Sigh. I guess it's better to laugh than to cry. I think this is the message John L. Smith was trying to get across on Monday when he opened his press conference demanding the media to smile.

During his radio show last night, John L. Smith tried to explain his bizarre behavior on Monday.

“We talk to our football team and our players all the time about body language. And what does your body language portray. If you have negative language it’s going to exude nothing but defeat. In fact, I met with one of our players right afterward and said you know you’re walking off the field with your head down and your chin on the floor. That exudes nothing but defeat. But the alternative is to be positive. To throw your shoulders back, to look up, to maybe smile once in awhile and exude a little positive body language. And then that will exude the opposite: Winning. OK? How do you get anything accomplished in life if you’re negative?"

(Better to laugh than to cry, right Coach???)

“So I walk in, the media, you know that’s kind of like walking in and addressing my football team. You look ... What is going on? Everybody’s head is down. It’s like we’re crying. These guys (referring to his players) will tell you, I’ll say, 'Hey, turn, sit up, pay attention. Put a smile on your face. We’re going to get something accomplished.' And that’s what I would’ve told you guys (again referring to players). So that’s kind of what happened. I walked in there and, my goodness, I’ve never felt so much negativity coming at me in a long, long time. So I said, 'Hey, put a smile on your face. Let’s go get something accomplished. Let’s get better.' You know?

(I can't imagine why where would be any negativity, Coach. You realize your team has just suffered two of the most humiliating losses in school history, right? Right?? You're right though, no sense crying over it. )

“And if somebody in the media or the fans out there would ever misconstrue that as not being serious about the game … then they don’t know us very well do they? That’s our life. Football is our life. And coaching these young men is our life. And winning is our life. So to misconstrue trying to be positive, trying to exude a little positive energy to not caring or not being serious, whoever they are, those people are sadly, sadly mistaken. And I apologize if that’s the way it came across.

“In athletics, what do we teach our guys? Don’t show pain. Right? Why would you show that they’ve hurt you? Right? So why would I walk into a press conference and say, ‘Nick Saban just ripped my heart out?’ Even though you feel that you’re not going to say that. You’re not going to act like that. You’re not going to show that. So, yeah, again, you want to be positive. You want to teach your guys how to handle it. And that’s what we teach in athletics is don’t let them know that they’ve hurt you. Right? So we’re not going to cry. We’re going to get up. And we’re going to bounce back and we’re going to carry on. And we’re going to get better. And that’s the way we are.”

(Better to laugh than to cry... I guess.)

Arkansas plays Rutgers at home on Saturday. The game is on ESPNU at 6pm. Want to go and don't have tickets? No worries. There are plenty of tickets on Ebay and Stubhub. Some as low as $14 last I checked (there were tickets as low as $9 on there earlier. NINE DOLLARS. That's less than a baseball ticket.)

Sigh.. better to laugh than to cry.

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