Q. What's it like to have the fans back?
CHRISTIAN KIRKSEY: You know that's a part of football. We got stadium sold out, stadium field and that gives you extra energy, boost. I'm excited for it.
Q. Where is your family?
CHRISTIAN KIRKSEY: My family is about a good 40 minutes. I'm happy about that. Whenever you can have family support that's close or nearby, sometimes you can get away from football and just relax and have that family time, you can't beat it.
Q. Talk about working with Zach.
CHRISTIAN KIRKSEY: Zach, he's a great athlete. He's one of the better linebackers in this league. I think he's a little underrated, man. You know, people don't talk about him as much as they should. You can see that he flies around and he goes out there and he makes plays.
He's a very athletic guy, and it's been a great experience working with him and I'm trying to, you know, push him the best that he can be and vice vera; he pushed me to become the best that I can be, and we can become a great linebacker core.
Q. What can you say about the defensive unit so far?
CHRISTIAN KIRKSEY: Man, we got some guys out there that can run. I think that the organization did a great job of putting this defense together and putting this team together and matched it very well with Lovie Smith.
Lovie is a guy that he puts his defense in a position to win, puts his defense in a position to make plays at all levels and that's something that I'm learning about this defense today is everybody has a chance to make plays and when you have that, it's a lot of fun.
Q. Is it an extension of Lovie, how much do you enjoy that?
CHRISTIAN KIRKSEY: It's important, and I'm taking that commitment to being a leader on this defense. I'm pushing myself above and beyond to be everything I can be for my teammates, and I think everybody is doing it individually. You know, they are looking at what their role is on that defense and on that team and they are just trying to go above and beyond.
That's something that you know, I think plays a big factor into building the team. You've got a bunch of guys that's unselfish that's going to do what has to do to get over the hump.
Q. The last couple of days what is it like playing with him --
CHRISTIAN KIRKSEY: You said Justin Reid? He's a good safety. You can tell that he knows where to be. He tunes into his keys. He's very intelligent. Today as you could see, he had those two interceptions. He's a ball hawk. He's a football player. And a little thing about him we been playing in the locker room, we play the game of chess, and you can just see that he's smart overall. Very good chess player. He beat me twice yesterday, so I got to get back in the locker room and challenge him again.
Q. Is there a challenge when you see new players -- that you're all in it learning together? Is there a challenge in that?
CHRISTIAN KIRKSEY: I don't think it's a challenge in a negative way. I think it's an opportunity for us to become a great defense because we all got a clean slate and we're learning, we're learning something new.
It's always good when you're learning and your pushing yourself to actually understand it and go above and beyond, and I think that that helps just motivate guys when guys are hungry and guys are eager to learn more and learn more, you're going to get your hundred percent effort out of guys.
I use it to an advantage. I just switch my mind to that to say, you know, it's a great opportunity for us and we're taking advantage of it.
Q. Is that something with Lovie, hands-on in the middle of it all?
CHRISTIAN KIRKSEY: Yeah, he's out there with us, showing us different techniques, showing our responsibilities and how he wants us to play it and when you have a defensive coordinator that can come out and speak it and do it and show you the right way, that's a plus for us. We're learning and we are striving and I think we're going to be a good defense.
Q. When the defense has a debut against a rookie like Davis, how valuable is that experience to help him come along and show him I guess what the NFL is about?
CHRISTIAN KIRKSEY: It's good to show them how tough it is to play NFL. We have all the confidence in him, and you know, it's training camp. Everybody is trying to get better. Everybody is learning new things. And I think that he is going to be a great quarterback. You can just tell by his mechanics how sharp he is, and it's good for us on defense to understand that, you know, we're getting him better and he's getting us better, as well.
It's a good chance to see where we are as a unit ask also see where he is. That's our job to make it as hard as possible for him and his job is to try to beat news practice and that's how you keep elevating our team is we're competing. We're getting everybody better. We're going out there and we're practicing hard.
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FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports