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PENN STATE UNIVERSITY MEDIA CONFERENCESeptember 10, 2013Donovan SmithTHE MODERATOR: We have sophomore tackle Donovan Smith with us. Q. Donovan, what do you see from those guys on defense? DONOVAN SMITH: I haven't watched much UCF. The week just started. But from what I've seen, they're a tough, physical team. They're fast. They swarm to the ball. I believe it's going to be a true test out there. Q. Donovan, you guys got off to a little bit of a slow start on Saturday against Eastern Michigan. After looking at the tapes and all that, anything that you can really pinpoint as to why that might have been and what you guys might be able to improve upon? DONOVAN SMITH: Execution. That's mainly it. Coach O'Brien gave us the plays to run, and it's just a matter of us executing, whether it's me blocking better or the receivers running better routes or making better throws or stuff like that. It's us as a team just executing. Q. And one thing Miles Dieffenbach said earlier this morning, he needs to be ready to just be really physical when the game starts, because you go from like just being there to like hitting people. How do you get into that state of mind, like you yourself? DONOVAN SMITH: Music, I guess. I always get a text message from my uncle, bold, capital letters, exclamation marks all the time. But other than that, I just look at it as they're the enemy, and I have to, you know, go out there and do what I have to do. I guess that's how it comes. I have a little temper. Q. What does your uncle text you in bold caps? DONOVAN SMITH: Just normal, regular stuff. Go out there. Today's your day. You got to be physical, tough, mean, things like that. Q. When the game's on the line and you're going NASCAR or going no huddle and you're moving fast, what kinds of challenges does that present for the offense? I mean, it looks like you're moving up the field, but does it make it tough for the linemen just to stay in shape for that? DONOVAN SMITH: No. We do a great job. Actually, Coach Fitz does a great job with our conditioning all throughout the off‑season in terms of running and lifting and running hills and stuff like that. I think we're in good shape. We ran NASCAR, and I don't think‑‑ I asked a couple of guys on the line, How are you feeling? We feel great. And I feel good myself. I don't think it's any problem in terms of conditioning that when we go NASCAR or anything like that. Q. Could you do it for a good portion of the game, like a large percentage of the game, and still maintain? DONOVAN SMITH: I mean, that will be fun actually to find out myself. I mean, any time we did go NASCAR, it was for a few drives or whatever. I guess it will kick in after a while if we keep running it. You know, you get the burn a little bit. But other than that, it's just NASCAR. Q. You guys rotate in a lot of people on the offensive line‑‑ Mangiro, Shrive, Gress‑‑ do you guys ever have any problems with cohesion when you guys are constantly rotating in? You have a new guy next to you. You're pretty stout on the left side, but on the right side, do you ever see a problem with cohesion with the new guys and the new faces? DONOVAN SMITH: I don't think so. We do a good job during the week of making sure that these guys work together during practice because, you know, they're going to be going through it throughout the game. I don't think that there's a big problem as many may think. I don't think there's a problem. I mean, Mangiro comes in the game, and we communicate right off the bat fine, just as if Dieffenbach was in there. So it's all about communication. Q. Asking you about NASCAR, I just thought about this, is it really like that much more tiring than if you're huddling up? Because you're still on the feet during the huddle. DONOVAN SMITH: Yeah, I mean, it's just a matter of in the huddle you get that 10, 15 seconds of breath, and NASCAR, it's just keep going, going, going, going. Any team that runs a fast no huddle will tell you that it will get tiring. But, yeah, definitely a huddle does, it slows the game down and gives you that time to catch your breath, I guess, if you want to say that. Q. To go off of Tim's question, is there ever any confusion as far as bringing guys in on the rotation? It seems like it's pretty fluid movements. DONOVAN SMITH: I don't know, there's no confusion. Coach Mac, he handles it all. It's not like we just run it whenever we want to or whenever. Coach Mac gives us the when to go and when not to go and stuff like that. So it's never any confusion on who's going in or whatnot. Q. Coach O'Brien said you were named the Boss Hog against Syracuse. Is you just clarify what the Boss Hog is? Is it a physical award, or is it bragging rights? DONOVAN SMITH: Actually, the Boss Hog is an offensive line thing. Coach Mac calls us the hogs, and the Boss Hog is basically just‑‑ you know, I guess playing to what his expectations are and his expectation levels. So, yeah, it's a whole bunch of stuff that goes into it in terms of physicality, domination blocks, stuff like that, you know, no missed assignments and just basically, like I said, his expectations of how you should have played and if you've either reached those expectations or exceeded these expectations. Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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