Alex Smith Interview

[Ray_Dogg]

Alex Smith on Harbaugh, Singletary, Nolan: How he got the chip on his shoulder, in a good way | Talking Points

 

[MHSL82]

It's a looong interview so here are a few quotes. It seems like I quoted the whole thing, but I didn't cover even half of it. It was a pretty good interview. ("..." was just to make it shorter.)

-Q: You’re edgier. Would you say the rough experiences of the previous six years have maybe given you a necessary harder edge?

-SMITH: ...I don’t know if it’s just getting older that makes you care less what people think… And I mean that in a good way.

When I was young, I just tried to please everybody. Especially being the first pick, I was, ‘man, I’m going to prove it to everybody.’

And not just you, the media, and the fans, but my teammates, coaches… and I’m going to do it on every single play. And with every action.

Then as you get older, it’s not like it went away after my first year. It was a while. I think as I’ve gone through some of those things… I do think having gone through especially the last few years, especially the rocky times, it probably sped that up for me.

Just understanding it, but also, I don’t care. I’m going to focus on other stuff. I don’t really care about that stuff.

-Q: There’s a chip on Harbaugh’s shoulder, like you say, in a good way. Is there a chip on your shoulder?

-SMITH: ... Playing high school ball, I was on a very good team, obviously I played with Reggie (Bush). And I didn’t get recruited. That, for me… I could tell you all the major quarterbacks coming out of high school my year. ‘Cause I was consumed with it. I knew I could play this game, but I wasn’t getting any love, you know?

But I knew I could play Division I ball, that was my dream. Finally got an offer and went up to Utah and for sure had a chip on my shoulder there. I was determined to prove to everybody that they made a mistake.

Did that. Obviously college was an unbelievable experience. And then all of a sudden, everything happened so fast.

I was a 20-year-old junior, Urban leaves, we go undefeated and all of a sudden, it’s like, hey, do you want to come out? I hadn’t even thought about that stuff. I was so determined with what we were doing—we were going to break down the BCS, we were going to prove it.

I played a lot of guys at Utah that were just the same way. We weren’t recruited. All we wanted to do was play these BCS schools. All we wanted to do was prove them wrong.

Then all of a sudden when you’re the No. 1 pick, it’s a very different thing. You’re no longer the underdog. You’re the No. 1 pick. So that kind of flipped everything.

-Q: ...Anything you’ve heard over the years that you can say you’ve used constructively to get to where you are now?
...
-SMITH: Yeah. I think the quarterback position moreso than in all of sports, no other position compares, you rely on so many people to do your job.

A batter steps in a batters box and it doesn’t really matter. You’re shooting a jump shot, it doesn’t really matter.

Football—that’s why it’s so popular, it’s such a great team sport. But the quarterback moreso than everybody else, you just rely on everybody, coaches and players included, to be able to do your job. Just to have a chance to do your job, and then you have to go do it at a high level.

-Q: During last season, I don’t think we read it wrong, we were seeing signals that you were ready to leave the 49ers.

-SMITH: For sure, end of last season? Yeah.

-Q: In your mind, were you basically gone?

-SMITH: Yeah. It’s such a grind, especially emotionally. But at the end of last season, yeah, I was pretty frustrated with what had been going on here. I was frustrated for sure.

But luckily you don’t have to make decisions right at the end of a season, all emotional. Kind of got a way for a little bit.

-Q: I’ve got to believe your agent Tom Condon was saying, get out of there, start new somewhere else.

-SMITH: Yeah, for sure. The agent? No question, get the hell out. Absolutely. That’s his job.

-Q: Were there criticisms you thought were particularly unfair or just terribly wrong?

-SMITH: If someone’s here every day and watches us and is watching the games, that’s far different than the guy that I know that’s never been here, just gets on TV and says something, has no idea of the situation, doesn’t know the details of the situation and is just calling it from afar.

That type of stuff. Guys that have no business evaluating, ex-players that have no business evaluating the quarterback position, all of a sudden throwing their two cents in because their time’s done.

Things like that, I’d be lying if I said that stuff didn’t frustrate me or piss me off.

-Q: Do you have anything to say to Nolan now?

-SMITH: No, no. You know, it’s funny, I haven’t talked to him since… for quite a while. At this point, I know this, I’ve grown up so much since then. I would’ve just done it differently looking back. Still fight that battle, just do it a different way.

And I would say that to him, no question. We’d probably laugh about it.

