NC State TE Justin Joly: "We All Believe In Each Other"
NC State tight end Justin Joly met with the media to discuss the win over Western Carolina, the big matchup against Tennessee, and much more.
NOTE: Click on the video above to watch the interview.
You're one of the players that generated a lot of excitement from NC State fans based on your performance. How happy are you with what you gained in your first game?
Honestly, I had a lot of support. I feel like I can go out there and do a lot better than what my team is lacking. Catching the ball and trying to be a great player for my team. It's all about the effort that I put in on the field. It's easy for me to go get the ball. It's something else I need. I'm looking at it a little bit more.
Tennessee obviously has one of the best edge rushers in the nation in James Pearce Jr. How much more involved do you anticipate being in the blocking game this week versus last year?
Oh, yeah. You won't be able to tell if it's a pass or whether it's a run or two. If I'm on the ball, I'll be on the outside or in-line. We keep their guys. They've got a good front four and they've got a good secondary, so they don't actually have a real problem.
You talk about stepping up your play, but offense in general. In what ways can you guys improve? That was the first game against another team. Now that you guys have had those reps, how can you, the offense as a whole, step it up for this game?
I would say the things that we do during practice is execute at a high level and game level the whole time. We can't take our foot off the pedal because we have a goal, and if we take our foot off the pedal, it's going to get too slow. Things like that. Working with KC after practice and Wesley, but with everybody, getting the actual work done in practice is important. We come together as a team. We all verify that that wasn't a mistake. We can go a lot better.
Where would you say the chemistry is right now with all of this?
We've all got faith in each other. We all believe in each other. We've all got people that can teach you in the open line, running backs, wideouts, tight ends, inside wide receivers. I know I have faith in my guys, and my guys have got faith in me.
Do you think it's good that this group got humbled in a winning effort the way that you guys kind of did?
Yeah, I know we've got a lot of big names. We can't just go out there and just give them work. We're some big dogs. We've got to understand that D1 is D1 across the world. They work for where they're at. And we work for where we're at. We just gotta go out there and play. We can't underestimate anybody.
What do you think the feeling will be like, playing in an NFL stadium against a nationally ranked team out of the SEC.
I mean, it’s a really big deal, you know at the end of the day football is football at any type of level. So I know my boys, we’ve been playing football for years so just having an opportunity to play in an NFL stadium is amazing.