FOOTBALL | Isaac Smith - Fall Practice Media Session

what's coach Barnes been like what's that relationship like and you know maybe how is he a little bit different than what you had last year um you know last year we had coach duur he was a great coach um but I look at coach bnes we he's like a best friend of me we joke around play around but when it comes down to business he he's a great coach um he's always going to shoot you the truth and keep you honest um he's here to do his job and help us get better what was your biggest takeaway from last year you know getting you missed the spring obviously but you got thrown in there as a freshman on the field right away what was kind of your take away from your first year in the SEC um you know not all things are going to go your way um even if you have a minor setback don't let it don't let it determine how how you work and how well you like prepare yourself for the next game um you know being behind Sean presson that helped a lot seeing him play play hard play Fast all the time so you know it's just a blessing to be behind somebody like that and then compete for a starting spot this year one of the guys coming into last year who everyone was was kind of talking about in terms of the incoming freshman you so how are you sort of approaching things different mentally heading into your sophomore um for the most part you know I I got a bigger chip on my shoulder I feel like um I'm having to work a lot harder and just prove to myself and to other people that I can fill in the shoes of what we last had last year and just be be better than what we had last year so um I think I've just held myself to the mindset of you know working hard and grinding prove everybody that I can do this have's some guys that have caught your attention on your side of the ball so far again really everybody um but mean if we had to be particular I I like Stone coming in you know he's been big communication wise and you know just doing his role in the middle there uh PAC of course he's com in on D line been a big big ad for us from Purdue and then you know just overall really everybody I love how Kelly Jones and Bryce and a lot of the other DBS are stepping up you know concluding that we uh lost a lot of DBS last year so how big of a li is it for that secondary to get Kobe back he's going to play a big part uh you know he was the injury he had was big but um he's been working doing really good in the summer and we're getting back in rotation which is which is really good to see Kelly Jones been mentioned a few times you know you you guys came in together what what advancements have you seen for him how is he a different player this year maybe compared to last uh he's gotten a lot more like bigger and physical uh from the aspect of that but he's he's also got a lot smarter you know last year him being behind dcam and all those guys you know he couldn't do nothing but learn then uh I think this year it's just it's up to him to to Make It or Break It um he has the right coaches he has everything laid out for him it's just up to him to take it and run with it what about the other side of the ball he caught your attention uh I like Blake shaping he he is he's a really good quarterback he puts balls in places that we can't get to him uh so I think that's good especially with with how they how fast they play and then you know the Mario Craver freshman he he's been he's he's been doing really good to me how mentally is that I guess tough to get adjusted to with the the speed and the tempo of that offense compared to what y'all been used to practicing G um I say the first couple weeks it's it's it's hard to get a justed to but after that I think I think that's the best for us because I mean it's going to be one of the fastest offenses in the SEC if not the fastest so I mean we get to practice against that every day and just be prepared for for you know what's next coach has talked about coach lebby has talked about the defense you know earlier this week was kind of dominating the offense what are doing out there I mean a lot of people are down on this defense but what's kind of your assessment of you guys so far in training camp going up against the offense um we've held our ground uh we're going to keep progressing every day getting better uh installing new things you know uh as fall Camp goes on I think it's up to us just to you know know where we are when the time comes and who who we are as a team and as a whole but uh I think we're going to shock a lot like a lot of people just from how hard we play and how how like the effort we give out when we're playing what are you looking forward to most scrimage tomorrow just being out there man yeah getting you know getting those live those live reps uh it's to come across live reps right now that's the hardest thing about uh college football you only thud but the scrimmages you get get those actual live reps and you know practice your former tackling and everything app appreciate you