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Peter, King of NBC Sports here in Houston at Houston. Texans,
Training Camp. I know it doesn't look like we're in
training camp but we are in training camp. I'm here with
Lovie Smith, the coach of the
Houston Texans and love. You were talking a little bit about
how cool this is for you.
A Texas kid who once played a football game in the ass,
Stir Dome to come back here and to be the head coach
of a team in Houston which you know, when you're a kid, you
look at Houston, it's like
the big city. So
what's it been like for you
to come back to Texas and Coach?
It has been surreal?
I mean and as text you know football place and as you
mentioned,
the last High School
game, I played in the state was at the Astrodome, the All-Star
Game there. So, you know, I walk here. And get a chance to
walk around
NRG Stadium in. See the Astrodome,
a lot of memories come back.
That just brings you back to football
and being a product of Texas High School Football
than get any better than that.
Hmm.
So
let's talk about your team. You basically are the head coach of
a team that is
a growing team, a building team.
I don't know many people who are going to predict great
things for the Texans this year. How do you look at this
season for your franchise?
Well, I we are and I can see why
people would
assume that, you know, we're building. We have a lot of new
players on our roster. New coaching staff, a lot of things
are different, but that's kind of the ideal, the perfect
situation to be in for
me being you know, head coach here for the first year.
We have a Young quarterback. We have young players. We kind of
off the radar.
That we've had a chance to work together a little bit. Go
through training camp, we like our potential and we won't say
much more than that
Davis Mills, your quarterback, the last five games last
season, he had a quarterback rating of over 100. He played
very well in several games including against the Chargers
and I wonder what did you see in him
in those last five games that gives you hope
that he might be your guy? Why,
as you mention, we play some good teams with good quarterbacks,
Psalm special quarterbacks.
But what I got a chance to see,
you know, with Davis first before we start playing, but
just watching me every day in practice, see how he prepared
and all those things. And when he got his opportunity,
he stepped up to the plate.
You know, we talked a lot around here about,
you know, show up and
show out, he got that opportunity. That's exactly
what he did. He can make all of the throat. He's smart, he's
bright. He's a better athlete. And he's given credit for
and a team has bought into him as our leader.
To me,
he looks like he stepped into a great situation, not a lot of
pressure on them. Sixty seventh pick in the draft. Not a lot of
people talking about him. Everybody's talking about
Trevor Lawrence Zach Wilson,
so that might be actually good for him. Over the Long Haul
where he doesn't have the weight of the world on his
shoulders coming in.
Yes,
you know defensively, we take the ball away a few times as
part of our DNA giving him a lot. Tuna T's,
we have a running game that we're going to rely on to,
that's a quarterback's best friend. But you have to another
thing, that's gone, maybe it going on. Notice a little bit
is offensive line
veteran, offense, that line. Lay It, lay it, but Larry
tonsil, Titus Howard. We feel like we have him in a perfect
position to be able to perform the way
we know he's capable of plan.
I remember once
watching, you know I've seen Fighters say Say it all
the time. Muhammad Ali said it Mike Tyson said it a lot of people
said you know that
we're going to shock the world
and I wonder do you talk to your team at all about shocking
the world this year with a team that nobody thinks very much
of.
Well, I mean, it wouldn't be the first time as happened in
history. As you look to our back in history, a little bit,
the team, one of the team that played in the Super Bowl,
14 games the previous year. So
a team will come from nowhere. I
Believe that no one is talking about
that will
be a factor at the end
and
just like what I've seen from our football team and we're
anxious to get this season started
first preseason, game will tell us a little bit but we cannot
wait for Andy to come into town and then we will truly see if
we're really
ready to take that next step.
Which we think we're ready to do
Lovie Smith, good luck with the Texans. Thanks for taking
the time anytime.
For NBC in Houston. I'm Peter King.