ACC Kickoff 2023: Day 3

We are LIVE in Charlotte at the ACC Kickoff for the event's final day. We will have plenty of news and updates throughout the day, so stay on ClemsonSportsTalk.com.

@clemsonsportstalk A quick tour around the 2023 ACC Kickoff #ACC #collegefootball #Clemson #FloridaState #Charlotte ♬ GameDay - Radio Edit - Mardyny

We will be adding notes and quotes from today’s event here! Take a look at some of the content from Day 1 or Day 2. Additionally, check out our Twitter and TikTok accounts for more content. 

• 10:00-10:30 North Carolina Mack Brown John Copenhaver, Cedric Gray, Drake Maye
• 11:00-11:30 Clemson Dabo Swinney Tyler Davis, Cade Klubnik, Will Putnam
• 12:45-1:15 Wake Forest Dave Clawson Mitch Griffis, Chase Jones, Michael Jurgens
• 1:30-2:00 Boston College Jeff Hafley Donovan Ezeiruaku, Christian Mahogany, Emmett Morehead
• 2:30-3:00 NC State Dave Doeren Brennan Armstrong, Aydan White, Payton Wilson

North Carolina

THE MODERATOR: We welcome you to day three of the 2023 ACC Football Kickoff Media Event. We are in the grand ballroom, the second floor of the Westin in Uptown Charlotte, and we are thrilled to bring into the room for our first of five schools today, the Tar Heels of North Carolina. Coach Mack Brown and his student-athletes take the stage.

Questions for Coach.

Q. I was curious, what is the most difficult part of being a head coach in this day and age with name, image, likeness, transfer portal, all that? Is it much more difficult than maybe the last few years?

MACK BROWN: Yes, because you're really multi-tasking so much more now than ever before. Roster management is more difficult than it's ever been. With the COVID year you're not sure how many you're going to be able to sign. We were just told the other day, you've got unlimited initials again this year, and we've been recruiting for six months.

There's a lot of change at the NCAA level. We were just told we could bring in 120 for preseason, so we've got kids now that we told couldn't come in until school started, they have to go back and start. How many can you sign? How many did you leave? How many are going to the NFL? How many are going to be in the transfer portal? Who is going to graduate and leave early?

Then NIL is just a totally different situation, and it's more about the collective. We're really lucky that our guys have handled NIL, and it hasn't disrupted our locker room. I'm hearing nightmares across the country of kids being offered money and not being paid. They're getting in the transfer portal. I'm hearing locker rooms are disrupted.

I think when people ask me after my five years out what was the biggest change when I got back, the biggest change was early signing day because you're having official visits now in the spring and guys are committing, and in the past if you think about, we'd have guys come unofficially to a couple of games, and then you had January to have official visits and then they would all sign in February. That's now all happening. We're recruiting guys from the class of '26.

Everything is just speeded up. Then you add NIL, which is a great thing in so many ways. We talk about the negatives all the time, but these guys have a better situation right now than any athletes have ever had because they do have a chance to make some money, which none have done in the past.

But you add that and transfer portal and the collision of the two and tampering, those are things that make it more difficult to be a head coach.

Q. Your offense and defense seem to be night and day at times in terms of the offense, setting records and what not, while the defense finished last in a few categories. Then on top of that, replacing all the starters in the secondary except one and the defensive back coach in Dré Bly. How do you expect to retool there while still expecting to compete and do great things in terms of having a good season and all those good things with winning?

MACK BROWN: Yeah, we had a disastrous game up at App State. I know, I was in the media for five years, and you deal with so many different people when you have an awful game like that, that gets to be the narrative. Then we did the same at Notre Dame. We didn't play well in either of those games, and both of them had good offensive teams.

But after that we played much better in the ACC. We averaged giving up 24 points a game, which is pretty good, modern-day at least. Middle of the pack or a little bit better.

I do feel good about our secondary. We were able to hire Jason Jones who worked with Charlton Warren, one of our defensive coordinators at Indiana. That's been a seamless transition.

I think we're going to be good on defense. We've got to be more aggressive up front and stop the run more on first down because now people are -- if it's a third down and seven, they're going to go for fourth down. So they're going to try to run the ball on third down or hit a short pass and then go for a fourth and four. So the game has changed.

Coach Chizik has the second year under his belt. The staff will be good together. I feel like we'll be good, and we'll get tested early. We've got a really tough schedule to start the season with some very physical teams. South Carolina is going to run the ball. App State will run the ball. Minnesota will run the ball, and Pitt will run the ball.

It will be a great four games to start out to see if we've improved like we think we have on defense.

Q. As you know, Drake is the first Carolina Player of the Year since a guy named Lawrence Taylor. You have a new coordinator. You've lost some of his targets to the NFL, and yet, you say you expect to see a better version of Drake this year. What goes into that kind of optimism under those circumstances?

MACK BROWN: David, I haven't seen you since Friday, so it's been a while. No, Drake has had a great year last year. Best freshman year of any freshman I've ever seen. He just got better and better and better, and people didn't realize until ten days before the opening game, we didn't announce Drake as a starter.

So for him to take the role of leader and lead his football team like he did and be consistent each week, was pretty phenomenal.

Then after the season Drake came in to me and said, help me with these things, these are things I need to improve. That's who he is. That's why he is such a great player. He was raised in a family of champions. He was raised in a family of athletes. His dad was a great quarterback. So he is always looking at what I can do better instead of patting himself on the back.

He is a little bit like me. We have to be careful with him because he is too hard on himself, and he is always "I didn't do this right," well, let's talk about what you did right too, so we can do that.

I think he was involved in the hiring of Chip Lindsey, and we have Clyde Christensen there, who coached the quest best quarterbacks in the NFL. We've also got Freddie Kitchens, who coached two No. 1 draft choices at quarterback. We have a lot of great help around Drake as well.

As far as losing, you lose Antoine Green. You lose Josh Downs. You lose some powerful players, but then you bring in -- you've got some good players, because both of them were hurt some. Neither one played in the bowl game, and we had good players step up.

Whether it's J.J. Jones or Gavin Blackwell or Kobe Paysour, you can talk about those guys that stepped up last year at different times, but we also bring in Nate McCollum and Tez Walker. Nate was very successful in this league at Georgia Tech. He has great speed. He is tough. He can run it as well as throw it, so he can make yards after catch, so he has some similarities to Josh that we lost.

Tez Walker has the most amazing story I've ever seen. Here's a young guy that signs with East Tennessee State, hurts his knee. They gray-shirt him, so he decides to go to UNC Central instead of East Tennessee State. COVID year hits, so he can't play, so he transfers to Kent State. He has a great couple of years of Kent State, and then his whole coaching staff leaves. His grandmother is really sick. She's in Charlotte. She's never seen him play. He transfers back here because that's where he wanted to be in the first place. That's where the transfer portal is so good, to help kids get where they should be in the end, and he also is going to have his grandmother see him play for the first time here in Charlotte when we play South Carolina, and then she'll be able to drive to the home games. And I think we have seven or eight games in the state of North Carolina. Praise the Lord for her that she's going to be able to see him play for the first time.

I think both of those guys are really good. So along with the cast of guys that we've got that are talented, we've added two guys like the two we lost.

Q. You mentioned Tez Walker and Nate McCollum, and you brought in a new play-caller in Chip Lindsey. How is the offensive end with Chip so far? Are you running a similar offense as last year and there will be different wrinkles from last year? How has that been so far?

MACK BROWN: Drake can answer that as well, but when I was looking at a new guy to come in, I wanted to keep our passing game. It's been really good.

So I started looking at guys first that had background with the air raid offense passing game. Chip Lindsey averaged 33 points a game when he was calling plays as a coordinator at Arizona State, Auburn, and Southern Miss. He started this in high school. So he wants to keep the same passing game with a few tweaks. He and Drake have tweaked what we're doing along with Lonnie Galloway, who is our passing game coordinator.

Then you start looking at our running game. We were really good the first two years. We were best in the league. The last two years we've been middle of the road, and we haven't been as good. Running game helps our defense. The running game is our quarterback's best friend with pass protection, and Chip had been involved with Gus Malzahn at Auburn and at Central Florida, and they run the ball so well that I think you'll see us much better on offense in the running game and very similar to what we've been in the passing game.

Q. Obviously you've seen this conference from the inside at Carolina twice and seen it as an analyst on the outside. What can you say about the state of the ACC in your opinion, as we get set to embark on a new schedule, and no divisions and just what your takeaways have been?

MACK BROWN: I think the ACC is in great shape. The whole concern is finances. That's what everybody is looking at now. With the TV market changing so rapidly, your all lives' are changing all over the place with radio and TV and news print. We are at a time where there's a lot of change, not only in our business but college football.

The thing that we've got to do in the ACC is keep looking at how we can make more money. The league is great. We've got some great teams. I think we've been to, what, nine-plus teams have been to bowls since 2015 or something. There's a lot better teams top to bottom in this league than get credit because Clemson has been so dominant, they've gotten all the credit, but there's been some really good teams.

I feel like the league is in great shape. I know that the Commissioner and all the presidents and athletic directors are all looking at how to make more money and how to enhance that package, so we will have the same amount of money as the other leagues as they move forward.

Q. You mentioned the Notre Dame game earlier. I believe you have four more years of playing them not in a row, but before the contract ends. Do you like that kind of frequency? Do you like the arrangement of the games against the Irish for the conference and for North Carolina?

MACK BROWN: I always like playing Notre Dame because they're a great brand and a great team, and it gives you a chance to increase your program because when they walked out of there last year, they were more physical than we were on defense. It showed all of us we need to get better.

We have to recruit better. We have to coach better. We have to play better. Notre Dame is that kind of brand.

They've had a run against the ACC teams. We have to step up and start competing better against them to get where we want to go.

As far as the conference was concerned, I like the divisions. I've always liked that because I like to have a division champion and then have that champion play in the ACC against the other division champion. We went to across the board like we're doing now in the Big 12 before I left, and you can very well have two teams play in the championship game that have just played, and that was less likely the other way, so I liked it much better.

THE MODERATOR: You can switch places with John Copenhaver.

Questions for John.

Q. In terms of we talk about Josh Downs and Antoine Green leaving and all that good stuff, but three of the top six pass catchers from the team last year are in that tight end room, and yourself and two other highly touted guys. How have the tight ends played such a big part in the passing game, and is that expected to continue going forward for North Carolina?

