With Spring practice starting on Tuesday, I sat down with Nick Schwieger '12 and Eddie Smith '12 to talk about life, football and everything in between. Matt Oh '11 also jumped in with a few remarks.
Each of you plays on different sides of the ball. Which side requires more athletic skill, offense or defense?
NS: Offense definitely. We have to react to the moves of the defense, shake them up a little bit. I break off Eddie on a regular basis.
ES: I'm going to use what he just said in my next argument. Now defense is obviously more athletic than the offense. Look at the pound for pound athletic muscle on either side of the ball. Defensive linemen are superior athletes to offensive linemen.
NS: All I'm saying is the running backs are the most athletic players on the field.
MO: Defense. I'm going to leave before I get upset.
ES: Listen, what I'm saying is, you have to be able to shake me because I break the offensive [linemen] angles.
What is your favorite part of practice?
ES: One-on-ones, because pass rush is like an ongoing development. It's like golf to me. Unless you put it the max effort and practice it all the time, you're not going to get better. It helps me work on something that I need to be able to do on a consistent basis.
NS: Inside run, breaking people off. It just gets you going through the repertoire of skills, running the ball. We have a lot of fun with it. Just gets us going against the line-backers one on one. It's a good time.
Eddie, what's your least favorite part of practice?
ES: Pursuit drills by far are my least favorite part of practice. It basically consists of me, the biggest dude on the field, running 60 yards down, doing an up-down, and running 60 yards back, two or three times in a row. I already have sports-induced asthma, but there was this one week where I had bronchitis too. I had to step out because I literally could not breathe anymore. The week after that, I felt like a track star.
MO: [re-entering the room]: The end of practice, that's the worst for me. [Silence].
Now, even though you're going one-on-one, none of the defensive players are actually allowed to tackle you or touch at all during practice. What do you have to say about that, Schwieger?
NS: Meet me in the hole.
ES: Better yet, meet me in the back field and I'll break off your sorry linemen.
Who would win in one on one between you two? Eddie's closing in the hole and within arm reach. Schwieger, you have room to your left or right. Would you shake him?
NS: Now, this reminds me of a film that I have watched before. Eddie comes in and I had the ball in the back field. He comes out arm outstretched and I duck the arm, put down the third leg, scoot up and run for six points.
ES: It happens. And I can only counter that with the amount of experience level. The amount of time that he had on the field was more than I had. The fact that I was actually getting back there and making plays is fantastic at the level that I am. If we had the same amount of playtime on the field, it would have been a different story.
What do you do to get ready for games?
ES: I have a special game-time mix that starts out with chill music, then some hip hop to get my swag going and then some metal to get me fired up. I'll get taped, I'll stay real quiet and to myself. Then I get on the track, we do our drills, building the energy but still completely calm. By the time we get into the tunnel ready to run out before the game this is the thing that football is to me right before we're about to come, I'm a different person. I go crazy. I get both extremes. All of a sudden the light switch goes on.
Why is it a different story for this season?
NS: Basically we're experienced. We've gotten a lot bigger, both individually and as a team. We've got a lot of people vying for that quarterback spot. And it's no longer just freshmen and sophomores. We have juniors out there with two years of experience under their belts. To be honest, we have some ballers out there on the field, some really athletic kids that are going to make a lot of plays. It's time to rise up.
So more than two wins?
NS: I'd say we're going for 10.
