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UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 5, 2011

Harrison Smith

Q. Coach Kelly was talking about changing the culture defensively when he got here. How has that changed, and what are the differences in how he approaches defense than in the past?
HARRISON SMITH: I mean, like speaking about the culture, I would say there's certain points that starting with Coach Diaco and each other member of the staff does the same thing, just drives home every day. Certain things that a lot of we talk get talked about in the off-season or once every now and again, that are discussed single day in our meetings and on the field before practice, during games. It's just a constant -- kind of a constant action of what's expected instead of just like every once now and again.

Q. What are those points?
HARRISON SMITH: They are just a bunch of different points that the staff came up with that create winning, and that's about it.

Q. So in your mind why have you been doing well against the run?
HARRISON SMITH: Everybody doing their job. I mean, I've played up front, so I kind of know how you dig-dash and how you stop the run. And when you have a defense like ours where everybody is expected to fit in a certain spot and stay in that spot, it is hard to do that. I mean, it sounds easy, but when you're out there and the ball carrier is running inside of you and you see him, you want to jump in there. But you have to stay outside, because the guy behind you is counting on you staying outside.
So it's little things like that, like trusting your teammates and then just being aggressive and tackling well as a full team are things that just come with playing with each other and counting on one another.

Q. The run last year from, a couple of changes. Is it just mainly everyone kind of knowing what they are doing more?
HARRISON SMITH: Yeah, I think that definitely has a part in it. And then ultimately, it's just trusting everyone around you and trusting your role in defense.

Q. Harrison talked to you about confidence and how important it is, how have you kind of helped Gary a little bit over the last few weeks after the Michigan game and putting things back together again?
HARRISON SMITH: Gary is one of those guys that you really don't -- he doesn't need a lot of outside, like, pushing and prodding to get the job done. He just has that within himself, and being an older guy, he's kind of seen it all, too.
He's been through ups and downs and especially playing defensive back, if you play defensive back for any amount of time, people are going to get on you; the coaches, the fans, whatever. That's just part of the job. So you either deal with that or you switch positions.
Gary is not a guy that's ever going to stay down on himself. I mean, there's nobody that cares more about it, and you can just tell by his play.

Q. As a captain, are you tempted to say something to him?
HARRISON SMITH: No, he's not -- I mean, me and him have been through a lot together, on the same side of the ball, same side of the field.
You know, me and him are always pretty much paired up together. We depend on one another and count on one another, and you know, we don't do a whole lot of like rah-rah speeches. We just both know that we can count on one another and that each one of us is going to get the job done. And if something goes wrong, we are not -- we are not going to get on each other and say, oh, you're messing up for me or this and that, pointing fingers. You know, we are going to say: We let that one go, but we are going to get it back at some point.

Q. Switching gears, their passing game is really efficient, and teams are playing for the run majority of the time but what do you see from them on tape? What do they do well beside setting up the expectation of the run?
HARRISON SMITH: I think it all starts with their quarterback. He's a great athlete. He really runs the option well, and on top of that, he can throw the ball well, which you don't see when you face a team that runs predominately the option-type offense.
So when you have that, that's just an added weapon. I think that shows their coaches do a really good job of putting him in situations where he can exploit defenses for coming up on the run and having their eyes down. It's kind of a combination of their coaches using what they have very well and then the players doing a good job of executing.

Q. How would you describe your responsibilities this weekend against a team that you've never faced anything quite like this offense?
HARRISON SMITH: It's going to be hard. That's the No. 1 word I can think of is hard.
I mean, to me, I like that. I think it's going to be fun. And it's going to be -- it's going to have to be a lot of concentration for the whole defense, a lot of discipline.
And then at the same time, we have to be who we have been up to this point, not forgetting who we are even, if we face a different type of offense. It will be fun, but at the same time, it's going to be a very hard challenge.