JOHN COPENHAVER: Yeah, no, I think that's a good question. As Coach Brown said, Antoine Green and Josh Downs, they weren't able to do it all for every single game, and I think that's where the tight ends came in.

We didn't really look back. We took the opportunity, and we just went for it. It worked out really well for us, and we're excited to have another good year coming forward.

THE MODERATOR: Your next question is from here at the podium. Why is appearing on so many special teams units important to you, and why should it be important?

JOHN COPENHAVER: I think special teams is a huge game changer. Coach Brown always says that if you have one or two good great plays on special teams, that can really turn the game around, and it really can.

I think just having the drive to be on special teams and trying to just do the best on that will obviously help the game out. I think that having that drive kind of translates to tight end and kind of gives that for all of us.

I think being on special teams is huge, and I think it just kind of goes full circle with the game and it all comes around.

Q. Kind of going off of that, being a reserve tight end, working on special teams, the come-up for you, just what can you say about what you have learned about the adversity and the journey that have you to earn the role you have right now?

JOHN COPENHAVER: Yes, sir. The first couple of years I didn't really play a whole lot. I knew from high school coaches they were saying if you're not getting in at tight end, then you got to work your butt off to try and get on special teams.

That's exactly what I did. Just came to practice every day with my head down and wanted to get the work in and wanted to be on special teams, somewhere that I could get on the field. Special teams was the way to go.

So I just think being able to do that has, again, translated out on to the tight end position.

Q. Yourself, Kamari Morales and Bryson Nesbit all bring very different things to the tight end position. Can you talk to me about what each of you bring as individuals and how that synergy and chemistry of what you all bring on the field together and individually positively impacts this team?

JOHN COPENHAVER: Yeah, no, I think all three of us are great tight ends. I think Bryson Nesbit brings more of the wide receiver aspect to the game. I think all three of us are great matchups on linebackers, safeties. I think we all have our little bits and pieces of the game.

I'll probably be more blocking and receiving too, but I think all three of us are great aspects to the game and can really have some good matchups out there.

THE MODERATOR: Again from the podium. I want to go back to special teams. What mentality do you have to have to be a successful special teams player?

JOHN COPENHAVER: To be honest, I'm just summing it up. You just have to be a savage. You really have to stick your nose in there and be able to be physical and take hits and give hits.

I think whether you have two choices. You can either pick to be the nail or the hammer, and that's the mindset you have to have going into it.

THE MODERATOR: You're getting some smiles and head nods from your teammates and coach, so obviously that's a good answer.

Your last question, John.

Q. You guys obviously are not opening the season with any cupcakes or anything like that. Playing South Carolina here is a difficult matchup. How do you think that will ramp up the focus and attention during preseason camp?

JOHN COPENHAVER: Yeah, I think having that bad taste in our mouths from two years ago here, I think that will really give us some motivation and stuff, but, I mean, to me it's an old rivalry, and I think it will be a great game. I don't think guys are going to have to be motivated for this. I think everyone is going to come in here with a chip on their shoulder and get ready to work. You just have to focus one game at a time, but we're all very excited for this game in Charlotte.

THE MODERATOR: John, thank you. You can replace yourself with Cedric.

Cedric Gray, first question for Cedric?

Q. You've heard a lot about how bad the defense was last year. Does that give you a little bit extra edge, a little extra motivation coming in this year to prove this year's defense isn't last year's defense?

CEDRIC GRAY: Yeah, definitely for sure. It definitely leaves a bad taste in my mouth when people kind of talk about our team and talk about how bad of a defense we've been sometimes.

Especially being the leader as a defense, I kind of take that personally. But, yeah, I think this year as the leader of the defense, with the guys this offseason, we've been really working hard, just becoming better football players, getting in the film room, becoming smarter.

I think now that we've got a year under our belt with Coach Chizik and this new defense, I think you're going to see a defense that's a lot more comfortable and confident in what we're doing.

So I'm very excited for this year, and I definitely think you'll see a better version of our defense this year.

THE MODERATOR: From the podium, to follow up on that a little bit. What do you and the guys do off the field to make sure that you've got that bond, that rapport for when you get back on to the field?

CEDRIC GRAY: I would say just we have a camaraderie with each other. I believe we do a lot of things with each other, we work out together. We watch film with each other, we live with each other. I think it's that camaraderie and that bond that kind of keeps us very close with each other.

Q. Cedric, you were mentioned as a guy who was All-ACC, who was mentioned on some All American teams, who was on a bunch of watch lists this year. Had well over 130 tackles last year. What was it that motivated you to come back to Chapel Hill despite some whispers about you being taken fairly early in the draft, if you chose to come out?

CEDRIC GRAY: I think, first and foremost, I didn't hit my ceiling as far as college football. I feel like I still had a lot of things that I could improve on personally.

Not only that, not like winning an important bowl game or an ACC Championship here was very, like, important to me, and I haven't been able to do that since I've been here. I'm going into my fourth year, so it's on my regular four years. So I don't think I was in a particular rush. I think it was just about timing.

I think, you know, this year is the perfect timing for me.

Q. You were a star here in high school in this city, and you are going back into a senior year starting, playing in this city. What does it mean for you personally to kind of put a stamp on the city as you come back and play your senior year?

CEDRIC GRAY: I think it's just a huge honor to come back to the city where I'm from and kind of play here. Lots of friends and family wants to come to the games and different things like that. But it's definitely a huge honor for me to be from this state, to play for Carolina and to be that representation. It's definitely very exciting.

Q. Looking at defensive rankings last year in ACC, North Carolina was last. So how does the defense want to work on improving the pass rush this year?

CEDRIC GRAY: Yeah, I think we've done a lot of different things this offseason to kind of improve that. I think, first and foremost, I think our D-line has improved tremendously. Kind of working with them throughout the spring and the summer, but not only that, but I think we've added some new wrinkles to the pass rush game. Not only new wrinkles, but I think, like I said, this is our second year in the defense. I think everybody has a better understanding of how we're trying to attack teams and different things like that.

So I definitely do think it will be better this year.

THE MODERATOR: Cedric, thank you. You can swap places with Drake, and we'll spend about five minutes with Drake Maye.

Questions for Drake.

Q. Drake, clearly you're the best quarterback in the ACC and top five in the country, and the way the Heels' season ended last year, as being a leader, are you over that? Are you using it as motivation going into this season? If you guys get back to the ACC title game, would you want to see Clemson again to get some get-back, or does it matter who the opponent is?

DRAKE MAYE: Obviously the way we ended last year, lost a lot of close games. Any way you end the season like that, I use it as motivation. That's all we talk about.

We were 9-1 rolling into Georgia Tech, and we finished 9-5. Just finding ways to use it as motivation, but at the same time get over that hump and look forward to this season.

We're excited. That's our goal to get back to the ACC Championship. I don't think Coach or any of the guys care who we play, just as long as we're in it. So that's the main goal. That's what we're working towards.

We have to start off on the right foot against South Carolina, and from there just go right ahead.

Q. Being such a pivotal sports figure on campus as QB1, what are your thoughts on the current mental health crisis among collegiate athletes across the nation right now?

DRAKE MAYE: Oh, no, I think mental health is a huge thing. Along with physical health, mental and physical health together, it means the world as an athlete.

With North Carolina I think, especially the university itself does a great job giving us mental health days. Not only athletes, but as students. We're students at the end of the day. We're student-athletes.

Just having days we're off from class and can focus on, like I said, calling some family members or getting in touch with somebody and just worrying about our mental health.

I think Coach Brown does a great job. Dwight Hollier runs our mental health. He was a former player at North Carolina. He does a great job. We have so many resources nowadays in college, especially as college football players.

Just not being afraid to reach out. As us teammates and friends, just if you see somebody, the big thing is asking if they're okay and really having a genuine conversation with them. That's the big thing on mental health, have somebody there for you for support.

Obviously mental health is a huge thing in the sport and just in daily life for everybody, so...

Q. Like Coach Brown was saying with the new additions to the staff, it seems like you've been really hit with some cool new knowledge with Coach Christensen, Lindsey, and Kitchens. What's that been like working with those guys?

DRAKE MAYE: It's been awesome. First off, Coach Lindsey, right off the bat hitting it off with Coach Lindsey. He has been awesome. Just getting new knowledge from different offensive coordinator. Coach Longo was great, but just hearing somebody else's voice, you pick up new things.

Obviously that's the great thing about having a new offensive coordinator in there. He is calling the shots, and you get to hear his perspective of things, maybe different from Coach Longo's and get the full swing of what two great offensive coordinators think.

Coach Christensen, he has coached Peyton Manning and Andrew Luck and Tom Brady. So just sitting there with some tape watching old drills of them, picking up little things. He has coached the best, so just trying to pick up whatever I can from him.

Coach Kitchens was just a few years back the head coach of the Browns. I think he knows a few things, and having him in there, coaching John and the guys, and you have a great room in there. So just, like I said, trying to soak it all up.

Just ask all the questions. I was asking the other day about Baker and some of those guys he coached, their mentality and competitor. I think you can never -- no question is a bad question with guys like them.

So just soaking up what I can, and at the end of the day that's what kind of brings us all together... football, the sport of football. Like I said, asking everything.

Q. When I think about you, I kind of think of the movie "The Program" when they did the Heisman candidacy. How are you able to dial in and focus on the season when you are getting a lot of Heisman hype, and you are also getting a lot of NFL Draft hype? How are you able to zero in and focus on this upcoming season?

DRAKE MAYE: Like I said, just keeping the main thing the main thing. That's winning games. I think that's what Coach says. We try to win all the games.

All those personal accolades come with winning football games and having North Carolina being up there in the conversation of the ACC Championship and bigger things.

Like I said, starts with football, winning games. Like I said, last year I was competing and Coach said ten days before the game, announced the starter. Just find that same mentality that got me here and not lose sight of that. Don't lose sight of what got me here and the hard work and staying extra throwing and same things.

Not let, like I said, the hype and that stuff take away from what we're really here for, and that's playing football.

Q. The ACC is an elite level conference in terms of quarterback play in particular. I'm sure Mack would want to hear you say you're just focusing on yourself, but in reality with just the few of us here, you ever wake up on Sunday morning, go on your media sites, and see what the other quarterbacks in the conference did compared to what you did on Saturday?

