Northwestern University Athletics
ON THE RECORD...With Brendan Smith
12/22/2009 12:00:00 AM | Football
Dec. 22, 2009
He missed his team's last, mad rush through November and into the Outback Bowl. But now senior safety Brendan Smith is again healthy, available to face Auburn and on the cusp of stamping himself as the first 'Cat to play in three post-season games. Before he and his teammates broke off their New Year's Day preparations and scattered for the holidays, he paused to talk of that honor and past bowl failures and so much more with NUsports.com Special Contributor Skip Myslenski...
On The Record...With Brendan Smith
Deep down, yeah. I'm really proud of it. But it really isn't about me. I was fortunate enough to get healthy enough to play in this one, and fortunate enough to get healthy to play in the first one. It's the team though.
They got me here. They worked hard. Everything that the program is doing, I've got to thank them for putting me in the spot to be able to do that.
Losing hurts more than winning feels good for me. So it's never a good feeling. You don't forget those times.
Especially last year with guys like (running back) Tyrell (Sutton), guys I was really close with. That was my grade last year, that was my class. I came in and started as a freshman and unfortunately got hurt. That gave me another chance to play a bowl game. But when you bond, and you have those strong relationships with your teammates, it hurts.
Not just losing. But also not playing with those guys again.
The losing, it's not something you think about every day. But when you think back upon it, it's a bitter taste.
You try to live in the present, prepare yourself for the future.
This opportunity right here is a chance for me to go out, right now I feel like I'm forgotten. I really haven't played this year. And it's a chance for us to really make a mark and do something that hasn't been done.
The team and how hard we've worked and where this program is going, it would just be a tremendous accomplishment. It's something the school needs and that people need because we're there, we've proven it, and. . .a win would just reiterate it, staple it home that this is where we belong, that this is not a fluke. This is where we're going to be consistently.
I thought today was a great practice in terms of energy and the vibe I got from the team. We don't want to be down. We want to be peaking at the right time. That's when we get there. That's when we play on the First.
We do have to make sure we don't go too crazy. But you've got to be focused, you've got to play fast. You can't go through everything half speed right now and then expect to go full speed in the game.
It's always a fight, it's always an uphill fight. That fight, when we're peaking, when we're battling, when we're getting to that point that we've got to get at, it's always an uphill fight and you've always got to be going, always got to be pushing.
We've just got to go out there and play and play as one. One heartbeat, one unit and just see what we can do from there.
Fight. We'll never back down. That's just our competitive edge. I'd like to think that every team has that fight and desire. But we truly do believe that we're in every game, no matter which way it is. Up 14 or down 14, we're still in it and there's a chance for us to win it.
We don't think about it. It would be real easy for us to live by that and say even our own school doesn't always believe. In the past. It's different now. You can use that as a little extra motivation. But it's really about us. If we're worrying about what people are saying, then we're not focusing on the right things. We need to be focused on what we do and how we prepare and how we play. Because what if they say that we're the favorites? Now are we supposed to not play? Is that not supposed to motivate us as much? Are we supposed to not want to win as much? So as long as we just really focus in on playing together and knowing what we're going to do and what they're going to do, it doesn't matter if we're the underdogs or the favorites.
When it comes to game time, we're 0-0. The records are out the window. So I don't think anyone's the favorite.
Now if you lose, is it the end of the world? That's where it could get you, but that's not what you want. It's a statement because it's going to show what we're capable of doing. It's not the end all, be all. But we need to really take it as a statement game for not just the university, not just the Big Ten, but for everything, for all the things we worked for to get us to this point, for all the players in the previous years. For everything.
I'm from Massachusetts so I grew up with the Red Sox. When they won the World Series in 2004, it wasn't just for them. It was for every Red Sock and for every person that was ever a fan to know what it feels like to win. And when we do that, it's not just about us, it's not just about this one win. It's about uniting this family and this Northwestern network to see what it feels like. To be on top and to be the last one off the field.
It feels amazing, especially being hurt and missing so much. I haven't played the last six games. So to have one more opportunity and to be able to say, looking back 20 years from now, that I was part of that team that won and that I was the first to play in three bowl games and the next year we had 10 guys that played in three bowl games, that'll be something I'll be really proud about when I look back on my time at Northwestern.
