| Lovie Smith, in his first year as defensive coordinator in
St. Louis, led one of the more dramatic turnarounds in the league, taking over a defense
that ranked 23rd overall in 2000 and lifting it to No. 3, and first in the NFC.
Q: Are you comfortable with the way the defense matches up with the Patriots?
A: Yes, we are. We played them before, we feel good about the different matchups. They
have two good receivers, small, quick receivers. Leading up to their game, we thought the
two of them were as explosive as any others we have played. We played different ones,
maybe one good receiver, but the combination of the two, we still feel the same way right
now. We feel good about how we match up with those guys.
Q: What are the reasons for the turnaround on defense this year?
A: There are a lot. Of course, to me it still comes down to personnel. We upgraded our
personnel quite a bit. The defensive staff — Bill Kollar, Ron Meeks, as new guys
coming in along with Mike Haluchak — have done a great job coaching the players and I
think we have the scheme. The scheme fits what the players want to do these days. They
want to be aggressive, they want to read on the run, they want to play the way they used
to play in college and that is what we are letting them do.
Q: What memories do you have of high school football in Big Sandy, Texas?
A: I remember three state championships, 820 points in one season. Most people from Big
Sandy can recite everything that happened back in those days. Twenty-seven years later I
can do the same. It is a football town, 500 in the town, most of them interested in
football.
Q: Are you comfortable with the attention the defense is getting?
A: I am comfortable with the job that our defense has done and what comes our way
because of that. The guys did a great job. They were treated as stepchildren all last
year. This year they got that monkey off their back. I am comfortable with anything good
that someone is saying about them. I just happen to be in the leadership role. It is easy
to work with the players I am working with here.
Q: Can you describe your move to the Rams to become defensive coordinator?
A: As a position coach, you want to leave and run your own show, just like most
coordinators want to be a head coach. As a position coach, I knew we had a good system and
I knew it would work, I was just waiting patiently for my opportunity to leave.
Q: What kind of expectations did Mike Martz have for you?
A: In talking, Mike said to get us to the middle of the pack. Mike initially talked to
me about having the best offense in the league, and he saw us eventually having the best
defense, and then we would be special. Everything we did from that point on was trying to
get that. It sounded like a pipe dream early, but again, going back to our system, I knew
that once we got some better players to go along with the guys we already had, London
Fletcher, Grant Wistrom, Dexter McCleon and others who were there, we thought that it
would eventually work. As a defensive coach, you are paid to get the job done. To me, each
year you have to do a good job to keep your job. I have always worked on the premise. It
is hard to tell Kurt Warner, Marshall Faulk and Isaac Bruce, ‘Hey guys, give us a
little time and we will eventually get it together.’ We want to see a good product
right away.
Q: Do you have any interest in being the head coach in Tampa Bay?
A: I want to eventually one day be a head football coach. When that time comes and who
it is, I really don’t know. I am not trying to run around your question, but right
now I am really focusing on what we have to do. Yes, I want to be a head coach as soon as
I possibly can.
Q: Have you heard anything with regards to what Tampa Bay is planning to do?
A: Tampa, you know you hear things behind the scenes. I haven’t heard anything,
but I hear they are interviewing now and are getting ready to name someone soon, so I will
just answer the question like that.
Q: What was it that enabled you to turn around the defense so quickly?
A: I think the key for everything that has happened this year is Mike Martz. Mike had a
plan. From the first day Mike talked to me he laid out his entire plan. He knew the
negatives that he had to get corrected and he said we would do whatever we needed to do
— we will hire new coaches, we will bring in as many new players as we have to.
Draft-wise, we were going to hit defensive players early. Initially there were a lot of
good offensive players. Everything Mike said, he had a plan and he stuck with it. So I
think it all goes back to that.
Q: What is the first thing you talked to your players about?