DRAKE MAYE: No. I don't think I wake up Sunday morning and go check it, but I think you obviously see some highlights and you see, oh, he had a big game. I think the cool thing about it, I was just telling John, I know all the quarterbacks in here. I just said, what's up, to Emmett and Brennan and Mitch.

So you get to know all these guys down there at Manning Passing Camp, and basically I was rooming with Jordan Travis, so you get to see these guys and meet them. They're all great dudes, great players.

You kind of create that quarterback bond. It's kind of hard to explain, but this position is special, so you get a chance just to -- we're all going through the same thing, so kind of to have somebody there that's going through the same thing and just kind of relate and stuff.

Yeah, I wouldn't say I look up Sunday morning, but definitely some big games from guys and might send them a text. Last year Sam Hartman, I knew Sam Hartman well, so when he had some big games throwing, I would send him a text and stuff.

THE MODERATOR: Drake, thank you. North Carolina, good luck. Have a good season.

 

Wake Forest Demon Deacons

Coach Dave Clawson

Mitch Griffis

Chase Jones

Michael Jurgens

Press Conference

 

THE MODERATOR: We welcome you back after lunch here inside the grand ballroom, second floor of the Westin in Uptown Charlotte.

 

We are in the latter half of our 2023 ACC Football Kickoff Media Event. We're happy to welcome Wake Forest, the Demon Deacons to the stage.

Questions for Coach Dave Clawson.

Q. I wanted to ask you about Mitch and his best attribute, you think as he is going to be the full-team starter obviously? What do you like best about Mitch?

DAVE CLAWSON: When you talk about quarterbacks, they have to have more than one attribute. I think with Mitch there's a very complete skill set.

He is extremely accurate. He has good arm strength. He is athletic. He has really good instincts, great work ethic, super teammate, and he is genuine.

You know, he's ready to go, and I think what happened last year when he had to start the first game, that's not anything that anybody wanted, but I think just having that experience of being the starter will help him this year. He's smart. He knows doing it for one game and doing it for 12 consecutive games is a completely different challenge, but I think he's ready to go. He just has a great work ethic.

Q. Every two years since 2016 you all have had exactly 15 wins. Seven wins, then eight, then seven, then eight, then 4-11. You had, I believe it was eight last year. Is that a level of consistency that you're like, hey, this program is good here? Is there another level that you want to take it to? How do you go about accomplishing that with a team that's losing quite a bit of production?

DAVE CLAWSON: Thanks for that stat. I never knew that, that it was 15 every two years. I think there's two parts to the question.

The first is, yes, there is a level of consistency that we want to our program. I said this a few years ago that I hope we get to the point at Wake Forest that in our down years we're still getting seven and eight wins and getting the bowls. Obviously two years ago in '21 when we had 11 wins and played for the ACC Championship, that's always the standard we would like to get to.

But the way that I approach it is that we want to maximize the ability of every team we have. So I think every football team kind of has a range of what they can accomplish, and our goal every year is to maximize that range. We'll start figuring out in the next month during training camp what the range of this football team is.

I think we have a chance to have a really good team. We lost 11 starters, but we're not young. A great example is at left tackle we lost a seventh-year player, Je'Vionte' Nash. Well, Wake is going to be young again. The guy that's starting left tackle for us now is a seventh-year senior, Spencer Clapp. We lost two six-year players on the O-line in Loic Nya and Sean MaGinn. Luke Petitbon in his fourth year is back.

So we have guys that maybe haven't played a lot, but they've been in our program for three, four, five years, and now they're having their opportunity to play.

There's still a maturity of our team. We're not as experienced, but we'll get that experience, and I think we'll be in really good shape.

Q. It feels like a lot of the talk about Wake Forest this offseason isn't about the team, whether it's people you've lost to the transfer portal, the NIL boogeyman coming to try and take some players away. You're replacing a new wide receivers coach, cornerback coach. There's not a whole lot of talk of what's actually on the team. How do you keep the guys sort of focused on, hey, here's who is in the room, here's what we're going to do and keep the focus back on them versus what's not there?

DAVE CLAWSON: You know, this whole narrative, and really Sam Hartman went to Notre Dame. Rondell Bothroyd went to Oklahoma. Those guys spent five years in our program. They did everything right.

What's not talked about is all the players who stayed. You don't think these guys all had offers to go to other schools? We had six to eight players that were tampered with, that were given great NIL opportunities, and they all chose to stay.

I look at it as a positive. We had the second fewest players in the country going into the portal. So like most football teams in the country, yeah, we lost some guys in the portal. I'm more happy about all the guys that stayed.

That doesn't make as good of a headline for a story, but our program has been based on, again, recruiting the right guys, retaining them, and graduating them.

We are still attempting to run a college football program at Wake Forest. We have a collective, and I'm sure all these guys are getting something. It's not like we're ignoring the new age of college football, but our program is still based on retention and graduation.

If you look at the amount of players who went into the portal, I would argue that we're managing this as well as anybody in the country right now.

Q. Talk to me about the opening of the McCreary Football Complex and what it means to the program.

DAVE CLAWSON: It's just another major step in developing a top-flight Power Five program. There's this old narrative that somehow Wake Forest isn't as committed to football as other Power Five schools. Again, that narrative from the 1950s to 2000, I wish it would go away.

In the last seven years we've invested more than $120 million in new facilities. We have a brand new indoor that we opened in '16, the McCreary Fieldhouse. We have the Sutton Sports Performance Center. I would put our weight room, our meeting rooms, our day-to-day facilities up there with anybody in the country.

We just opened up close to a $40 million complex. It's not a locker room, it's a complex. Equipment room, locker room, dining facility, players' lounge. So there is an institutional commitment to football.

I've been very fortunate to be the head coach at Wake Forest during a time that all this investment has been made, and I think the reason we've been successful is we are invested. We do care about football.

Our success on the field, it's not a result of one coach or a handful of players. It's a whole army of people that have sacrificed and allowed us to be in this position. So we're grateful to Bob and all the other donors who allowed us to move into the facility, but if you have been following our program, it's every two or three years we're opening up another $20 million, $30 million, $40 million facility. So come visit us. Visit every other Power Five school, and I think when you look at our facilities, you'll have a hard time saying Wake Forest isn't committed to football.

Q. Going off what you said and what it is, you're one of the longest-tenured coaches that we're seeing in the ACC of over a decade at Wake. What's kept you coming back, and what makes you keep believing in what's being built there and just maybe go a little bit further about the fact that they've banked on you at Wake Forest and continued to extend and believe in your mission and your vision and your culture?

DAVE CLAWSON: First of all, I view myself as very fortunate. In this day and age in college football to be able to live in the same house with your family and your kids to be able to go to schools and be in the same place, I'm fortunate that Wake Forest has allowed me to do that, but I think I'm very philosophically aligned with the place.

The reason I got into coaching college football are all the things we do at Wake Forest. We recruit high-character young men that care about their schoolwork. They graduate. They have very exciting trajectories after Wake Forest, whether it be in the NFL or other professions.

I don't have to fight my conscience going to work every day. That's a great feeling as a football coach that when you go to work every day at a school that your value system aligns with the institution.

My family loves Winston-Salem, and we get good players, and we're supported by our administration. I get to coach, I think, just outstanding young men that are extremely well-rounded.

We went to dinner last night, and the conversations we have with these guys, they're adult conversations. I just love the caliber of student-athlete we get, the relationships we're able to develop, and when we say we're adding value to their lives in ways other than football, it's not a cliche. That's very cliche-ish, and everybody says it. We proactively do those things. So I go to bed every night believing that we're doing these -- we're coaching football for the right reasons.

Now, having said that, you have to win, and if you don't win, all those other things, you don't get an opportunity to do it. We're very driven by competitive success as well.

Q. This is your tenth year at Wake Forest, but it's also four of your assistants' tenth year at Wake Forest. Coach Higgins has been with the program for the entirety of your stay. How valuable is having that program and coaching stability for the guys who are less experienced and trusting them on the field this upcoming season?

DAVE CLAWSON: I mean, I say it all the time. The reason that we've had success as a program is that we've had continuity.

Our head strength coach, Chad Bari, has been with me 13 years. Warren Ruggiero and John Hunter 15 years. Nick Tabacca ten years. Dave Cohen, ten years.

If you are going to be a development program, which we are, I mean, we don't get four and five-star recruits. Somehow we manage to win games because I think our coaches, our strength staff, our nutritionists, our trainers, we do a great job developing players. One of the reasons they develop is from day one when they come in Michael Jurgens, day one as a freshman, his offensive line coach, Nick Tabacca says this is how we get in a stance, this is how we pass set, this is how we zone block.

When you are in your program three, four, five, and in his case six years, and those things never change, you can get really, really good at them. I think that's why we've had success is that we've had a great staff, and I'm fortunate that they've chosen to stay too.

So this job would not be nearly as good as it is or has been if we constantly had a revolving door with assistant coaches. Again, I credit our administration. It's not like these guys, like our players, haven't had opportunities to leave.

The school has stepped up and done things to keep them and allowed us to be successful.

THE MODERATOR: If you would like to switch places with Mitch, Coach, we'll spend about five minutes with our student-athlete.

Questions for Mitch.

Q. Now that Sam is elsewhere, this is undeniably your program, your offense to run. You're the face of it. Is that daunting to you in any way, and if not, why not?

MITCH GRIFFIS: It's not daunting. It's an awesome experience. It's a blessing to be here. It's a dream come true. That's how I treat it.

Q. In terms of this team bringing in so many new faces that maybe are not new to the program, but are new nationally that people may not know about, who are some guys that you think of that you're like, by the end of this season y'all will know this guy or these guys' names?

MITCH GRIFFIS: Yeah, I think a lot of you guys know who justice Ellison is, but I think he is the heartbeat of our football team, especially on offense.

Going into his second or third year starting at tailback for us, but he is a true Swiss Army knife. He is awesome in the pass game blocking, awesome running the football, great out of the back field. Phenomenal teammate. Phenomenal guy. I think he is the most underrated player in the ACC.

I'm really excited for people to get to know him even more this year. I think he is going to have an awesome year.

Q. Over the last four, five years it felt like every quarterback has had their own identity at Wake Forest. Walker was your dual-threat guy. Jamie Newman was a battering ram. Sam Hartman was a gun slinger. What's your identity going to be like for the neck two, three, four years, however long you're at Wake Forest? What kind of freedom is Warren giving you as a signal caller now?

