Texans linebackers coach Miles Smith sharing NFL 'grind' with father Lovie Smith

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- The preseason. Long days and seemingly a long time until the games that count. But this is the part of the year Miles Smith longs for.

"Training camp is one of the best time periods of the year to me," Miles admitted during an interview with ABC13. "I love the grind. Taking those steps day after day, building something. There's something to be said about that."

And the second-year Texans linebackers coach is building something and taking those steps alongside his father, head coach Lovie Smith.

"It's hard to put into words," Miles said of working on his father's staff. "I'm able to wake up every day and work with my father, one of the best defensive coaches in NFL history. It means everything. This is a man who has worked his butt off against all odds multiple times in his life, and he's going to attack it. He's not changing the way he does things."

It's true. Lovie has not changed the way he does things in decades.

Earlier in training camp, ABC13 was there as the 64-year-old Texans bench boss introduced Miles to his seventh-grade football coach. Glenn Arnold, who mentored Lovie Smith more than a half-century ago in Big Sandy, said Lovie showed leadership skills early on.

"He was a quiet kid back then," the 74-year-old Arnold, entering his 29th year as head basketball coach at Klein High School, told ABC13. "He would quietly say, 'Let's go, guys, we have to get it done.' He's a classy guy, and that's what you want. You want the ones that are classy people that try to do it the right way to be successful."

And to be successful at this level means being a coach all the time, even when it overlaps with being a dad.

"It's a little bit of a mix," Miles said when asked if Lovie is more of a dad or a head coach. "I lean towards him being Coach Smith all the time - talking football 24/7. There's no stopping. There's no off time for coaches. We grind our butts off, wake up, sleep - do it all over again day after day."

Day by day, with dad and son side-by-side.

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