Q. Is there any way to avoid confusion and second guessing yourself when they come at you in so many different ways, not just running and passing game?
HARRISON SMITH: To me it just depends on how well you prepare for the game, and then once the game comes around, are you actually going to do that, or are you going to panic because it's game time. I think that's probably something that other teams might have had a problem with; just because you can practice against it all you want, but when the game comes around, it's a lot faster than you think it is.
We know from experience, so that's something that I've been trying to tell the younger guys that every practice this week, we have got to treat it like a game.

Q. How have you seen from Manti Te'o this year compared to last year?
HARRISON SMITH: I think it starts with his understanding of the game and how much film he watches and how much he anticipates what offenses are going to do now. There was some of that last year, but I think he's gotten even a better feel for it and putting in more time. I mean, he's always had the instincts and the physical ability at linebacker. That's never anything he's been lacking.
So I think his extra time off the field watching the game and studying the game has really shown up.

Q. Harder on film --
HARRISON SMITH: Definitely. I would say a lot of the guys are like that, where if you make a mistake, you know the coaches are going to get on you. But that's secondary, because you already know you've messed up, and you're already more mad at yourself than they could possibly be.

Q. Inaudible.
HARRISON SMITH: It just shows what type of drive it takes to be successful at this level of football. I think sometimes that gets lost when kids come in here, you're highly recruited, you're the man, whatever, and you think you've made it.
But really, there's a whole -- you never make it. You have to keep going and you have to keep pushing yourself to get better than anything that's been.

Q. Can you talk about the lead you had against Purdue, and then you never give it up, and that hasn't necessarily happened this year; how important was that?
HARRISON SMITH: It was good to start out fast and finish it through the game. But there was still a lot of mistakes out there, which people say after every game, but there really was. There was a lot to get corrected. But at the same time we did do a good job of jumping on them and staying on them early, which I don't think we have done a whole lot.

Q. So is that not lacking confidence, but is that an extra element that helps in the growth of this team as a whole?
HARRISON SMITH: I think it is. Any time you can get up on a team to where you can get some of the guys who don't play as much playing time is something that's going to help build the program and give more guys experience.

Q. Air Force said yesterday that a game like -- on the other side can you appreciate what the Air Force kids are doing?
HARRISON SMITH: Yeah, starting with Air Force, any other academy that we play, you know, we have a ton of respect for those guys. Even just their -- we know how hard it is with our weekly schedule, and then we try to think about what those guys go through; I can't even imagine how much more they have on their plate than we do.
So even for them just to get through the week, is amazing to me, and then you know, as far as playing in front of such an audience at Notre Dame, I think it really does prepare you for the future. Because you definitely deal with pressure you're probably not going to face from many other places and it kind of helps you find out who you are, how much you can count on yourself, and kind of find out your strengths and weaknesses.

Q. When you think about their offense, is a trick offense or -- inaudible -- the pass?
HARRISON SMITH: I mean, I wouldn't call it a trick offense. There's misdirection, and they do a lot of things. They have a lot of formations. So I think it's a very intelligent offense. I wouldn't call it a trick offense, but they have a job on every play and they do a great job executing it.

Q. You struggled against Navy obviously last year in that loss; what did you guys learn from that, and can you take anything from that game, just because Air Force is a different offense than Navy?
HARRISON SMITH: I don't really understand why you would want to take anything from that game into this game. We are playing Air Force this week and we have been studying them and know how we want to defend them, and now it's just up to the players to get the job done.

Q. Is it two totally different offenses? You can't say: We did this wrong against Navy and we have to do this against Air Force, is it because it's two different offenses?
HARRISON SMITH: There's definitely some similarities to things they do, but Air Force has a lot more formations and kind of do more things, I would say, so there's even more to prepare for.

Q. What did you guys -- what was the problem against Navy? What have you corrected since then?
HARRISON SMITH: Nothing really. We just kind of -- I mean, that was one game and it's over and then we moved on to the next one.

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