QB RUSTY SMITH
(on bracing to go the free agent route before being drafted)
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I'm extremely happy. I'm very, very pleased the Tennessee Titans were willing to use a draft pick on me. They won't regret it. I'm going to come up there and I'm going to work hard and I'm going to give it the best that I can.
(on his senior season ending abruptly and if that cost him the draft)
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I don't know if it cost me or anything. I know that everything in life happens for a reason. Before the whole draft process started me and my wife and my family we put together a list of teams of where we would want to go if we were to fall to free agency and Tennessee was our number one pick and Tennessee was the team that drafted me. Everything happens for a reason. God puts things in motion that we can't see in the future. It is just amazing how it works out. I'm happy to be a Titan.
(on why they were at the top of his list)
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For multiple reasons. When we were choosing our teams, we wanted a team that had great coaching staff, and I think Tennessee has one of the best coaching staffs in the NFL that ran a style of offense that fit my scheme that lived in a place because hopefully I will be on the team for awhile. I would like to raise a family there. I want to live in a place that is family-oriented. Tennessee just fit all of the criteria that we were looking for.
(on if he is NFL ready)
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I feel that I have been in a pro style offense from high school until college. Every system that I have ever played in was a pro style offense. I have been under center my entire career. I'm very good at I think reading defenses from under center and dropping back from under center. I will do whatever the coaches ask me to do.
(on being the first player from Florida Atlantic to be drafted)
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It's amazing. Since I have been at FAU, me and my graduating class have set a lot of records. It is great to be a part of one more.
(on what he knows about Vince Young)
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I'm going to be able to learn a lot from both of those guys, Kerry Collins and Vince Young. I'm excited to get there and learn.
(on how happy he is that he didn't play in a spread offense in college)
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I'm just glad that I was able to be in a pro style offense because that is what the NFL does. I think it would be difficult if you were in the shotgun for your entire career in college and then get to the NFL and have to learn how to drop back and read a coverage from under center. I was very fortunate to have been under center for more than six years through high school and college. I have been able to do that for such a long time. I think it did help me to be able to do that in the NFL.
(on where he watched the draft)
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At my house with my immediate family, my wife, my mom and dad, my sister and my grandparents.
(on how he is going celebrate)
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My grandparents are going to have a get together. We are going to have a huge dinner slash party at their house.
(on where he makes his home)
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Jacksonville, Florida.
(on if he knows Tim Tebow)
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I do know Tim Tebow. We go to the same church. It is First Baptist Church in downtown Jacksonville.
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(on if they talk football)
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No sir. I only speak to him whenever I see him at church. I have only spoke to him on 15 to 20 separate occasions. It is a very, very, very big church. With both of us being out of town, it is hard to get to church at the same time together in Jacksonville.
(on who called from the Titans with the draft news)
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The whole coaching staff. I talked to everybody.
(on what they said)
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They wanted to make sure I was able to get there and work hard and show exactly what they see in me. They wanted to make sure I wanted to be a Tennessee Titan. Of course I said I would love to.
