Durham Smythe – December 22, 2020
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Tuesday, December 22, 2020
TE Durham Smythe
(How much pride does the group of tight ends take when your offense rushes for 250 yards, and what went into it beyond just the offensive line blocking well last week?) – “I think we take a lot of pride in trying to helping the run game have days like we had on Sunday. It’s something that we’ve been focusing on for a while now, to really get the run game going. I think that opens up a lot within this offense. Really in this league, you have to run the ball to win meaningful games. That’s something that we’ve been focusing on. The offensive line has done a great job of honing in on what we have to do to be successful in the run game. As a tight end group, we take a lot of pride in trying to get that going.”
(What’s the conversation like with your quarterback now that the Rose Bowl is between your Irish and Alabama?) – “It’s funny. I try to talk a lot of trash to guys throughout the year when there is a matchup, Notre Dame and whoever. But it’s kind of hard to talk trash to Tua (Tagovailoa) because he’s such a nice guy when it comes to things like that. He’s come up to me already and said, ‘it’s going to be a great game. It should be a lot of fun to watch.’ It’s hard to say stuff to him, but it is fun that we have a little connection there.”
(What has it been like playing with QB Ryan Fitzpatrick the last two seasons?) – “That’s been something that not just personally but as a group, as a young team, I think it’s been something that’s been valuable having a guy like that in the locker room over the last two years. Obviously the things he’s done on the field over the last year and a half were great; but I think just his presence in the locker room, his leadership – I think that’s something that will go a long way for a lot of guys that are young in this locker room. I’ll always cherish the time that I’ve had with him.”
(You talked about the run game earlier. You also have a career-high 40 receiving yards. I actually just saw on the Good Morning Football “Angry Run” segment that TE Adam Shaheen got nominated for his run after the catch. You guys both were kind of running some dudes over in the passing game. I was wondering, was there some sense of urgency when you knew that TE Mike Gesicki was down, that you guys maybe had to pick your game up a little bit in the passing game that way?) – “I don’t think Mike being out really led to us changing anything that we do. Talking about the ‘Angry Runs’ thing, that is something that we’ve talked about all season, trying to get on that. (Tight Ends Coach) George Godsey has talked to us about that segment since training camp, so finally we got somebody on it, which is exciting. We’re out there trying to do that every week. Obviously we had a few opportunities this week and tried to make the most of them.”
(TE Adam Shaheen looked like former NFL TE Mark Bavaro on that one play. I don’t know if I’m dating myself here. I don’t know if you’re too young to have watched Mark Bavaro highlights. Is there a tight end that you have watched, maybe more in your generation, who is hard to bring down? Like your favorite?) – “You hit a good one right there. As a Notre Dame guy, a guy who did a lot of good things for the Giants back in the day – I actually didn’t get to watch him live, just because of the age group; but I know a lot about him. That’s a big one there that you hit. Back in college, we used to talk about him just because of that connection. There are a ton of guys I can list, but I think you hit a big one right there.”
(Football aside, how will you look back on 2020 in a year that none of us have ever dreamt of going through? What was this experience like this season, with unprecedented circumstances? – “It’s definitely very unique. I think one thing that I’ll take away from it – I mentioned this earlier in the season that one of the things that I love the most about playing football is the locker room experience, being around the guys on a day-to-day basis. Obviously that’s been different this season; but I think one thing I’ll take away is that I think this team adapted pretty well. Obviously we’re not right next to each other every day in the locker room; but there are things that we’ve done in a safe way that we can really keep the team camaraderie up and things like that. One thing I guess I’ll take away is obviously in a unique situation, there are always way you can end up making the best of it or at least try to to the best of your ability.”
(I wanted to ask you about the run-pass option stuff. Obviously there are a lot – you don’t know exactly, or I think you don’t know exactly, what’s going to happen before QB Tua Tagovailoa makes his decision. How difficult is that for a player on the line to operate?) – “There are things the defense shows you before the snap that kind of gives you an idea of what can potentially be happening. If you read certain coverage or a loaded box or something like that, you can kind of insinuate the ball is either going to come to this or this, or maybe he’s giving the ball. I think there are clues pre-snap that you can take to make an educated guess about what’s going to happen. But then you just have to react. If something changes post-snap and Tua sees it, then you have to be ready. I think it’s kind of taking an educated guess before the snap and then being able to react post-snap to whatever is happening.”
(I want to go back to the ‘Angry Runs; thing. You seem like an easy-going guy off the field. How do you get yourself psyched up for an angry run and what goes into it physically? Have you had on that you thought would get on this year and they somehow overlooked you?) – “Yeah. I am a pretty even-keeled guy off the field. Really on the field, too. I’m not someone who pre-game is getting super hyped up or anything like that. I try to stay pretty consistent with my emotions throughout a game. Obviously there are certain situations where there is a big play in the game, a big situation in the game where if we get a first down here or there, some emotions come out. Obviously we had a few runs between the two of us where we had some yards after the catch, but I think Adam (Shaheen) – obviously he was the one nominated – was the big one. I told him after the game, if we don’t get on the ’Angry Runs’ segment, if we don’t get that scepter this week, then it’s never coming to us. That was a pretty great job by him.
(With WR Lynn Bowden Jr., what’s it like having him as a teammate? And when he has the ball in his hands and you’re on the field blocking for him and he’s zig-zagging all over the place, how exciting is that knowing that he’s probably going to pick up more than a couple of yards? He’s always fighting for extra ones.) – “He’s a very exciting player. He’s improved throughout this season, both on the field and with his understanding of the game. I think that’s cool to see and something I think we’ll see continue to improve moving forward. He’s a very dynamic guy with the ball in his hands obviously. I think there was a run on Sunday where he took the ball to the opposite side of the field. I was on the far back side of the field and I was almost walking because I was so far away from the ball, then all of a sudden in half a second he’s right behind me and I’m turning around and trying to block someone completely on the opposite side of the field. When you have a guy like that who can extend a play, it’s always exciting because you know if something breaks down, which it kind of did on that play, he is able to turn it into something. I think we have several guys like that. Malcolm (Perry) has done things like that this year. I think we have several guys on this offense that when the ball is in their hands, you really never know what’s going to happen.”
(When Alabama blew out Notre Dame in the 2013 BCS National Championship game, if I remember correctly Notre Dame Head Coach Brian Kelly started out that game trying to throw to TE Tyler Eifert. Were you committed to Notre Dame and were you supposed to be the next Eifert? Were you at that game?) – “I was a senior in high school at that point. They opened the game in 13 personnel. It was Tyler Eifert, Troy Niklas, and Ben Koyack, all who were in the NFL for at least a portion of time. I think the game plan that week was to get Eifert the ball as much as possible. Ultimately like you mentioned, the game didn’t work out. Actually at the time, I was committed to the University of Texas during the national championship game. Some things happened there in the last two months. Mack Brown was kind of on his way out at UT and I didn’t know who was going to come in as the head coach, so I ended up taking a visit to Notre Dame a couple of weeks after that National Championship game,and fell in love, and the rest is history from there.”