MITCH GRIFFIS: Again, I can't thank Coach R enough for what he has done with our football team and our offense. He has allowed me to be confident in our offense and our play calls just how much time he has poured into me. An adjective I describe myself is I am calculated risk taker. Kind of that gunslinger mentality.

I understand how important it is to protect the football and how turnovers can lose you football games. Calculated risk taker is how I describe myself.

Q. You've had to wait your turn at Wake Forest. We don't see that a lot in college football with the ability to go into the transfer portal and just leave and go somewhere else. We don't see a lot of that competition, so just what you can say about that willingness to wait and that willingness to go through the adversity and actually test yourself and test your meddle and get better.

MITCH GRIFFIS: There's no other person I would rather play for than Coach Clawson and Coach Ruggiero.

I think college football it's rare to find programs that do things the right way in all facets of the program.

Coach is honest with us. He has never lied to me, never done anything wrong to me or to my teammates. I can't thank him enough for that.

There's no one else I would rather play for.

In terms of playing time, it was hard to wait. I'm a competitor. I wanted to play. I wish I could have played earlier, but again, there was no other group of guys I wanted to play with. It was well worth the wait, and I still have three years left, so my career is just getting started.

THE MODERATOR: From the podium. In a clutch moment would you rather run or pass?

MITCH GRIFFIS: Whatever I have to do to be successful (laughing).

THE MODERATOR: I'll ask from the podium here. Explain to us what the term "gain and edge" means for '23?

MITCH GRIFFIS: Gain and edge is a mantra that Coach Clawson gave to our football team this year. I think it's just doing whatever you can every single day to find that extra inch to win the football game. Coach always talks about finding the point. You always have to go into every game thinking you're a one-point underdog. I think that's the kind of the mentality we've had since January, just doing everything we can to find one more point every single day, and get 1% better each day. So when we get to the tight games late in the season, we can find that extra point and come out in those close games.

THE MODERATOR: Mitch, thank you very much. You can switch positions with Chase if you like. We will have five minutes with Mr. Jones, our linebacker from Warren, New Jersey.

Questions for Chase.

Q. In 2021 Wake Forest forced 29 turnovers, and last season was only 16. What steps do you take as a leader of that defense to create more pressure?

CHASE JONES: That's something that we've been working on actively just trying to be more disruptive. I think Coach Lambert has done a really good job implementing drill work, punching at the football and being ball hawks making sure if we get the opportunity to intercept the ball, we come through with it. That's something we've been emphasizing over the offseason and spring ball, and we'll continue to emphasize in fall camp.

That's something that we're working at every day.

Q. Chase, it felt like for a couple of years 2020 and 2021 the linebacker room was kind of we'll see, but this year it feels like the linebacker group might be one of the strongest positions on the team. What's gone on with the turnover in that room, and what has Brad Lambert and Glenn Spencer and even new analyst David Ellison what have they brought to the table here?

CHASE JONES: I think a big credit I would say is the people who came before me. I got to give credit to Luke Masterson and Ryan Smenda laying the ground work of what it means to be a linebacker at Wake Forest, and then Coach Spencer and Ellison and Lambert coming in and bringing that experience of being in college football for so long. It's just a little lesson that they've been able to teach us over the past year now has been really good. I'm really grateful for it. I'm excited for the season.

Q. The home finale win over Syracuse showcased your ability to force quarterback hurries. How do you plan to continue disrupting opponents' offenses and creating turnovers in the 2023 season?

CHASE JONES: Yeah, I think that just comes with just working every day at it. Just taking it one day at a time and trying to be disruptive in practice every day at practice and during fall camp, and it will carry over into the game.

Luckily, I got a really good -- we have really good group up front, and they were disruptive last year, and I think they'll be the same way this year, and I'm excited to play behind them, play alongside them.

Q. Coach briefly touched on earlier the possible preconceived ideas that people have about Wake Forest and about how they might not be committed to football and what not. How do you prove them wrong? How do you prove those people wrong?

CHASE JONES: I think that as a school and as a culture we don't get too caught up in the outside noise. As much as you want to prove people wrong and prove the doubters wrong, I think we're more focused on proving ourselves right. I think everybody in our facility, everybody that wears the black and gold knows what we can do and knows the type of talent we have in the building. We're just trying to prove ourselves right every single day.

Q. You spoke about the coaches and advice, different things that they've given to you. What's the biggest piece of advice or biggest positive that you've been able to take away from the coaching staff that maybe you tell yourself through a practice or being in the weight room when there's that downtime or maybe that moment of adversity that you lean back on?

CHASE JONES: I would say something that Coach Lambert has brought with him since he has been here is just his kind of slogan is "elevate the jersey." That just means that when you are working and you want to quit, look at the guy next to you and understand that you need to keep going so we can keep elevating the jersey. It's bigger than just you.

I would say just understanding that it's not just you in this race. We're all in it together, and everybody is depending on you.

Q. You alluded to Ryan Smenda and what he meant to you a little bit earlier. So two-parter here. Number one, what is your personal leadership style, and number two, when you said they showed you what it's like to be a linebacker at Wake Forest, what does that mean per se?

CHASE JONES: So to answer the first part, me as a leader, I feel like I've always led by example. Over the past few years just getting more and more vocal and more and more confident in that role as a captain and just being more of a vocal leader.

As far as kind of Ryan and Luke and the guys that went before me showing me the way, I think being a linebacker at Wake Forest means you take preparation extremely serious. You can pick any practice over the past two years, turn on the film, and Ryan is flying around like it's the ACC Championship. That's just kind of the standard that we try to live up to every single day and understand that every practice is really important. Watching film is really important. Just taking pride in the preparation side of the game.

THE MODERATOR: Chase, thank you. You can hand off with Michael.

Questions for Michael Jurgens.

Q. Michael, why did you decide to come back when you were thinking about it and all that? What was the major decision in returning?

MICHAEL JURGENS: Yeah, you know, it's like anything, it's a myriad of things. A lot of discussions with Coach Clawson and Tabacca and my family. Really it felt like I had more to give both on and off the field. People like Coach Clawson, my teammates, Coach Tabacca, Chad, they've just put so much into me, and I felt like I had more I could give back to them, and excited to be back.

Q. Being a member of the All-ACC Academic Team and a semifinalist for the Williams B. Campbell Trophy, how do you balance your responsibilities on the field with your academic pursuits, and how does your dedication to education influence your approach to football?

MICHAEL JURGENS: We're at Wake we've been fortunate enough to have the same staff, as you have touched on for ten years. When you have consistency like that, you also have consistency of culture and of teammates. There have kind of just been people ahead of me who have showed me the right way to do things and how to have successful routines.

I think that a saying that we really live out here at Wake Forest is that the way you do anything is the way you do everything. Or maybe the other way around (laughing).

I think that we embody that just as well as any program in the country. It starts up top, and I think our coaches do a really good job of facilitating that. Hopefully older players mentor younger players and do the same.

Q. Two-parter here for you, Michael. Off the field how did you graduate from the hardest major at Wake Forest in three and a half years? I don't understand that. On the field, how have you seen the growth of guys like Luke Petitbone, Nick Sharpe, Matt Gulbin, George Sell. What are those guys going to bring to the table this year?

MICHAEL JURGENS: Yeah, I think for the first part, thank you, but it's kind of just, leak I just said, you have a routine. Coach Clawson says this all the time. That if things are important to you, then you find a way to do it.

If academics is important to you, then you're going to find a way to thrive in it, just like you are in football.

Your second question, yeah, it goes back to what I said again. Having Coach Tabacca in that room for ten years is really something special. He has recruited a certain type of player, the type of people that love football, the type of people that take things seriously and people that can humble themselves and remove their ego and learn from people and be challenged and challenge others.

Guys like Luke and Nick Sharpe and Matt Gulbin and Zach Vaughn and George Sell. It's really special to be able to mentor those guys the same way that Nate Gilliam and Jake Benzinger and Ryan Anderson mentored me.

Q. Michael, you've been named to almost every watch list at interior offensive lineman can be named to, and many people -- when you turn on your film, you're always where you have to be and all that good stuff. With that being said, is the uniqueness of your offense, is the long mesh and all that goes with that, is that a plus or a minus or it doesn't really matter? Y'all could go air raid or triple option, and you would still be the same you. What would that look like for you?

MICHAEL JURGENS: That's a good question. I think that with any style of football that you play, it comes down to your preparation. I think there were three things you can control on the football field, and that's your preparation, your technique, and your effort.

I think that you are on coaching staff does a really good job of pushing us to excel in those three things. It's really what it comes down to.

If you are a football player, you are going to learn what you have to do, and you're going to do it right.

Q. Your coach is a humble guy who doesn't love to talk about himself, but the only ACC coaches in football in 70 years who have won more bowl games than he has won at Wake Forest are guys like Bobby Bowden and Frank Beamer, Hall of Fame type guys. Since he won't brag about himself, how do you put into words after four years with him what makes him such a special and successful coach?

MICHAEL JURGENS: Yeah, six years (laughing). Everything he says he practices what he preaches. It's all those things. It's focusing on those things off the field, those intangibles that translate to on-the-field success.

Really just developing relationships and staying true to who he is, like Mitch said. I don't think anybody in our program will tell you that they've ever been lied to by Coach, which is something that's really special in college football.

I think that you are on culture and our success is an embodiment of him as a coach, and I think that's actions and numbers speak louder than words.

THE MODERATOR: Your last question from the podium. You serve as a mentor and a coach for a Special Olympics bocce ball team? Why bocce ball? Why Special Olympics?

MICHAEL JURGENS: My high school had -- it was my JV football coach. I'm from a small town, and he is kind of like the mayor of the town, if you had to pick someone.

He actually started that program of bocce ball. It was really just the option given to us as a winter sport. I played football and lacrosse and didn't have a winter sport. I have my letterman in bocce ball. A fun fact.

It was a great experience to get to be with fellow classmates with special needs. Just a genuine experience. It's just like any sport. You're competing. You're getting to know everybody. Good stuff.

THE MODERATOR: Michael, thank you. Wake Forest, thank you. Good luck this season.

