"Yeah, I feel like I made a good jump, just going against the defense. Last year being on scout team, going against them every day, if you can’t get better going against them, then something’s wrong. I know if I can do it against them, then I can do it against anybody. That’s really where it’s come from, just them making me better, and everything like that." - McConkey on putting his progress as a player into perspective.

"Yeah, we always say it’s no drop-off. If you’re out there, you’re a starter. There’s no ones, twos, or threes. I’m cheering for them just like I was cheering for Adam (Anderson) if he was out there. I’m sitting right there on the sideline cheering them every way. I know I don’t want anybody to score. We say, ‘Nobody in our end zone,’ that’s the standard that follows for everybody." - Smith on how excited the starters were to see the reserves finish off the shutout.

"That’s my son. I tell him every day, ‘You’re my son.’ OLBs and tight ends, we don’t ever get blocked by tight ends. We call ourselves the wolf pack, so when he came in as a freshman I said, ‘I just want to let you know, you’re going to be my son for a long, long time,’ because we always go against each other every day. It was a punt—we were in fall camp. It was a Tuesday-like practice. It was punt day. I said, ‘All right son, this is where we make our money.’ He stayed with me every rep. I tend to work hard, try to push the envelope. He stayed with me. We worked through, because we’re usually the same side on punt. That’s just one of the stories that I’ll never forget, that little freshman coming in, we’re in half-line punt, and we’re taking like eight reps, 8,000 reps, and we’re just hitting. He’s staying with me every rep, he’s not making one false step." - Smith on freshman tight end Brock Bowers.

"I go back to one of our team goals, the standard. We say, ‘Nobody in our end zone.’ That means nobody. I don’t care if we’re playing the New England Patriots, they don’t go in our end zone. That’s just the defensive mindset. You’ve got to have that mindset. If you have the mindset to go out there that they’re going to score 21 points, then they’re going to score 21 points. We let nobody in our end zone, period. That’s just my mindset, that’s our coaches’ mindset, that’s the players’ mindset. That’s something we buy into, again, another team standard on defense." - Smith on how bad the defense wanted the shutout preserved.