Brandon Cisse: "They're Going To Push Me Everyday"

NC State cornerback Brandon Cisse recently met with the media to discuss fall practice, competing against the Wolfpack’s wide receivers, and much more.

NOTE: Click on the video above to watch the interview.

He's (Grayson McCall) bringing back the mullet, he mentioned those. A lot of guys are kind of getting going, like, hey man, where's the mullet? We've got to bring it back. Were you part of that group?
Nah, I probably wasn't a part of it. The crazy thing is I remember when he played BYU back when he was at Coastal, so I remember watching that game once a year and it was good to see that mullet, you know. So, he's definitely got a swagger to him, so it's definitely good to go against him each and every day.

And then, kind of staying in that vein, a lot of tests going into this offense, a lot of tests early in the season against Tennessee and Clemson. How much does that prepare him to be going hard at it every day now for those early season tests?
You know, it's definitely good to go against those guys. You know, we're going to go against a wide variety of receivers this year, but we've got to worry about week one and that's Western Carolina. You know, then we'll probably work Tennessee and all those games. But right now, our focus is getting better against each other in camp and getting ready for Western Carolina. Great team.

Davin Vann said at ACC kickoff that since losing, peaking to the draft, some people are kind of acting like y'all have lost the whole defense, and that put a chip on his shoulder. Is that something that you feel like the whole defense is feeling right now?
Definitely. We don't have him here anymore to, you know, beat Payton Wilson. You know, he's definitely a great player to be around. You know, he's definitely a great mentor to me, but he's not here anymore, and now we have to step up. You know what I'm saying? So, we can't take Payton's success and bring it over to this year. That's not how this game works. You know, we've got to be able to make our own success. So, definitely a chip on our shoulder because we see everybody talking about, you know, this defense is going to be mediocre because we don't have Payton Wilson. But trust me, we're going to be just as good as ever.

Where's the growth between now and that first game? Where do you want to grow? What areas have you all pinpointed?
Definitely want to grow of just knowing the game a little bit better. You know what I'm saying? Because I don't just play corner. I play inside. I play outside. You know, I mix up a different lot of things. So, just making sure I know everybody's responsibilities and just knowing how offenses are going to try to attack me in different kinds of ways so I can make the most on-ball production, take the ball away, and get it back to the offense so they can go make a wide variety of plays.

You talked about going against the offense. In the receiver room or in the running back room, who do you think is going to impress people?
I think all of them are really going to impress people, but I'd probably have to go if I had to pinpoint people out. Probably Wesley Grimes, Noah Rogers. You know, those are two guys that really give work and practice. You know, they're going to push me every day. So, it's my job to make sure they see people like me and I get to go against them because they're great receivers. You know, obviously I want to be a great corner. Probably running backs, obviously Jordan Waters, you know, being able to take the ball and things like that. But also Kendrick Raphael being very impressive. You know, he's not even with the ball in his hands, and obviously Hollywood, they can all make big plays.

In one sense, NC State has a great standard. You guys are maintaining individual players, great seasons, bowl games. But in one sense, you're trying to raise the standard. Can you talk about that balance and what are the expectations?
As Coach Thunder says all the time, the standard is the standard. You know what I'm saying? The standard never drops no matter who comes in, who comes out. So, you know, iron sharpens iron. That's how we go at it every day. And it's definitely going to be a high standard that we've got to live up to. And the standard's probably higher than ever here now. We want to win an ACC championship. We want to compete for national championships. So that's the goal each and every year now. 

So that's the goal each and every year now. Has it been talked about more, the ACC title this season, do you think, than maybe in past years, or is it the same?

No, I'd probably say it's the same since my freshman year. That's always the goal. I don't think it ever changes. Last year we came up short, but this year it's definitely being talked about more. It's something that we've always wanted. But, you know, it's definitely our time now that we need to go win it.