Elliott Avent: "It's Always Been About the Players"

No. 13 NC State head coach Elliott Avent met with the media to discuss the Wolfpack's upcoming 2024 season.

NOTE: Click on the video in the player above to watch Avent’s press conference.

“In the fall, it does matter. Spring football matters. You get a feel for what your team is, but until you start getting your block knocked off a little bit, you don’t really know you’re going to respond. Chemistry plays such a big part in any ball club. I don’t care if it’s college [or anywhere else]. There’s chemistry in college because they’re doing so many things together. When you get professional, it’s more about your contracts, your life with your family, and that kind of thing. The more I talk to people in pro ball, it’s the very same thing. You talk to [Rod] Brind’Amour; the chemistry he’s built with the Canes is very obvious, and part of their success is that clubhouse. The thing that I will say about the fall is that we had 20 guys who never stepped foot on campus at NC State with 20 guys that had been here for three, four, or five years. How they were going to mesh is a big thing I looked for in the fall, and I’m shocked — like I said, we hadn’t lost games or put a lineup out — to see the camaraderie, how they get along, and the things they do with each other. It was like a freshman going to play golf with a fifth-year senior. The stuff that shocks me a little bit, I think it says something about us building chemistry here. Then, you’ve got to be good enough in a league that’s extremely tough with a schedule based on all the great teams here in North Carolina. It’s really, really, really tough to win a lot of games. We’ll see how it plays out.”

“I don’t know if anything can be more exciting than that first year here when I came back to follow Ray Tanner who was good enough to put me on his first staff when he followed the legendary Sam Esposito who built this program that’s been so consistent for 50 years. If you look up there somewhere, there’s been five coaches up there that spans over 100 years, and that says a lot about the consistency and tradition of our program. I don’t know if anything can top that first day when I was here [as head coach]. There may be fewer jitters but still the same excitement, but nothing can top that.”

“Well, it’s so hard. We’re recruiting people three, four, or five years out, and we’re adding transfer portal. You may know a lot more about their play and how good they are with the transfer portal. It’s like trading for a guy in the NHL. You may know more about them, but character is something that defines who you’re going to be. They have trades in the big leagues, and they’ll still call us and ask us about their character from when they were in college. It still matters, and I’m glad to hear the players said that. I can’t remember when I gave [Chris Hart] the keys to the recruiting car, and I think he was a little bit nervous, but what a recruiter he’s been, and what a job he’s done here for NC State and for our program. I always told him: ‘As you go out to recruit guys two, three, or four years away from playing, it’s going to be hard to get it right every time, so always make a mistake on talent; never make a mistake on character.’”

“Well, when I talk about the tradition of the program, Coach Esposito built this program, and he did it with character. Ray Tanner took over; Coach [Jim] Valvano hired Ray Tanner, and Coach Tanner kept that up. I had the blueprint. All I had to do was follow that blueprint. That’s what we’ve done. You speak about Garrett Pennington. He played for a friend of mine, Loren Hibbs, who used to be the head coach at Charlotte and who got his career started at Wichita State when I was out west at New Mexico State. I knew from Loren Hibbs who we were getting, character-wise, in Garrett Pennington.”

“It’s interesting. It’s a really interesting dynamic with our pitching. You have Logan Whitaker who’s a sixth-year. You have Sam Highfill and Matt Willadsen who were starters on the ’21 team that took us all the way to Omaha and got us through that unbelievable Arkansas Super Regional. You talk about those guys, and you talk about a lot of freshmen — I can’t even count how many we’ve got — who have great arms, but they’re freshmen. Their maturity level in the fall, they didn’t seem like they were 18 years old. They didn’t seem like they weren’t ready for this moment. We’ll see when we get in the moment. We have a bunch of young arms, but we have veterans that have done so many things for us, so we’ll see how that works out.”

“We had the NIL banquet to open up our season the other night at the McKinnon Center, and Jeff Gravley introduced [Highfill] as the Mayor of Apex. Everybody looks at him as that guy: the guy that does so much for this program, who does it the right way, in the community, and such a staple of our program. Sam embodies everything this program’s about. He’s gone through some injuries, and you just hope he’s healthy because he’s gone through so much, but you’d never know it because he never says anything.”

“Players [keep me going]. The players are whom I’ve always done this for. I love NC State. There’s no secret about that, my love affair with this school and the athletics overall at NC State. It’s the players. It’s always about the players. When my dad passed three years ago in January and my mom passed in January this past year, those were tough times for me as Jaxon Lucas is going to go through some tough times. We went to the service for one of our freshmen’s father yesterday. I reminded Jaxon: ‘Through those times, the players are what got me through that, and it’s going to be his teammates that are going to help him get through this time.’ It’s always been about the players.”

“I’m excited to see them compete, but I don’t put expectations on them. When you come to college for the first time, I don’t care if you’re Trea Turner. He was scared to death in his first game, and you see what you did in his career. Putting expectations, especially in a sport where there’s a lot more failure than success, giving that to anyone, especially to somebody at 18 years old, I never talk about expectations. We try to compete, compete for each other, and make sure we’re playing for the right reasons. In the world of NIL and the transfer portal, they almost encourage you or allow you to go somewhere else no matter the situation. In a failure sport, it can always give you an out, and if you take too many outs in life, I don’t know how you’re ever going to get there.”

“Numbers are important. I’m sure they’ll do something on the field — I hope not; I’d rather just go to the next game. You always reflect on your former players. Nick Swiney was here this morning. Evan Justice threw a bullpen [session] this morning. Austin Murr’s here getting ready to go out to pro ball. You don’t count; you never count, but when somebody talks about getting to that magic number, it’ll allow you to reflect on all the players. I talked to Nick Stanley this morning. Nick Stanley played here in 2008. We thought we were going to Omaha that year; we lost the third game in front of a really loud crowd at Georgia to keep us from going to the College World Series. It just allows you to reflect, touch back, and reach out to so many people who have made this journey here at NC State so special to me.”

“J.T. [Jarrett] is so special. Everybody that’s ever coached at the program whether you were a trainer, no matter who you were, [for example] Jodie Cahoon in the equipment room, it doesn’t matter who you were. Everybody played a part. When one of your former players comes back to coach with you — I had Scott Lawler coach here at NC State with me on the staff, Joey Devine helped out for a year, Brett Austin came back and coached here — when J.T. Jarrett came back, that was pretty special to me. He’s such a special player, such a special person, such a good baseball player, and such a good baseball mind. He’s such a good segue between a guy that’s a little bit older in these players’ eyes and a guy who just got through playing. He’s a good segue for me to run things by.”

“A guy — these are his words, not mine — as I got up there to go speak, he said, ‘Coach, there’s been three special, special, special teams: the '74 national championship basketball team,…’ — I talked to Monty Towe yesterday, and he’s so special to me — ‘… the ’83 national championship team, and the ’21 team that got so wronged in Omaha.’ Those are the three teams that have had several people tell me — All fans love to rally around something. NC State fans love to have something to rally around. They rallied around that ’21 team because everybody knew they were wronged, and everyone was so upset. That’s the team that’s so special, but what will never be said about that team or what people fail to realize: you can’t imagine the hurt, you can’t imagine the disgust and the anger in guys that gave so much when I called them together at 1:30 in a little room in a hotel lobby in Omaha and told them we were going home. I told them, ‘Be mad. Be upset. We’ll get through this, but don’t do anything to embarrass this program. You’ll always be remembered for how great y’all were in what y’all gave to this university but only if you act like professionals from this point on.’ What I’ll always remember about that team is how they handled that moment with class, and even though other people handled it poorly, they handled it very, very well."