A: The first thing we talked about was how we were going to be different. We are going
to have 11 guys around the football every play. That is elementary. Most people don’t
want to hear that, but that is what we talked about. We showed them tapes and we started
practice with a pursuit drill. We grade our players on running to the football. We decided
that we were going to play like a lot of colleges talk about playing. Get 11 guys around
the football and good things are going to happen. Our turnovers last year were way down.
We had six fumble recoveries last year. To me, if the ball is on the ground, you need
enough people around it. Tipped balls, we need more guys around it and odds go up. That is
what we talked about initially and we stayed true to that. We talked about the same things
this morning.
Q: Are you considered a players coach?
A: Some kind of way "player’s coach" got labeled as a guy who let the
players do exactly what they want. I am a player’s coach, but the player is going to
do exactly what we want. They are men. They want you to treat them as men. You can get
things done if you tell a guy what you want him to do. We tell him that and eventually if
you don’t do it, someone else is going to play. We have had to make hard decisions
this year on moving some players. I couldn’t really care if a guy is making two
million or two hundred thousand, the best guys are eventually going to play. They
understand that, believe me. That is the approach that we teach all of our players. We are
teachers.
Q: Did you have aspirations of being in the Super Bowl growing up?
A: Yes I did. Win every game in Big Sandy and everything goes right and you kind of
figure that is how it is. You get into the real world and that is really not how it is.
This is every football player, every coach’s dream to be in this situation. You have
to dream big. I dream big and I am just getting a chance to live out my dream right now.
Q: How did you come up with your defensive philosophy?
A: I think it comes from a lot of different guys. I have been around a lot of great
defensive coaches. John Cooper. Larry Marmie, the defensive coordinator from the Arizona
Cardinals had as much to do with my life in general as anyone. Then I had a chance to work
with Tony Dungy and Monte Kiffin in Tampa — that really helped quite a bit. To top it
off, the guy that has as much to do with me being here as anybody is Mike Martz. It takes
a lot of nerve and a lot of guts to take a chance. You have the greatest offense in the
history of the NFL and he took a chance on an unproven linebackers coach.
Q: Why do you think Mike Martz took that chance?
A: I would like to think that he liked our scheme. He knew me. Of course we had a
relationship together 10 years ago when we worked together at Arizona State. I would like
to think it is a combination of both.
Q: Is this defense that similar to the one they run in Tampa Bay?
A: Yes, very similar. The basic philosophy that I have is what they have. It is the
same basic philosophy that Herman Edwards has with the New York Jets. Now that Tony has
gone to Indianapolis, just like the West Coast offense, it has branched out. I see the
defense, whatever you want to call it, I see that defense branching out.
Q: How did you select the players you did for this system in St. Louis?
A: We started from Day One knowing what type of guys we needed to fit into the system.
From there, we just had to make a decision on who we thought was best, the type of person
we needed. Mike Jones is still playing in the league, we just went with what we knew would
work and went from there.
Q: How are you similar to Tony Dungy?
A: Tony is a very intelligent man. Football-wise if I could ever be compared to his
football knowledge, I would be one happy guy. Tony treats guys like men and expects them
to act that way. He is a teacher more so than a screamer. I am a teacher more so than a
screamer. One thing you need to know about Tony though is he will make a hard decision
when he has too. I like to think I do the same. We are similar, but I am probably a little
more outgoing than Tony and that is about it.
Q: Do you have a quicker temper than Dungy?
A: That is hard to say. I know a whole lot more about me than I know about Tony. I know
he is a great teacher and I like to think that someday I am going to be a good teacher. I
don’t scream and yell to get a point across and he doesn’t either.
Q: Do you coach differently with the lead?
A: Of course you do. Our basic philosophy doesn’t change an awful lot. When you
are up, play it a little safer. When you are down, you have to blitz a little bit more,
but we basically do the same thing. You look at whatever we have done from Game One to the
last game, we basically do the same thing. I just don’t believe you change your
philosophy a whole lot on who you are playing or other situations. We are going to do what
we do normally versus the situation. |
