Opening: "Well, I’ll open with a lot of respect for Kent State going into the game and just as much respect coming out of it. I thought they were a good football team, very disciplined, very physical. A really good brand of football. I always tell our kids you turn on the special teams tape on Sunday and you find out who you’re playing. We thought they were a really good football team and they proved that today. We also played the entire game without punting the ball once. Really had four turnovers when you consider the fake punt included on that. You’re not going to grow up and mature…this was a growth week for us. We really talked about growth the entire week. I was very pleased with how our guys approached the practice and the games and the leadership. I was really proud of how we came out in the second half and got a three and out then the offense made a great drive all the way down but just didn’t cash it in for a touchdown. We got some costly penalties and turnovers that hurt us.But our team got better today. That was the key for me to say, did our team get better today and I can honestly say we played a good opponent and we got better.”

Working on your composure muscle today? "Grew a lot. I had to I knew. About five guys came over to me and they tried to give me a composure card that they keep in their back pocket. I was frustrated there with Ladd probably a mistake to field the punt or not fair catch the punt. He knows that. Nobody is more disappointed than Ladd is. We got started (maybe he said that). You’re going to have a fumble every now and then, it’s just part of football. Make good decisions when the ball is in transfer in kicking situations and we didn’t make a very smart one there."

What is the composure card? “We have to keep our composure card in the back pocket. We can apply it anytime we want. We work and exercise that muscle all the time and it hasn’t happened this year. It got to happen several times today. I thought the kids got to flex that muscle. You don’t feel a muscle is strong without using it, right? We certainly got to use it today. I probably need to work on mind for sure.”

On conditioning for four-quarter football game: “Good. We work really hard Monday, Wednesday and sometimes even Thursday with the conditioning level. It was probably a little hotter out there then maybe the players expected. They went into it thinking it was going to be cool but there wasn’t a lot of shade. They had a lot of guys go down banged up with injuries and we came out of it pretty good.

On slow start and turnovers in first half:
"Dn’t think we had a slow start. We didn’t punt so when you don’t punt it’s hard to say you had a slow start. Defensively, we did some good things with some guys out. You attribute it to playing a good football team. Games aren’t easy. I think you guys may have a preconceived notion but we have the actual tape. I have a lot of respect for them. I didn’t think we started slow. I think we kicked some field goals. We need to score touchdowns.”

On Bear Alexander with Jalen out:

Smart: “I’d have to see it; I know he had the batted ball, but there were times I didn’t know if he was in there. He did have more snaps today. He had his best week of practice, so we felt like he would play more snaps. If they drove the ball and we thought they would play more tempo that we’d have to play more people.

Trey did a good job rotating those guys through and Bill Norton did a good job and played a few more snaps. That’s good. We’re increasing our depth.

What he told Ladd:

Smart: “Just that I love you. I was more upset with the punt, not the fumble, those things happen. The punt was more decision. The fumble was something else. But there’s nobody that feels worse than Ladd, right? But we need Ladd. We need Ladd if we want to go where we want to go. Ladd’s a big part of our offense, he’s a big weapon for us.

He’s dealing with a foot injury, so he’s not able to practice the same volume. So, when you don’t practice whatever your reps is – 50 reps or whatever – and he gets 15-20 … he doesn’t get as much ball security work.

He doesn’t get hit as much. So, we’ve got to do a good job making sure he can practice and we’re not asking him to do too much.

On Kenny McIntosh:

Smart: “He had a thigh contusion going into the game and he said he got hit on that same thigh again. They did a good job of cut tackling, they chopped us some. Several guys got hit low on the tackles there, and they do a good job being forceful with it.

We had, I think, three or four guys coming out of the last game with thigh contusions, which Kenny has that as well. But we think he's going to be fine."

On Brock and how dangerous he is:

Smart: “What a weapon he is, what a tough character he is. He makes you defend the whole 53. When he comes in motion, the expectation is I’ve got to stop the sideline and that loosens them up for some softer runs, too. When you run for 250 and throw for 250, you’re doing something right.”

Is there a player more dynamic than Brock?

Smart: “I don’t know that there is because I don’t get to see it. I don’t think I’ve seen many games this year but it’s hard for me to do comparisons. But for what he does … I don’t think people understand what an incredible blocker he is.

He doesn’t get to do that, that much.

The other incredible player out there is Darnell (Washington). If you go out there and look at Brock’s biggest plays this year, he’s a big part of it. I was so happy to see that. The first play of the game, he’s wide open, the play was to go to him. Stetson, he took a shot, being aggressive and Darnell was there the next play, Brock gets a touchdown and Darnell is down there celebrating. He’s the first one in the end zone celebrating. It was his block that sprung him. Again, Darnell’s blocking combined with what Brock does on the perimeter … the package of those two – compliments each other so well.”

On moving Brock Bowers to RB:

"I don't know. He's practiced there. He's had to because we've had concerns there at back in terms of staying healthy. But he can line up play about anywhere."

On what Daijun Edwards continues to show at RB:

"Toughness. I mean, he's the one guy, you know, who consistently breaks tackles. He's hard to tackle, he's low to the ground. He's like a ping pong there and just keeps going. I thought his run game really came through for us in the end when we knew we had to run the ball, and they knew we had to run the ball. He's an incredible toughness guy and just works every day really hard."