Boston College Eagles

Coach Jeff Hafley

Donovan Ezeiruaku

Christian Mahogany

Emmett Morehead

Press Conference

 

THE MODERATOR: Welcome back to the second floor fo Westin in Uptown Charlotte. We welcome Boston College and the Eagles to the room. Coach Jeff Hafley and then we'll have five minutes each with his student-athletes.

 

Questions for Coach.

Q. They always say games are won and lost in the trenches. Last year obviously you guys had some struggles up front, brought in only four starts to the season. This year you bring in 137 starts as a unit. You also bring back all-conference Christian Mahogany there. How do you feel that kind of is really going to -- you got experience for a lot of the young guys last year. How do you feel that's going to pay dividends going forward as a lot of people have said Boston College should have the most improved offensive line in college football?

JEFF HAFLEY: First of all, I love your question. I love your numbers. I agree with your statement.

That guy brings a big smile to my face right now, and he should bring a big smile to our entire team.

Last year in May we found out he got injured, and I still felt pretty good about the line. We only had four, like you said. We had four starts on the whole offensive line, and my biggest concern was, was anybody going to get hurt? Well, then week one or week two we lose our starting right tackle to a torn ACL. Our center tears his meniscus and breaks his left hand, and our left guard tears his labrum.

Now we're taking guys on defense, and we're moving them to offense. I have a ton of respect for these guys. We had guys step up. It was hard. Jackson Ness played guard and played center. He hadn't played center in high school, and he started against Wake Forest at center. Dwayne Allick was a defensive lineman and started every game at guard. Jack Conley, Ozzy Trapilo those guys battled all year, and now a year later we have 137 starts versus four.

At BC you have to run the ball, and we're going to run the ball. The key to our team, the strength of our team needs to be the O-line, and it will be the O-line. It's led by that guy right there. He brings a nastiness and a toughness.

Then you have guys like Drew Kendall, who was a Freshman All-American as a center, who was tough enough to play with a torn meniscus, and he is back.

Ozzy Trapilo at tackle, and Jack Conley, who I already mentioned.

We brought in two transfers, Logan Taylor, who started at Virginia at left tackle, and Kyle Hergel, who is one of the strongest offensive linemen and one of the tougher kids that I have seen. Now there's competition.

Now all those guys who got experience last year and went through it hard, they're competing for jobs. A lot of the guys who were in the two-deep were our starters last year.

That's how it has to be here, and that's what excites me the most about this team is the offensive line. Now, we have to go prove it, and we have to go line up in training camp, and now we're going to be able to practice and be physical, which we weren't able to do.

So as hard as it was last year, I'm really excited and optimistic about the return of Christian along with the rest of our offensive line.

Q. You talked about the return of the offensive linemen and the return of Christian and a lot of that. However, for the players who could tally statistics your returning 80% of that production as well. I know that last year was a very down year where you saw a ton of injuries and whatnot, but is a silver lining and a reason for optimism in Boston College fans not how much you're bringing back from that team, even though they did struggle mightily?

JEFF HAFLEY: Yeah, look at the production. We returned more production I think than most teams in the ACC and maybe in the country.

At the end of the year 37 out of the 44 in our two-deep were first and second year players. Were some ready to play? Maybe not. Some were thrown into fire as true freshmen, and they got a little taste of it.

They went through some really hard times. Then all of a sudden you get a team that's 28-point underdogs that goes into Raleigh as 28-point underdogs. No one thinks we can win the game. We go down I think 14 within the first three minutes. Emmett rallies us back and throws a touchdown to another freshman in Joe Griffin, and we win the game that no one thought we could win.

So you can ask these guys. There's excitement, and there's energy, and our guys are getting older. That's how we have to win at BC. Most of our guys are still underclassmen. We got a lot of juniors and seniors and we brought in some transfers. The attitude, the effort, I think it's contagious.

We're not going to sit up here and talk about how good we are going to be. We have to go play and go to training camp next week, and it's probably as excited as I have been since I have been a head coach to get into a training camp, but we have to go prove it, and we have to get better.

I really like this team. I like the players, and I think they're just as excited as I am.

Q. Some people focus on the problems. Some focus on the solution. Like you said, you're not going to say how good you're going to be because you have to play those games, but when we see you during the season, we're seeing a piece of that iceberg. We're not seeing the majority of all the work that goes in, so culture-wise and building-wise, what do you get excited about at Boston College about what you are doing so that tip of the iceberg is going to look like something positive at the end of the year?

JEFF HAFLEY: I think last year we sat up here and talked about Zay Flowers and Zay could have left. Then you talk about Zay Flowers, who was the 22nd pick in the draft, at the end of the season when we're a three-win team, that guy is playing harder for his teammates than a lot of people.

There's a lot of guys that would have opted out and not played in that game. I mean, there's more examples.

Look at Donovan. Donovan a true sophomore led the ACC in sacks. What do you think happened this offseason? He got called. He got called by schools. He got messaged by schools, and he got offered a lot of money.

We won three games, but we didn't lose our good young players. Same thing with Christian. Christian could have went to the NFL. I'm sure Christian could have went to any team in the country, but he already said it; he wasn't leaving.

Our guys believe in what we're doing. More importantly, our guys believe in each other, and they believe in the coaching staff.

This thing I knew would take some time to build, and I think you're going to see some of those pieces like you talked about as we get going. That's why I'm really excited because I love these guys on this team. I love the players on the team. It makes it a lot of fun to coach them.

Q. You start off with three straight home games to start and then four out of the first five. How important is it to get across to your team about starting strong with having that many home games to start the season?

JEFF HAFLEY: Yeah, you've got to take advantage of that. You have to start fast. You have to use home field advantage. The beauty of it, too, the first three are at noon, so there's consistency. There's time to recover. There's time for these guys after the game to go be with their families, but you're home. You're not traveling.

To have that opportunity to start at home the first three and have as many home games as we do, we need to take advantage of it. We have an unbelievable student section, and we've had an unbelievable fan base this last couple of years, and I'm excited that we get to start fast in front of them.

THE MODERATOR: From the podium, speaking of transition, you've got some coaching changes. You've elevated Coach Shimco to offensive coordinator, Coach Chudzinski is rejoining the team, and then you also have co-defensive coordinators in Coach Abdul-Rahim and Coach Duggan. What is it about what you are trying to put into place plays through those coaches, and what's your strategy in all these coaching additions and changes?

JEFF HAFLEY: I wanted to make sure we got the staff right. I'm really excited about Coach Chud. Coach Chud has an incredible reputation in the National Football League as a play-caller, offensive coordinator, head coach. He has been a big part of just a game management and helping me set some things up and being a big mentor to me.

The fact to kind of bring him on full-team and the development of the scheme and the players is probably as excited as I've been. If you ask these guys, especially Emmett and Christian, I think they'll reiterate that.

I think the combination of him and Steve Shimko, who has worked with our quarterbacks and who I have been around now for three years, very smart. Processes at a high level. I think they really compliment each other well and work together very well. They've had a prior relationship.

So I'm really excited about that. Defensively obviously that's my background, so our defensive scheme is not going to change very much. Sean Duggan was with me at Ohio State. Another really sharp, up-and-coming young coach.

Coach Aazaar, incredible relationship with our players. Him in front of the room is really impressive. Very knowledgeable.

Then I got a chance to bring in Paul Rhoads. Paul was one of my biggest mentors. He helped me get started in football. He was a defensive coordinator at Pitt when I was hired to be -- he hired me to be his GA. Young guy, 25 years old. Then I was hired full-time to be the secondary coach. Kept in touch with him. Probably the guy I've looked up to most as a defensive back coach, young defensive back coach and defensive coach in general. So to have the opportunity to bring him on, it was huge for me. Not only as a great defensive coach, but an ex-head coach, being the ex-head coach at Iowa State. So now I have two ex-head coaches on the staff, which I think is huge.

More importantly, I they these guys see it, and they're excited to play for them, which is huge.

Q. I'm just wondering how has -- you touched on it a little bit -- how has Logan Taylor fit in since joining you guys? How has the transition been?

JEFF HAFLEY: Love him. He has really changed and developed his body. Obviously he has gotten a little older where, he has three years left. Tough, tenacious, practices really hard, knowledgeable.

He is going to have a chance to be a really, really good football player. I think Emmett is probably pretty excited to have him protecting him.

I know they have a prior relationship playing in, I believe, a year together, but really happy that he is here to come in and compete and help us win games. So I appreciate the question.

Q. Obviously you have some big shoes to fill with Zay Flowers, but can you talk about bring in UCF transfer Ryan O'Keefe, someone who has 2,000 receiving yards and 15 touchdowns throughout his career. He has experience. What does he bring to the pass game having to replace Zay Flowers? And if I may follow up, you said you want to get back to running, which is the identity of Boston College football. How important is it to bring back a running back like Pat Garwo, who has been 1,000-yard rusher in the past?

JEFF HAFLEY: Having Pat Garwo back, it's big-time. Pat and I had a lot of conversations in the offseason. There were some people calling him, and there might have been thoughts with him, I just went through a really tough year after just rushing for 1,000 yards, and then last year, I mean -- last year was last year, and it wasn't. It was hard for him. I think it would have been hard for everybody; right?

But he came back in the spring, and I think he liked what he saw up front. He came to me and said he was going to stay, but that's a guy that I don't think he is talked about enough in the ACC, to be honest with you.

He is just as deserving in my opinion to be sitting up here today. The guy had 1,000 yards two years ago. In all due respect, I think he has a chance to do it again.

I'm really grateful you asked the question and brought him up because he should probably be up here with us as well.

Ryan O'Keefe, one, I think Coach Wyatt, who is our wide receiver coach and pass game coordinator, does as good of a job as any wide receiver Coach I've been around.

What he did with Zay this last year was incredible. Really and I mean that, and I think our wide receivers would tell you the same thing.

I don't want to compare anyone to Zay. Zay was special, and until someone proves it, I'm not going to make those comparisons.

Ryan can fly. Ryan is the fastest punter on our team. He might be one of the fastest players in the ACC. He has had back-to-back thousand -yard seasons, like you said. I love the way he practices. Love the way he fits in with these guys.

Gives us a guy back in the kick returning game that can take one to the house, which we really haven't had in a long time. Can catch a screen and take it the distance like we've all seen if we watched him on the tape. He can make those contested catches down the field.

I think what he will get with Coach Wyatt is I think he will be able to develop like Zay into a complete wideout, so I'm really glad he is here with us.

