When Antoine Smith had his first conversation with reporters last spring as Temple’s new defensive line coach, he was nothing short of animated and enthusiastic.
There were too many sound bites to mention, but Smith, coming in from a Colorado State program that led the Mountain West Conference in sacks in 2021, said he has so much energy that he often had to force himself to stay in bed.
His players, he said, would be graded “on TFLs and sacks. That’s it.”
“We do nothing slow, nothing methodical,” Smith said last April. “Everything we do is chaos.”
Although Temple finished with a 3-9 record in Stan Drayton’s first season, the Owls led the American Athletic Conference with 38 sacks, thanks in part to Smith’s unit up front and to a more aggressive scheme under new defensive coordinator D.J. Eliot.
Speaking with reporters Thursday after the Owls’ second spring practice, Smith was no different.
Optimistic? Yes. Quotable? Absolutely.
After offering some insight and gems about Temple’s defense and several in his position group, Smith closed with an unprompted forecast of what he thinks the Owls’ defense could be in 2023.
“Get ready to watch something special,” Smith said, “because our defense has not played to the level we can play to. And this year, we’re going to bring you something different.”
You can listen to Smith’s conversation with reporters here and read some excerpts from the interview below.
Smith on redshirt sophomore Allan Haye, a 6-foot-2, 305-pound transfer from Miami who enrolled midyear and will be with the Owls for spring practices:
“He's a big, strong kid that shows some really good athletic ability and is really just a great kid to be around. Comes from a great family and is a guy that we feel is an upgrade for this defensive line and feel like we could really do some special with.”
Smith on junior defensive lineman Demerick Morris:
“Definitely feel like he’s ready to take a step forward. I think he has taken steps forward. You look at last year, you look at you look at where he is now, he's grown tremendously. But more importantly, he was the best player from last season at the point of attack. When you watch him at the point of attack, he's very powerful. Also, he was the best player, who still has quite a ways to go to, from a developmental standpoint, that has a chance to play at the next level. But he is really showing some new traits of leadership. Is it perfect? Not yet, but I'm very pleased with him. He's a great kid, and I'm happy with where he's headed.”
Smith on what his position group can do to improve upon a rushing defense that allowed 192.6 yards per game last season and why giving up big plays at the point of attack was the Owls’ biggest issue:
“If you watched the game at the point of attack, the issue was athleticism in space-making plays. That was the bigger issue on our rushing game. It wasn't the holes were wide open and people were running forever. It was that when we got isolated in open-field tackles, it could have went for eight yards where it went for 55 yards, and that's an area that we are really working on. We've done that with recruiting. We’ve got a great linebacking corps here. We got two safeties we brought him in that are ballers (presumably Florida transfer Kamar Wilcoxson and Colorado State transfer Tywan Francis), and we will not have those explosives this year. We have really concentrated on red-zone defense, so red-zone defense is going to be huge for us, and rush yards is going to be huge for us. We want to finish No. 1 in the country in TFLs (tackles for a loss), but we also want to finish No. 1 in the country on rush defense, and we're going to finish pretty high.”
Smith on redshirt freshman defensive end Zamar Grove:
“He’s doing a good job. He's gained some weight, but he's still a puppy we’re trying to develop. The No. 1 thing is, he's a really good athlete, and he can run like a deer. Now we're trying to get him to actually play within the defensive scheme with more detail and understanding the how and why of what he has to do. But he may have the highest ceiling in this program, but that'll get you a cup of coffee and a doughnut if you can't actually maximize it, so we're working with Zamar now. He's a great kid. He's a pleasure to have in the room. He has a great family. He works really hard, and we expect some really, really good things for him this upcoming season.”