole journey like?
BRANDON SMITH: Yeah, my wife's name is Andrea Cole, and we met in high school. Her and one of my best friends and I started a morning like devotion prayer group at our high school. We met half an hour, once a week before school, so we spent a lot of time there together.

Eventually when I started liking her, I started going to her youth group instead of mine, because my youth group was my dad and I (laughing). So he wasn't too upset. Drastically hurt the percentage of people coming. But, yeah, so I just started spending a lot of time together. We started dating my sophomore year. Dated for four or five years. She went to Messiah College, down in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, so we would see each other every other weekend maybe. You know, I just decided it was the right time to get married. So I asked her father last winter and we got married last summer. Not this last summer, two summers ago.

It's been awesome. Obviously I'm really busy with school and football, and she's just done an amazing job being patient with my time constraints and supporting me. So I have an amazing wife.

Q. Looking ahead to Michigan this week. What do you see on film about Jake Butt. What are some qualities he has that makes him a successful tight end and what are you looking to do to stop him as a line backing corps in coverage?
BRANDON SMITH: Yeah, he's an impressive player and a guy they like to get the ball to. He's a good tight end and we respect him. We're going to have to do what we do every week and read our keys and get to the right spot. Handle our responsibility. If all 11 guys are doing that every play, we'll like the way it turns out at the end of the game.

Q. I'd like to take a path, you are maybe one of the least threatening people we've talked to this year. What makes you angry on the field? How do you go from this very friendly guy to someone who is going to hit Michigan players repeatedly on purpose?
BRANDON SMITH: I don't know. Maybe it's just because I'm never angry at people. It's hidden in there somewhere, I don't know. I'm either going to get hit hard by them or I can hit them hard. So at the end of the day I'd rather not get beat up out there.

So it's just fun. It's just having fun, flying around, playing as fast as you can. That's what the game's all about. It's a game and it's fun. So I'm just trying to do the best I can to be physical and play fast and hard.

Q. You touched on earlier, what do you know about the big house and kind of going into a hostile environment like this? Do you know anything about special teams? What are your thoughts on it?
BRANDON SMITH: Yeah, I've gone to some away games that were pretty hostile traveling. I think it just gets the guys even more excited sometimes when people are jeering you and mocking you and all sorts of things. You know, you can either get distracted by it or it can increase your intensity and your focus.

I'm really looking forward to it. I've kind of always liked going on the road, and when we get booed it just kind of gets me even more excited to play. So hopefully everyone's going to take that approach to it and just get fired up for the game. It's going to be an awesome environment. They have a huge stadium and a lot of passionate fans there. So it's going to be an awesome day.

Q. As a former scouts team standout, who would be your pick to play Jabrill Peppers this week?
BRANDON SMITH: I'm going to leave that one to the coaches. There's a lot of guys who could do a great job.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297