On what areas Smart wants to see the defense improve at:

"A lot of places to improve, the same places we could improve on giving up 10 points — you just didn't see it. They did a good job in the RPO game. We didn't leverage the ball properly on the sideline twice. They had three first downs at halftime, but we had a slow start [he said sarcastic as hell]. So, I take it that we did our job — we've just got to keep improving."

On how many kickoffs Nolan Smith has caught this year:

"I was holding my breath on that one. I was proud of him. As he says, he doesn't have the best hands out there, but he did catch that one — and he even got a little extra return yards. So, he'll be showing his kids that one for a long time. He stays out extra and catches kicks each week, so that's why we do what we do."

On Stetson Bennett's first snaps in the fourth quarter/offensive success in the 4Q:

"It was good. I still think that we need to see a real, you know, drive where it's like, man, we've got to go win the game. that was more of a protect the lead maybe kind of drive. But I felt like he played better as the game went on. He had a couple passes that he wishes he had back early. He missed some guys, and that's frustrating for him because he wants to be perfect, you know? We don't ask him to be perfect — we ask him to be the best version of himself."

On an opponent successfully faking a punt for the second straight week:

"It ain't concerning — I mean, I'm concerned every week by a fake punt. When you're a heady favorite, what does the other team think? 'I've got to steal a possession,' right? So, what do you work on all week? Can't steal a possession, can't steal a possession. We spend just an enormous amount of time, and we're actually in our prevent — the fake call because it was fourth-and-1 or inches, you know? They did a good job. We had somebody lose eye control — somebody had in man and missed him. We've got to do a better job. It's unfortunate because the defense deserved a stop there, but we didn't stop them."

On 'it's not always as bad as it seems' and that being part of playing to the standard:

"I didn't talk anything about it not being as bad. I thought they played really hard, really physical and they played a really good football team. When you're honest with your team, they believe you. When you walk in on Monday and say, 'This team's really good. They might be better than what we've played. You've got to practice well,' then they go practice good, they've listened. After the game, I'm not going to go back and be like, 'Gah guys, this team stinks.' That is a good football team. They won their conference last year, they've got a really good conference, they've played two other ranked teams really tough. I've got a lot of respect for Kent State, their coach, the coaching job that they do. I'm not down about the way our guys played. If you turn the ball over four times, you're going to be in ballgames like that. So we've got to prevent that first."

On how important it was to be able to deal with the adversity: "I'm glad we had some adversity. You can probably argue it wasn't enough. We still had a 10 point lead there. Adversity to me is overcoming those turnovers and going out and making stops, sudden change and making stops. The red area stop was really big for the defense. But their defense came back with a big red area stop. I think you gain confidence with the way you play in games like that, and like I said, I've got a lot of respect for Kent State."

On how similar their defense is to others they'll play: "They didn't play it the whole time. They were in and out of it. Going into the game, we expected them to play a higher percentage, and they didn't. They played more four-down than we expected which doesn't effect us. We play four down every day. They're not a true stack team. They move around and do some different things and do a really good job of mixing it up. You can tell they've studied some defenses and do a nice job of mixing it up. They're defense coordinator will tell you too, they still gave up 550 yards. It's all relative to what you expect. You can't turn the ball over, and I thought our offense executed really good based on what their defensive plan was."

On Jalon Walker's blocked punt: "I was really proud of him. He got taken off of punt team two weeks ago for not taking his guy. He didn't pout. He didn't complain. He didn't go in the transfer portal. He kept on fighting, and Darris got a little banged up. Darris was going to start on it and we stuck Jalon back in there and low and behold he makes a big play and blocks the punt."

On sacks: "Well, it's a positive takeaway for the stats. I can't get into stats. They gave us an opportunity to sack them. They dropped back, they had some RPO. We haven't had a chance, and they gave us a chance and we capitalized on it. We haven't been preaching sacks to our players. We've been preaching fundamentals and execution."

On Jamon Dumas-Johnson: "I’ll tell you, he’s practicing really good right now. He’s slowly becoming that vocal leader of the unit. He commands respect the way he practices. The walkthroughs before the game, man, I love the way he’s maturing. He’s getting more confidence. I don’t want to comment on how he played. It sounds like he played good based on those statistics you just gave. He practices the right way, so it doesn’t surprise me."

On the Kent State program: "I can’t imagine what he’s played. Then to flip it over, now he’s got to go over and play his conference schedule. They’re going to be tough in that conference because of the teams they’ve played. Their kids play with great toughness and resiliency. They hit, they strike, they don’t run from contact. That’s SEC football."

On Malaki Starks and messages to him today: "Just eye control and things. He’s going to be a really good player. They had some RPOs built into that side of the field and he had to cover those guys. He got them on the ground. Tough plays to defend the way they package the plays. He did a good job of hitting them. I told y’all the quarterback’s a really good player. He can throw those balls. They have two wideouts who are going to be drafted. They’re good players. Just wanted to give Malaki a chance to mature, play Dan, show confidence in him, and continue to play all those guys that play winning football."

On Mykel Williams possibly being hurt: "Nope, Mykel played. He played a good bit. I don’t know how many snaps he played, but Mykel played."