TREMON SMITH: Lovie preaches eyes on the quarterback, vision on the quarterback. I got my good read route on the No. 1 and was able to get my eyes back, and I seen the ball pop up, and I was just breaking towards the ball as he preached.
Q. Lovie said that you're the ultimate returner. What do you think about that?
TREMON SMITH: That just gives me a lot of confidence coming from the head guy. Just Lovie, I'd run through a brick wall for Lovie. He's a great coach and just a great guy in general.
Q. How much do you enjoy being on kick return?
TREMON SMITH: I love it. That's what I pride myself on, one of the things I pride myself on is kick return, trying to jump start the offense anytime you can get some points on the board and play hard for Frankie.
Q. (Indiscernible).
TREMON SMITH: It was good. I felt like I could have set it up a little better, but I know just keep on practicing and my guys continue blocking as hard as they do, I'll get in the end zone soon.
Q. Lovie was saying the interception, he's like, the return guys should get in the end zone; we'll have to work on that.
TREMON SMITH: Oh, yeah, he's going to be on me in meetings, I know that. He's going to tell me to start reversing fields and everything.
Q. Did you know when you were reversing that --
TREMON SMITH: Yeah, you know, I thought about it. I heard him in the back of my head screaming stay near the sideline. Yeah, he definitely clicked in my head.
Q. As a corner (indiscernible)?
TREMON SMITH: Just confidence in my game, patience, and just the second year being in the system, understanding what the defensive coordinator/head coach wants, just that helps my confidence rise a lot.
Q. Can you talk about at the end of the game after the turnover, you all were able to stop them on defense and get the ball back in order to produce the game-winning drive?
TREMON SMITH: You know, that's big time. Anytime they taste score you want to win, so we just pride ourselves on winning, and we know stacking these preseason games will lead into the regular season, so we just want a good jump start on the season.
Q. (Indiscernible).
TREMON SMITH: Like I said earlier, just the patience and just being in the scheme for the second year, I'm just real comfortable with the scheme. It's just I don't have to think about the little things as much anymore, even though I detail the little things. I know everything he wants, and that's what we want from a corner on this defense.
Q. You mentioned keeping your eyes on the quarterback. How do you finagle all of that (indiscernible)?
TREMON SMITH: You know, it's hard. It's not easy, and a lot of coaches don't preach this, but just being in this scheme, this zone scheme, it helps a lot just because he wants everybody breaking towards the ball, have more people towards the ball. It's hard to work through, but like I said, going into my second year I'm very comfortable with doing it.
Q. Are you surprised at what you've seen from rookie Jalen Pitre and especially his pursuit on the ball?
TREMON SMITH: Not at all. I knew him since the day he came in, and I wanted his Baylor film that he was going to be a walk-in day one starter just because the way he -- his work ethic, he's very smart. You think he's going into year three and four, how smart he is in the playbook. He's just really advanced to be a rookie.
Q. Corner was a position Lovie highlighted in the off-season to improve on and they drafted there. How did you respond to that seeing how they wanted to do that?
TREMON SMITH: I liked it a lot, just -- we got Stingley, we got a good corner out of it. I mean, it's competition in the room. Like all of us can play going now from the first to the last corner, we all can play ball out there, so it's just competition really.
Q. When you went back and watched the tape, what were some of the improvements you feel like you can make going into the second preseason game?
TREMON SMITH: Just be a little more physical on my read routes and just be more supportive in the run game.
Q. You talked about having more familiarity in year two. How does it translate for the remainder of the defense knowing that most of the defensive staff is back and not much has changed in terms of (indiscernible)?
TREMON SMITH: It's real good for us because we all understand each other. Like I said, the little things earlier, we all understand those little things that the coaches want, just to be tight on it, it works out well for us.
Q. Lovie has a history of at least one player per year having a takeaway for a touchdown. Have you guys talked about that, and is there a prize for which one of you players --
TREMON SMITH: Yeah, we for sure got a couple prizes. We argue about it each week, me, Tavierre, Des King. We all say we're going to get the first turnover for the touchdown, so it's real good competition, friendly competition, so I love it.
Q. What's the prize?
TREMON SMITH: To be continued. Can't tell you yet.
Q. You talked about Lovie. Is there a story? Is there an interaction that you had with him that got you to where you are with him?
TREMON SMITH: It's just I really believe in what he preaches because he's been around a bunch of Hall of Famer guys. It lets me know that he put up probably 10 to 12 Hall of Fame players he's been around. So if he's been around that, he knows what it takes, so whatever he says, I know he won't steer me the wrong direction, and like I said, I will run through a wall for Lovie.
Q. I know it's the other side of the ball, but what did it mean to you and your teammates to see Jalen and the receivers celebrate the touchdown in honor of John Metchie?
TREMON SMITH: It was heartwarming. I felt for him. I just feel bad for Metchie. I wish he was out there playing with us because he would have been a big part of this season this year. But as long as it's -- he'll be fine. I heard it's the most curable, so I just pray for him.
Q. (Indiscernible) seems like the reaction is everyone is very close and tight knit. What does that say about the culture of the team for a player like that to make such an impact in the short-term?
TREMON SMITH: Just shows how close we are, how we've been grinding together, and just us grinding together, we just wanted to stay close and that's one thing Lovie preaches is we've got to do things together as a team, so we just try to stay close as possible and just do outside activities with each other, if it's going to eat dinner or just going to the coach's house.
Q. How competitive are all of you as far as defensive backs are concerned?
TREMON SMITH: Oh, we're so competitive. We talk about our hands each day, like just over anything, playing Madden, when we get home. We compete at every and anything, even go down to ping-pong. Very competitive.
Q. Who's the best Madden player?
TREMON SMITH: I might have to give it to TT, Tavierre.
Q. Who's the worst?
TREMON SMITH: Jalen Pitre I heard so far. I'm the best at ping-pong though.
DraftScripts by ASAP Sports
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports