Pop culture: Jacques Smith on Crews control
Jacques Smith keeps close-cropped hair and an admirably groomed beard, but Smith isn't afraid of letting his hair down for a little head-banging music.
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Nor is Tennessee's sophomore defensive end, considered a budding disruptor with star potential for the Vols, afraid to reveal his most embarrassing moment to date.
After all, who's likely to laugh too long at the chiseled, 6-foot-2, 255-pounder from the Chattanooga suburb Ooltewah?
Pressed for time and facing a large mob of reporters, Smith nonetheless carved out some time for this week's edition of "Pop Culture" in the VolQuest.com series' third season.
VOLQUEST: Easy ones first. Any hidden talents, skills, anything like that?
JACQUES SMITH: Talents, no. But I am a video game fanatic and I like to play 'Guitar Hero,' so I guess that's a little bit artistic on my part.
VQ: Alright, if 'Guitar Hero' is your game, what's your best song? Which one do you just kill?
JS: I like 'Sweet Child of Mine' on 'Guitar Hero 3.' I guess that's a classic 'Guitar Hero' track.
VQ: Had you heard 'Sweet Child of Mine' before 'Guitar Hero'? I didn't exactly peg you to be a Guns-n-Roses fan.
JS: Oh yeah, definitely. Definitely.
VQ: Speaking of music, what do you listen to? What do you like?
JS: All kinds. Rap, Christian, R&B, country, rock. I'm pretty much a well-rounded guy with music.
VQ: Any celebrity lookalikes or impersonations?
JS: No impersonations for me, but I mean, Corey Miller always says I look like Terry Crews from 'Friday After Next.'
VQ: What's the most embarrassing thing that's happened to you?
JS: The most embarrassing thing? Probably in middle school at a basketball game, it was after the Pledge of Allegiance and Star Spangled Banner, and when I sat down in the chair, I don't know if I sat down in it funny or sat down in too hard. But the chair completely broke. Everybody was like … I mean, I was the biggest kid already. So everybody was looking at me the whole team. So they saw when the chair broke and that was kind of it for me. I was totally embarrassed. And then we beat them by about 50 points.
VQ: If you were already the biggest guy, I'm guessing not too many people laughed at you then?
JS: Nah, I'm pretty sure they did. I was a good-hearted guy. I didn't intimidate anybody.
VQ: When I visited with you in Ooltewah a couple of years ago, you talked about the importance of being a positive role model as a big brother. How special is that relationship that you have with your younger sister?
JS: It's really close. She looks up to me a lot, and I'm glad she's trying to follow in my footsteps and graduate early and get into college. Take some dual-enrollment classes so she can get a jump-start in life. I think that's just great for my family and our generation. We're just wanting to change our family's culture and it's good what she's doing.
VQ: If you didn't play football, what would you do?
JS: I probably would just be a normal student. I don't know. I'd probably have an internship somewhere, be an intern for some big corporation here. Probably Pilot since it's the biggest one in Knoxville, honestly.
VQ: Last thing. You rehabbed and stayed in shape following the operations on your feet by getting into the boxing ring. You going to think about a boxing career if the whole football thing doesn't work out down the road?
JS: Definitely not. It's great conditioning and it definitely does help your hand speed, but I'll probably incorporate it more into my workouts during the offseason. But, nah. No boxing for me. I don't like getting hit in the face.
