You need only listen to him explain the origins of his first name for the 100th or so time this week to know the man has a great deal of patience.
You need only listen to the testimonials of his players to know St. Louis Rams defensive coordinator Lovie Smith is revered.
“There’s something just pristine about this guy,” defensive tackle Tyoka Jackson said.
“It’s like when you meet a woman you know you’re going to spend the rest of your life with,” linebacker London Fletcher said.
And after running out of adjectives, linebacker Don Davis said, “Some people are just better than others.”
But to truly appreciate how a former linebackers coach in his first year as coordinator did not merely improve the Rams defense, but completely transformed it, is to understand the real reason they love Lovie.
“The thing I love about Lovie,” Jackson said, “is that he’s really easy to play for but very demanding. It’s a unique blend.”
Smith, formerly under Tony Dungy at Tampa Bay and before that on the staff at Ohio State, Tennessee, Kentucky, Arizona State, Wisconsin and his alma mater, Tulsa, indeed has a tough-love approach when it comes to the Rams.
“When he comes in a meeting and says `Some guys in here are making the same mistakes and I’m telling you right now guys, we’re looking to replace you,’ it’s not taken as a slap in the face,” cornerback Aeneas Williams said. “It’s taken as, `OK, daddy’s a little upset, we need to get it right.'”
“Daddy” at 43, is just 10 years older than Williams. But after just one year as a coordinator he is being talked about as a serious candidate for a head coaching job soon.
“He just reeks of leadership,” head coach Mike Martz said. “He’s probably the calmest and steadiest individual I’ve ever met, and he stays that way all the time. . . . I know Lovie is going to leave us. He’s destined to be a great head coach. That’s what he is.”
After being given a brand-new defense–only three starters remain from last season’s team–with players specifically picked for their work ethic and positive attitude, Smith says it was simply a matter of installing a system in which they could succeed.
That the “Cover 2” happens to be one of the most basic defenses in the league meant only that it would come down to how well it was played. Before his first mini-camp, Smith played a tape of Tampa Bay’s “pursuit drill,” which has all 11 players chasing the ballcarrier at full speed. If one player let up, all 11 had to run the drill again.
The Rams began that camp with the drill, and the Smith era had begun.
“I think we just made them accountable to each other,” Smith said. “From that, we talked about what our philosophy was. We were going to get 11 guys to the football each play to give maximum effort each play.
“The motivation for it was, `If you want to be a part of this, you have to do it this way. If you do it this way, it doesn’t matter whether we have 11 guys or 22, all the guys who do it will actually play.’ Once you get that concept, they know you’ll play if you deserve to play, and then you have success early and it just feeds on itself.”
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Smith has a “Loaf Chart” in which he keeps track of players who do not fully extend themselves on every play. The result of the hard work, with Williams, a seven-time Pro Bowler providing the prime example, resulted in the Rams going from the seventh-worst defense in points allowed in NFL history last season to seventh best in the league this year.
Thanks to their hustle, the Rams finished third in total defense. They have forced nine more turnovers than last year and have nine players with more than 75 tackles, compared with four in 2000.
Chidi Ahanotu played under Smith at Tampa Bay along with Jackson and Davis. He said he came to the Rams specifically because of Smith and his way of getting the most out of players.
“He’s just a really good person, and then going from there, he’s just a consistent force in everything he does,” Ahanotu said. “When you see someone like that, you can have nothing but respect for him and you can tell he genuinely cares about you as a person and about this team and this defense, and you don’t want to let him down.”
Named Lovie for his great aunt Lavana because his parents were sure he would be a girl, the future star linebacker for Big Sandy (Texas) High said he wasn’t teased about it.
“I even tried to get a Lovie Jr., but my wife and my daughter-in-law didn’t cooperate,” he said.
The unusual name lends itself to a unique personality to which those around him have gravitated all his life. “It’s one of those things you can’t exactly put your finger on, you just know when you see it,” Jackson said. “You just know whenever he says something, it’s very meaningful.
“There are a lot of guys running their mouths a mile a minute and always yelling, so sometimes you have to filter through it to see what they’re talking about. But Lovie, he’s never going to give you more out of his mouth than he has to. So whenever he talks, believe me the room is quiet and everyone is listening.”