THE MODERATOR: If you want to hand the microphone off to Donovan, Coach. We have five minutes with our student-athletes.

Questions for Donovan.

Q. Coach talked about you leading the ACC in sacks and Coach Duggan said the ability to get to the quarterback is everything. Outside of yourself, however, nobody on this team returning has more than two sacks. So how do you lead? How do you kind of help out with your teammates in pass rushing besides just getting home yourself in order to increase BC's pass rush and take it to the next level as a unit?

DONOVAN EZEIRUAKU: Yeah, so last season what I was able to do, that potentially frees up a lot of guys this year. That's how I feel like they'll be able to eat.

Guys like Shitta Sillah, coming back from injury. Guys stepping up: Neto Okpala, Edwin Kolenge, Cam Horsley. All these guys coming back that have experience playing the games, if I'm double-teamed, they get one-on-ones, and so we all eat.

We send pressure, hopefully those double-teams come off me, and then I can eat myself. At the end of the day I feel like we all have the opportunity to be successful. Especially if I am getting those double-teams because I feel like eyes will be on me.

Q. When you look at this defense and everything that kind of went through the adversity of last season, what do you take from that 3-9 record and what you all went through that's going to pay off dividends now? What are some of those maybe learning lessons that really sit with you that you're going to take into this first game?

DONOVAN EZEIRUAKU: So you definitely cannot forget the past. We know what happened last year. We went through a lot of adversity, a lot of trials and tribulations. At the same time those are lessons.

We learned when times are tough and we need a big play, we can't argue on the sideline or do some of those things that we have to come together. I feel like this offseason we've gotten a lot closer as a defensive unit. Guys are having barbecues together. We're getting tighter where. I feel like that will pay dividends for us in the season. I'll trust the men next to me, and he will trust me to do my job, and I'll trust him to do his job.

I think that's a big part of that. Just getting closer as a defensive unit and definitely just learning from the past and just knowing when times get tough, we got to stick together.

Q. We've talked a lot about the team and about the unit, but you in particular, you look physically more filled out and stronger than you were last year. Can you talk a little bit about how you changed your body this offseason and what in particular you have worked on to improve your game in particular?

DONOVAN EZEIRUAKU: Yes, so I appoint that was made after my exit meeting and after evaluating the season was I got to get stronger. I have to be stronger in my lower half and upper half. So what I did this offseason, I put on some weight. I put on about 10 to 12 pounds. I'm about 250, 252. I feel like that will help me in that aspect, in that area of my game.

I have speed off the edge. I can bend. I'm instinctual, but it's that last piece that strength and that power. So I think that putting on those 10 to 12 pounds will definitely help my game and enhance my game to the next level.

THE MODERATOR: From the podium, a bit of a follow-up. A Twitter post that I saw of you exclaimed that you said that you were just built differently. What does it mean that you are just built differently?

DONOVAN EZEIRUAKU: I would say my leadership. I've always been the type of person to be a leader of my peers. I think that's a big part of being a motivator for the guys around me as well as my God-given ability.

I was blessed to have attributes like long arms, speed off the edge, you know, just the will power, I guess. I'm very motivated, very determined. That's why I said I was built differently.

THE MODERATOR: You are getting some head nods from behind you, so obviously that's the right answer. Donovan, you can trade places with Christian if you like. Christian, who brought the shoe game with him today.

Questions for Christian.

Q. Like we talk about with Coach, BC's offensive line is really like the identity of the team. A really big, nasty, physical offensive line. As the leader of the group and All-ACC player returning, how do you as the mentor to the group get that narrative back for this season to being that dominant offensive line that Boston College typically has?

CHRISTIAN MAHOGANY: You know, the way we play. The way we suit up. First play of the game, September 2nd. It's going to be nasty. It's going to be physical. Everything that we didn't have last year, we're going to have this year. I promise. From me personally, you can quote it, whatever you want to do. It's going to be nasty football.

People aren't going to like it, but I will, no doubt.

Q. As you look back on last season, what did you learn over the course of your recovery about yourself and the game, and secondly, as you look back at your time in Chestnut Hill, what legacy do you want to leave at Boston College with this senior class and yourself?

CHRISTIAN MAHOGANY: Physically, mentally, emotionally it's a draining process. I'm around month 15, 16 since I tore my ACL since the surgery date. It's not fun, man. There's dark days. I've called Hafley. I've called my teammates. There's light days. There's better days than others.

You know, it's something that I had to learn myself who I am as a person, as a student of the game, as a man. Am I going to be better from this, or am I just going to be the same? Am I just going to get worse? I decided that day that I was going to be better.

Reflecting on my time at Chestnut Hill, it's been great. I want to be remembered not just as a jersey in Fish Field House next to the other first round picks. I want to be remembered for a big win season; eight, nine, ten, 11 winning season at Boston College because that says more than just a first round pick in my opinion. Thanks, Billy.

Q. You said that you had some of those dark days going through the injury and had to call different people, including Coach. Leaning on your faith, leaning on your team just going into that and how you got out of that with mental health being such an important part of what we're focusing on today?

CHRISTIAN MAHOGANY: Me personally I've never been hurt. I've never missed a football game for anything that I can control. I hate it. I won't miss for a broken finger, broken toe, whatever. Whatever I can do, I'm going to be on the field.

Mentally it was draining. I can't lie to you. I wanted to be out there. I wanted to do everything I can. So in that process mental health is a serious thing. I didn't know until you know, so if you have to, you have to talk to people. You have to be able to take that step and get over it eventually, but there's outlets. We have a great support staff at Boston College. Coach Hafley, I can call him whenever I want.

I know I can call Donovan. I know I can call Emmett. I know I can call Coach Tusz, Coach Applebaum, any of our coaches, and they will answer any questions I have.

If you are dealing with mental health, it is a serious topic, and you should talk to people.

Q. You talked about the nastiness, and we've talked about the tradition of Boston College offensive linemen. Has there been any former Boston College offensive linemen that have reached back and have kind of guided you through the process of recovery, guided you through the process of expectations and what not because, I mean, obviously you wouldn't be the first offensive lineman going in the first round from BC. Have any of those guys reached back and kind of gave you words of encouragement, tips to be the best you you can be?

CHRISTIAN MAHOGANY: Guys like Zion Johnson who has been up here. First-round draft pick. Alec Lindstrom. The guys who I have played with Ben Petrula, Tyler Vrabel. We're a tight-knit group. We played together two years ago, and we're still tight. They gave me words of encouragement to be who I am and always remember who you are as a person and you will overcome things like this.

That's all I wanted to do, and they helped me a lot.

THE MODERATOR: From the podium, I'm curious from the back field, you ran for a touchdown in your '22 spring game. Is there a wannabe running back inside of you?

CHRISTIAN MAHOGANY: Yeah, no doubt. I mean, I would love to be a skill player. I thought my celebration was better than the actual touchdown. I hope you guys -- if you guys saw it, I hope you guys enjoyed that.

Maybe you'll see it this year. I don't know. I got to talk to the OC about that one, though.

THE MODERATOR: Christian, thank you. You can switch places with your quarterback. We've got five minutes with Emmett.

Questions.

Q. Emmett, in those last few games, you know, ignoring the first game of starting against UConn and what not, in those last few games you really seemed to turn it on a bit with the exception of the Notre Dame game averaging 304 yards per game, nine touchdowns against two interceptions, 65% completion percentage. How do you carry that momentum over into this year that, you know, some people look at it and say, well, you still lost, but objectively speaking, you played better and better as the season went on. How do you carry that momentum into the spring, into camp, and into this upcoming season?

EMMETT MOREHEAD: What I'll say is hopefully last year is as hard as it's going to get for me and this team. I think last year pushed a lot of people to really look in and see how hard we're working together as a group.

There's a lot of things out of our control, like the injuries I've never seen before. This year we have depth that I haven't seen at BC before either. Our offensive line has competition at every position, except for a few.

I'm really excited about that because when we have a good run game, that opens up the playaction game. We're efficient on first and second down. Our third down conversions are going to be much higher because we have much better position. I think we probably played in third and long more than any team in the country last year. That's a problem.

As Coach Haf knows it's so easy to defend a team on third and eight, third and ten, third and 12. Staying ahead of the sticks, that's been a priority. That's finding completions in zones, check the ball down, keeping it moving.

Like I said, it's only up from here. Last year was as hard as hopefully I can go through in my career honestly. I think our offense is going to be even more efficient. We had negative rushing yards, and we won a really, really big game. So hopefully this year we can get some rushing yards, and we'll air it out for sure.

Q. As a new full-time starter, obviously you got a lot of good experience last year, what does it do for your confidence knowing you have a veteran leader like Christian up front, you have a veteran running back behind you that you can hand the ball off to, and what does that do for your confidence as a young player, who is still -- you obviously have the experience of finding your way in the offense as well?

EMMETT MOREHEAD: It's our third offense in three years. For me I've been learning a lot of different ways to do similar things, and I feel like this year we have such a great pro style scheme that I think it's going to really help everybody from Christian to Pat to me to our receivers.

I think football can get really complex, especially at my position. It can get very complicated in certain schemes, and we're in the process of trying to eliminate things and make things simpler for everybody because for efficiency reasons, like, we don't want to be thinking too much, and I think that was a problem in the past at times.

I'm really excited to see what Christian and the O-line can do because it's not just him. Drew Kendall is going to be an amazing center. One of the best in the country.

Ozzy on the right side as well, he is an unbelievable athlete. He is 6'8", 315 pounds. Extremely athletic.

We have guys across the board that I'm really excited about, and we've had -- this is the best offseason I've seen as a team. So all these guys have improved so much. They're healthy. They're fresh. There's a different energy. We got a lot more positivity. We got a lot more focus as well. I mean, we're trying to flip our record from last year.

Q. Emmett, Boston College has had a rich tradition with some good quarterbacks in years past. Hasselbeck, Flutie and Matt Ryan. Are there any of those quarterbacks that you model your game after or taken some things from from watching tape or film in the past?

EMMETT MOREHEAD: I've watched Matt Ryan my whole life, which is a blessing because I think he does a lot of things the right way. His fundamentals are very, very obtainable. I think that's something I focused on this offseason is just making sure that I'm as consistent as I can be with my footwork and setting up the throw to be in balance. That's something Matt Ryan has made a career out of. He is consistently very, very careful with the ball. He has had his touchdown to turnover ratio be really good year after year.

