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The Tribune handed the mike to junior wide receiver Marcus Smith, and here's what he had to say:

Bullet. That's what they've been calling me since I first got here on the scout team. I'm not saying it's because I'm fast, but I was always running around all over the place and it stuck. Guys still call me that to this day.

It was really complicated (switching from running back to wide receiver) because I played it a little in high school, but it's nowhere near the same. You've got to run routes, you've got to know footwork, you've got to know coverages. You can't just go out there and run every route and expect to get open.

I like wide receiver a lot more because I'm out open, and I could actually run.

I ran since I was younger. I just love to run. I think it's more mental than anything else. If you like to run, it's going to be fun.

Slow jams. Even though I play football I love slow jams, even before games. I don't like listening to stuff that will get you that much more jacked up because I'm a jacked-up person as it is and that will put me way up there. I think I want to mellow out and think about everything I have to do.

Artist-wise I would say I listen to Ne-Yo now, Chris Brown, Boyz II Men, old-school stuff, Brian McKnight, Luther Vandross - my mom played that till like 4 in the morning every night, so I got hooked on that.

It was Tolkein's "Lord of the Rings." . . . In May, I read all four of those in a month. I just read them because everyone said it was better than the movie. So I read them, and they were a lot more detailed and a lot more stuff. I like sci-fi books.

It started from baseball, actually. One day three of us went out with our socks up. We got in trouble for it, but ever since then I wore my socks high in everything I did, even track. . . . It's a comfort-level thing, I think. It just makes me feel more comfortable with my shoes on. I put two pairs of socks on and it feels tighter; more snug to my feet so I don't run out of my shoes as much as I did in high school.

Robert Turner just because he's got a couple of screws loose. You've got to have a couple of screws loose to play O-line anywhere, so I think Robert would have the upper hand (in a fight). It would be close, but I would say Rob would have the intestinal fortitude to overpower (Michael) Tuohy.

The loudest coaches? Defensively, I would say coach (Troy) Reffett. He's on his guys all the time. It's a good thing because he critiques them to a T. Offensively, I would say coach (Cornell) Jackson. He's the loudest, he has the most sayings, and he's the most funniest to mimic in the locker room.

I didn't want to stay home (in San Diego). More than anything else I just wanted to get away and do something different. This is the most different place I could have gone to out of high school.

Egos. More than anything else, egos (have hurt San Diego State). Even when I came here, that's what I had. I'm like, I'm not going to doubt it, I came from being with other guys that think OK, they're better than water. Like they're the best thing since sliced bread. Everybody thinks that they're the next Terrell Davis or Marcus Allen.

I'd say my best football moment was Texas Tech, when I got the two catches before Wes Zunker hit the game-winning field goal.

Best thing that ever happened to me outside of football? Getting a scholarship to play football. Just getting a scholarship to go and get an education other than thinking about, "OK, I have to go to the military, or I have to go to a job right out of high school. I have to worry about a salary." I had an opportunity to get an education. . . . My mom didn't go to college. My dad didn't go to college. My dad was in the military, and that's what I thought was probably going to be my road. I thought I was going to go into the military, but I got a scholarship here. I think that was the best thing even though it was football.

My mom more than anything just because it was her, me and my brother for probably the better part of my life. She had to go through a lot to get us where we are now. . . . I think she's my hero because she persevered through so much stuff.