Telvin might have been the most excited player I have ever interviewed. The conversation happened in either the second or third quarter, he could not remember exactly.
The following quotes did not make the video.
"I definitely did. We were actually talking about it, and he said 'I know now what it feels like to be a lineman rushing the quarterback, so he's really getting a feel for that outside rush now," he said of Christian Jones being more comfortable on the outside.
"We just came out here with that mentality," Telvin said of the defensive dominance. "You see on the first play the defense came out and created that turnover. And that just told this team, ya know, we said it and now we doing it. And then we just ran with it. And ran and ran."
"I don't want to say another man was scared, or anything like that, I just know we won," Smith said, in declining to say whether he could sense that the defense was scared. "In the locker room, we said before the game, they want it just as bad as we do, but they're not willing to do what we're willing to do to go get it. And that's why this team is special. We're willing to got he extra mile. Whatever it takes, we're willing to do it."
"We definitely [took the intensity to another level," Smith said. "From the first snap, we definitely did."
"We have a lot of playmakers on the field, and [Coach Pruitt's scheme] uses them," Smith said. "We make plays. He calls 'em, we make 'em. This defense isn't about one defensive lineman making plays, or a safety just covering, it's about everybody. You saw me a couple times covering Sammy Watkins. It's about everybody doing their job, and it plays with us."
"This team, I would say, we're full of confidence," Smith said on the difference between this team and other squads in the past.
Smith spoke about the defensive discipline and how the defense was focused on not allowing big plays down the field, either by coverage, or by making Boyd get rid of the ball quickly.
On his wrist tape, Telvin had "T" and "H," for Tyler Hunter, the Seminoles injured safety who recently had neck surgery. On the underside, he had "G5" for Greg Reid, a former Seminole star who was booted from the team for repeated violations of team rules before last year. Smith grew up with and played high school ball with both, before they all headed to Florida State. The group is extremely tight. On the underside of the other wrist, he wrote the word "FAMILY."
"Every time I'm on the field that's who I play for," Smith said.