As long as we can keep the ball moving forward and I think that's something that Matt Ryan has done even to the later part of his career now, that's something as a quarterback you'll play for a long, long time. Just being careful with it and scoring touchdowns. I think we can score a lot this year.

THE MODERATOR: Your last question from the podium. You play guitar. Are you any good?

EMMETT MOREHEAD: I'm all right. I'm all right.

THE MODERATOR: What's your favorite style?

EMMETT MOREHEAD: I play guitar to relax, so I'm not playing, like, a ton of led Zeppelin and stuff. Maybe more like John Mayer.

THE MODERATOR: I was going to ask if you model yourself after anyone like you do at quarterback?

EMMETT MOREHEAD: No, I just play for fun.

THE MODERATOR: Good luck this year, Boston College. Thanks for the time.

NC State Wolfpack

Coach Dave Doeren

Brennan Armstrong

Aydan White

Payton Wilson

Press Conference

 

THE MODERATOR: We have come to the end of our journey. We have one final school remaining. That is The Wolfpack of NC State. We will welcome to the podium Head Coach Dave Doeren along with his three student-athletes.

 

Questions for Coach.

Q. Looking at college football today and the fact that coaches change every few seasons, you've had over a decade at NC State. Just what can you say about that tenure, your belief in the program, the program that's continuing to buy into you, and just what that relationship has been like in a world that we don't see that consistency a lot?

DAVE DOEREN: For me it's a blessing to be at this school this long. Really in my life I've never lived anywhere this long. Even as a child, moving around.

To be able to say that all three of my sons didn't have to move through their childhood years and their schooling, I think that's a huge win in the parenting box.

From a stability standpoint NC State has definitely supported me ask Sara and the kids. I love the leadership. Chancellor Woodson has been huge in this for me, and now Boo Corrigan.

I came to NC State for the same reason I'm still there. I think it's a great fit. It's a bunch of blue-collar, tough, hard-working people that enjoy good food, good music. The state of North Carolina, fishing, mountains, beach, lakes.

I mean, you can't beat it. It's really just a tremendous place to live.

So thankful to be here, and honestly hope that they let me finish here. That's my goal is to retire here one day. The winningest coach in school history and be able to kind of go to the parking lot and tailgate myself and have some fun. Maybe not have as much stress and get a vacation every now and then.

It's a fun group too, and the guys that I've been able to coach and the coaches I've been able to work with make it the ride that -- that's what it's about. It's that journey you have.

Q. You mentioned that fit and culture. I'm curious, Robert Anae, how has he fit in? How that is that relationship gone? How has his work on the field progressed?

DAVE DOEREN: It's great having Coach Anae. I have several staff members that worked with Robert at other stops before I hired him that could really give me some good insight into what this relationship would be like for me are with Ruffin McNeil and him going back to Texas Tech and UNLV.

Tony Gibson, my D coordinator and he were together at Arizona. Brian Mitchell and he were together at BYU. So I had some insight into what kind of person. I coached against Coach Anae four different times and knew the kind of play-caller that he was and what his guys were like to play against. So it's been a great match.

He has been very unique. For those that have interviewed him, you know where I'm coming with that. He is definitely a different personality in a good way. He has a fun personality, but he is a tough ball coach. He expects guys to do things a certain way. He is demanding. His creativity, I'm not saying it's unmatched, but it's in the top 10% in college football. He does a lot with the different things he can do in the offense for the players.

Q. What does your defensive coordinator Tony Gibson do to make him a consistently quality defensive coordinator for you guys?

DAVE DOEREN: His system was unique. Not a lot of people run the 3-3-5. He understands the ins and outs of it really, really well. He knows how people are going to attack them. He knows what the answers are before they happen. So if they do this, I'm going to do this. He has that for everything.

He has a good progression. Not just of teaching, but of when to add things in and when it's time to change things up. He is a great chemistry guy. Not just with players, but with staff. I like that he is tough on the guys. He demands a lot, but he is also a guy that loves on his players.

He has really, really been a great hire for us, and he has done a tremendous job. So have the coaches that are with him.

I know Payton and Aydan will speak to this, the chemistry of that side of the ball, and not that it's not on the other, but Tony deserves a lot of credit for that. When he was promoted four years ago, I guess it was, to defensive coordinator, he changed a lot of things, and those things have paid off for us.

Q. They say that the team takes on the attitude and temperament of the head coach, and we've seen that over the years with you and this team being very tough, hard-nosed, all that good stuff. It seems like this team is on the cusp year after year after year. You are right there. What needs to change with this team or with you or in general to kind of break through that ceiling and get your first ACC Championship?

DAVE DOEREN: I would love to see it, and it's great to see you, Kent, as a former player of mine. We finished second in the league a couple of times records-wise. Second in the league for league wins three years now combined, and I think it's third over the ten years that I've been here for league wins. So we've had a lot of success.

How do you get over the top? That's a great question. I say this to the team. It's one more play sometimes or one more player sometimes or one more play-call. It's a very little thing that takes place. Sometimes you have to have some luck too.

Staying healthy is a big thing in college football. If you look at the teams that make it to the end, that's a factor. There's a lot of pieces in it, and I've been fortunate to win championships at several of the schools I've been at. Those things come together at the right time. You just make some clutch key plays. Sometimes it's just a routine play at the right time.

Once you do it one time, it's amazing. The repetition of it is not as hard as the first time doing it, in my opinion, because of the belief that goes with it.

Q. You bring in an experienced OC in Robert Anae. You bring in an experienced O-line coach, Coach Tujague, and you bring in an experienced quarterback to pilot this thing in Brennan. Can you speak on where you feel the ceiling is for this new-look offense in 2023?

DAVE DOEREN: Well, I think the ceiling is being the best in the league. That's our goal. We can't control the stats and all the things outside of the ACC. We got to try to win the ACC.

Our goal is always going to be to be the best statistically in the areas that we consider important. So I know Coach Anae has his pillars on offense that he preaches to these guys that they're going to be working hard to attain. It's no different on defense. We want to finish in the top one, two, or three in every category that we care about. There's certain tenets of the program when it comes to taking care of the football on offense and taking the ball back on defense that is paramount for us.

The penalties, it's an area that hurt says a few years ago. Not beating ourselves with things we can control. So there's a lot of things you look at that I don't think at this phase of the season you can ever say this is what we're going to be. You have to go earn it. You have to get on the grass and go play and get in these games and see who is better.

Q. Dave, obviously last year the dynamic was completely different. Do you feel like your teams perform better when there's not as heightened of expectations, when you are seen as the underdog going into the season?

DAVE DOEREN: I've been asked that a lot. I think we performed really well last year, considering four quarterbacks had to play. I mean, there's never been a team in the history of college football win eight games with four quarterbacks.

When you sat in this meeting a year ago, we would have all said eight wins was not what we were hoping for, but I know I was quoted last year saying this. You guys are asking me to protect 12 games with the line-up that I have for game one. That's not reality.

The team changes a lot when you lose a quarterback, another quarterback, another quarterback. So the fact that our complementary football played into it, the defense was No. 1 in the league in scoring defense, the special teams were No. 1 in the league, our offense did not turn the football over and kept us in games.

So that's how we won. I look at last year as a huge success with the difficulties we faced. Would have loved to have not had those challenges and been in the championship game and all of that, but that's not the reality of sports.

You have to compete with what you have to compete with. I felt like this staff did that, and we're going to do it again, and hopefully -- we will have obstacles, we will have adversity, we'll have things happen we didn't want. I just hope that they're not in the injury category when we're facing them.

Q. There's plenty of game film on what Brennan Armstrong can do and Robert Anae's offense, but what has he done in terms of ingraining himself within the locker room, within the offense that you have seen through the spring and the summer and how good of a teammate he is?

DAVE DOEREN: Yeah, I think it's probably a question to ask these players when they come up here. From my standpoint I like how he just came in and put his head down and went to work. He proved himself and his competitive spirit.

Going back to the winter runs, he put him in a competition, and he is winning every rep. You see how he cheers on his teammates when they win things, and his excitement level for that. How hard he competed in spring ball, and you would see him coaching guys. The way he goes about his business is where the respect for me is.

As far as how he is with them, I think that's probably better for them to answer.

Q. Being in Raleigh, which is one of the fastest-growing cities right now, does that help with the recruiting process at all in bringing players that help best fit your team?

DAVE DOEREN: For some it does. I think the internships that are available due to the growth and the fact that it's still growing, and Apple bringing all this stuff to the Triangle, it definitely helps for the guys that care about that.

I also think it being the capital, the different things that are already there industry-wise, and now that NIL is what it is, there's opportunity in that to have more corporations, more businesses for these guys to potentially be contacted by through the collective.

It's crazy being there now going on 11 years and seeing the growth of our city every year. The highways are a mess. They can't keep up with the growth, and a number of new schools and new restaurants, new this, new that. It's an awesome place to live right now.

For the guys that get there and realize it, I don't think they know how good they have it. Trust me, being a coach that's lived all over the country, been in big towns, farm towns, you name it, Raleigh has it going right now. It's an awesome place to live and work.

THE MODERATOR: Your last question from the podium. Given your passion for NC State, we like to get the sound bite. 16 of their last 17 at Carter-Finley. Talk about the fan base.

DAVE DOEREN: Wolfpack Nation, we've already sold more tickets. This was two weeks ago they told me there was only 2,000 seats left for the entire season completely combined. So the most tickets they've ever sold in school history for football. The most revenue generated from that as well.

Last year they added these lights that turn on and off and go red and all this, which was pretty cool for the players and the fans. Now we have the largest jumbotron in the league with the new sound system, which is going to add even more to the game day environment, which I know will fire our fans up.

We love the Wolfpack fan base and continue to ask them just to be in the stands for four quarters and try to make life hell on the opponents.

THE MODERATOR: Coach, thank you. If you'll switch places with your quarterback. Brennan, if you'll step up.

Questions.

Q. Brennan, this is your third consecutive ACC Kickoff. Can you talk about the responsibility of being a leader for a football team this year with NC State?

BRENNAN ARMSTRONG: I think it's a huge deal. Obviously I'm a new face. I think Coach Doeren hit it. My coming into the team, I just put my head down and worked hard, and now I'm just trying to start -- I've kind of started to be a vocal leader.