-Q: Then Singletary, I think was trying to praise you, but he called you “meek,” and I was there and heard it. Did that bug you?

-SMITH: Oh, for sure. I don’t want to dig up all that stuff, but just different opinions on what strength is, in my opinion. Different opinions of what toughness is. Different opinions of what really I think being a man is, a little bit.

Those are different, from my mind. And we disagreed about a lot of those things.

-Q: Are there moments when you want to tell off some of your critics and point to the win-loss record?

-SMITH: Back then, for sure. Not now. Not at this point. It’s still so early. But back then (at Utah), oh for sure. You go undefeated, go to the BCS and beat the pants off of Pitt and the first ones to do it. We were the first school (to come from outside the BCS) to do that.

We all had a little redemption in that.

But at this point, now, not even close. Not. Even. Close. That’s what’s making it fun, though.

-Q: How dangerous do you think this team can be in the playoffs?

-SMITH: Good question, how am I going to word this? I think on offense, and I really mean this, we’ve only begun to scratch the surface of what we can do. Really only kind of toyed with what we can become and when we play well and kind of firing on all cylinders.

The defense is playing really well right now, special teams… I mean, we’re playing as a team, playing good football across the board.

But I think on offense, we’ll show it in spurts here and there, but really haven’t really scratched it… for me, and I’ve said this before, that’s the encouraging thing. That’s the scary thing for all of us—we haven’t really hit it yet.

-Q: Haven’t really needed to.

-SMITH: Yeah, and have been winning games like that. Boy, wait until we really get going and get in a groove.

-Q: You mean cutting loose?

-SMITH: Yeah, both ways, just firing, attacking. Just attacking defenses. And we do it. But obviously, the first year, the long season, we’re still just learning and still growing every week with each other. It’s only the tip of the iceberg.

-Q: Then you hear the “game manager” thing, which I guess isn’t really praise, but isn’t that bad, either. Is there a time when you’ve got to be way more than that—not just you, but the entire offense? Doing what Brady does or what Brees did last night?

-SMITH: You just have go through games like that in order for that to happen ... Where I’m at, I just don’t give a crap about that right now. We’re winning games, playing football, you know what I’m saying? I’m having such a good time playing football and trying to get better at my position and trying to strive for that each and every week.

I guess I just don’t give a crap right now. Now, will it come to that? I don’t know. I think with all that stuff, winning games, you’re going to knock down all those doors.

I think there’s going to come a time, yeah, when all of a sudden, the game’s going to come to that, we’re going to have to make plays in the passing game. I’m going to have to make plays in the pocket and we’re going to have to do that.

That’s football. I think that time will come.

[On going over game film with Harbaugh]

-SMITH: It was, that was a great play. And then this, we’ve got to get rid of the ball here. We’ve got to hit that. Things like that. Literally, it all of a sudden was coaching, the way he is.

Like I said, there’s not… it’s all ball. I didn’t know it then, but at this point I obviously love it, it’s all football. And there’s no room for being sensitive.

-Q: And you respond to it…

-SMITH: Yeah, I loved it. That’s the way it was, everything was put in a constructive way. Just get better. I never felt like and still never feel, when we watch the film, we go through the Baltimore game, and we all go through it together, everything gets put out there. I mean, everything gets put out there, good and bad. And obviously from that game, a lot of the latter.

But it’s all out there…

-Q: Is he saying, Alex, what are you doing there?

-SMITH: Yeah, and everybody. Any given play, if you’re not doing your job, it all gets thrown out there. We’ve gotta be better here, we’ve got to get this job done…

I love it. I think all the guys have responded to it, because everybody’s the same.

-Q: Sounds like if Harbaugh had sweet-talked you and immediately said you were great, you might have felt that was insincere.

-SMITH: Yeah, reality. Having been in this situation, it’s not realistic. And it’s definitely not him. It’s not the game of football. It’s not the NFL. There’s such a fine line between winning and losing.

 

[threelittleturds]

I wonder if the way Harbaugh and his staff review games with the team is any different from how most teams do it. I'd imagine all of the good coaching staffs talk about the whole game, the good and the bad, to find ways they can improve and fix mistakes.

The way Smith brought up the Baltimore game and how they go over everything, the good and the bad... it makes me wonder if he's hinting that Singletary might have spent the whole time focusing on things that went wrong... and I assume that because there wasn't a whole lot of good last year with Smith starting.