I kind of said this a few others times out there. I was starting to -- I think I'm going to start showing a little bit more fiery side of me. I've been cool, calm, and collected. I don't want to scare some guys on game day if I get fired up out of nowhere because technically that's how I play.

I've been kind of playing it cool, so I think I'm going to incorporate that here in the fall camp and just continue to be a voice, try to instill confidence and just determination on the offensive side.

Q. You and the offensive coordinator, Robert Anae, returning to Charlottesville in a couple of months. Can you speak a little bit about how much thought you've put into returning to Virginia?

BRENNAN ARMSTRONG: It's another game. I think every ACC game is going to be very important, especially without the divisions now. The top two go to the ACC Championship game.

It's going to be a good experience. Boos, cheers, whatever comes with it, I'm just there to win a game. That's my mindset going into that game.

Q. About that relationship with Robert Anae, how has it changed from when he was first coaching you to maybe where you are now as more of a veteran?

BRENNAN ARMSTRONG: I mean, at the beginning when I was a freshman/sophomore, I used to hate him. He knows that. He was on me all the time.

It grew as I got older, and now it's honestly a great relationship. It was weird. I said this before. It was weird going into the NC State facility and then seeing Coach Anae, a familiar face in a different area. That was a little weird for me and just a new experience.

Yeah, no, it's grown. He treats me like a grown man now, so that's kind of cool seeing where it started and where it's at now. No, it's same seam old Anae. I think you've obviously had interviews with him. It's same old Anae still, though, yeah.

Q. How much do you stay in touch with your former teammates at Virginia? I imagine you guys have a bond for life given all you had to go through last season?

BRENNAN ARMSTRONG: Yeah, I stay in touch with most of them. Most of the older guys that are still there, I've obviously came up and played, shoot, three, four seasons with them. So I keep in touch with them here and there. We check in on each other just to see how things are going. A lot of the quarterbacks still and then a few of the running backs, a few of the receivers. Some of the guys are gone, so they're just out of Virginia, and they're either in the NFL or doing something else. I still keep in touch with some of those guys.

Yeah, like you said, what happened made us definitely become closer, yeah.

Q. You were talking about Coach Anae, just what he brings out of you and your game that makes you feel like this one last opportunity and this last ride could give you the best opportunity for the NFL?

BRENNAN ARMSTRONG: Just lets me be me. I don't feel confined. I don't feel like I'm locked up at all. I am just allow to do play how I want to play.

I think he has a good why idea of how I play, kind of my thoughts. I have a good idea how he thinks. Everyone talks about the running quarterback. He lets me run the ball. He doesn't care. He designs things for those things too, and I think I'm at my best when I'm able to play free and not worried about those type of things, like sliding or anything like that.

Obviously there are certain situations to do those things in, and I'm well aware of that, but he just allows me to play free and just lets me go out there and play the game and have fun.

Q. Brennan, everybody is talking about your relationship with Robert Anae and all that and the things that are familiar to you, but I want to talk about what's new to you a little bit in terms of a lot of people are saying that these are the best group of weapon that you have had in your career. So can you elaborate on whether or not you agree with that assertion and how you feel in terms of playing with this new set of guys?

BRENNAN ARMSTRONG: NC State offense in general? Just the guys on the offensive side?

Q. Yeah.

BRENNAN ARMSTRONG: The first thing I noticed when I came in was just the eagerness, that they're willing to just put their head down and work. I feel like they kind of let the team down a little bit last year, and then this year they're willing to just work and are eager to get better.

So that's what I've noticed right away. That's all you can really ask for. That's all I really ask for is the eagerness and the work ethic and the workout they have and they've shown that.

I'm just super excited. I think we're going to have a lot on of guys step up. I think in fall camp we're going to confine to what we want to do and motions and certain things that we're trying to create as an offense.

I think we're going to see a lot of guys really become -- or step into their role well and start to separate themselves. I'm just kind of looking forward to that and just seeing who that is.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you. You can swap places with Aydan. Questions for Aydan.

Q. Aydan, you played the most coverage snaps in the country without allowing a touchdown last year with 482. Can you talk about the attitude and the swagger that comes with being a lockdown corner in this league?

AYDAN WHITE: For myself I say I play on the left side, so when a quarterback opens up, right-hand quarterback, they see me automatically. I like that a lot for myself or my defense.

With the pressure that my D-line penetrates, the quarterback got to get the ball off so fast that it's not time for a deep route. They run a slant. They're running glances. Something fast I can make a play on.

Q. I wanted to ask you, Aydan, in particular do you feel like the expectations of you have changed since last year? How much has that changed given where you were at this point last year compared to where you are going into this year?

AYDAN WHITE: I don't want to say the expectations have changed because the coaching staff already know what I can do, and I just hope to replicate what I did do last season.

Q. I was just wondering what you have been working on this offseason? What's kind of the next step in your game that you are trying to improve?

AYDAN WHITE: I've just been watching film on myself a lot recently, looking at my weaknesses and trying to make those my strengths. Especially with our discipline, press man, and being more physical in the run game.

Q. I was just wondering, what were those weaknesses, and kind of just what are you doing to address them?

AYDAN WHITE: Oh, kind of like he was saying just with our discipline on the upside. I had got a lot of that towards the end of the season. It started messing me up so that my press man and just working more on my feet coming out of my brakes and being more disciplined.

Q. Last season 46 total tackles, four interceptions. What you have done in this offseason to elevate your game in those specific areas that you've keyed in on and you think are going to maybe increase those numbers this year?

AYDAN WHITE: I would say just working out with our strength staff. Coach Thunder does a great job with us in the weight room and on the field getting us in shape. Just becoming stronger in my legs, becoming stronger in my upper body, all-around, so I can have more so low tackles this year.

Q. Last year most people would look at the linebacking corps and say that was the strength of this team, that was the heart and soul of this team in terms of Payton Wilson, who is up there with you now, Isaiah Moore and Drake Thomas, who are both going on to the NFL at this point in time. But this year it seems a very decided advantage for NC State in terms of the defensive backfield over everybody else. Can you talk about how well or how you're expecting the defensive backfield to play in this upcoming season as they're expected to lead this defense to some extent?

AYDAN WHITE: I expect our defense to be No. 1 in the passing defense throughout the whole league. We just have a lot of depth coming back and a lot of experience.

For example, our corners, our safeties, and our nickels, we all watch film together keying on things we need to do for the season. So just having that depth and having that experience all around can help. If a man goes down, we have the next man coming up.

Q. You have a very talented teammate in the defensive backfield in Shyheim Battle. Can you talk about his influence on and off the field to you?

AYDAN WHITE: It's crazy. It's really a full-circle moment because I came in 2020, and Shyheim came in 2019. Shy was one of the first guys to hit me up asking me to train as soon as I got on campus. I really appreciate that guy reaching out to me.

Just knowing that when a ball goes up in the air, Shyheim is so consistent that I don't really have to worry about traveling size with the wide receivers because I know what he is doing on that side. It's easy for our defense and offense to have two shut-down corners playing on both sides.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you. We can switch out with Payton and spend the last five minutes of this year's Kickoff Media Event with Payton Wilson, linebacker from just down the road in Hillsborough. Our questions for Payton, please.

Q. You went through things out of your control in your career at NC State. You know, suffering injuries and having to kind of bounce back from that. To look back on that adversity to where you are today, what would you say about how it didn't break you, but essentially made you into the player that you are as you step into 2023?

PAYTON WILSON: Yeah, of course. I tell people this all the time that the injuries that have happened to me, yeah, they kind of suck, but at the end of the day they made me a better person on and off the field.

Being younger and just playing injury-free, I used to take the game for granted. I didn't really understand that that next snap could be my last.

Then just mentally, I mean, just the things that it's engraved in me as a person. It's tough watching people do what you love to do, and you can't do it for year after year.

That mentality that comes with that and just understanding that nothing is guaranteed in this life and you got to give your 100% every percent of the time.

Q. You deciding to come back to NC State is a massive boost to what was already a very good defense last year. Can you talk about your hunger to reintroduce yourself as one of the top linebackers in this conference?

PAYTON WILSON: Yeah, I think not meeting our goals last season, just kind of the way it unraveled. And as a defense we had what everyone says good year, but we didn't meet our requirements. We didn't win every game, and we put that on ourselves because people were able to score.

So just getting back to that mentality of nobody scores a point on us. The other team can't win. It doesn't really matter what happens on the offensive side of the ball because if they don't score, they can't win.

Then just trying to carry that over the years and carry that intensity, that violence that we played with last year into it year.

Q. In terms of health and leadership, do you feel as though you have more to offer this year in comparison to years past?

PAYTON WILSON: Yeah. I've kind of just with certain guys -- I mean, Isaiah was that vocal leader for us in the past for the last three years. With him being gone, you know, just kind of coming out of the shell, I mean, it's not only helped me become a better leader, but just in situations like this, public speaking and everything that I do, it's just helped me so much.

Then just learning more about myself, getting out of my comfort zone is something that you can ask any of these guys up here. I used to never talk. I used to never be around all that leadership stuff, but now that I'm bought into it and understand the meaning of it, I really take pride in it and do it to the best of my ability.

Q. I chattered with Coach Thunder recently, and he said that this is the fastest team that NC State has fielded that he has ever seen. Can you talk about what you are seeing in terms of team speed and how you think that's going to play out on Saturdays and Thursdays and whenever else you play throughout this season?

PAYTON WILSON: Yeah, I mean, I think in the past when you think of NC State, you just think of a team that is blue collar and they're going to play you as hard as possible, but we still have all those standards. This summer and the times that we were seeing and the 40s that people were running -- not only 40s, but the pro agility, it's some of the craziest statistics, times that I've ever seen.

Credit to Coach Thunder and what he is doing with us, but, yeah, we're going to be flying around on both sides of the ball at every position. We have 300-pound men running 4.8 40s and stuff like that. It's pretty crazy.

THE MODERATOR: Your last question from the podium. There are a lot of student-athletes that when they choose to go to school, they like to get away from home. Why is it that being from Hillsborough you decided to stay so close to home?

PAYTON WILSON: I'm a big-time mama's boy, and I would never leave my mom. That is 100% why, and that is why I'm here.

THE MODERATOR: Mom will be proud with the sound byte, and on that, I think we will conclude. NC State, good luck, and thank you.

 

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports