Noah Rogers: "I'm Expecting Big Things For Us"

NC State redshirt freshman wide receiver Noah Rogers met with the media to discuss bouncing back from the Tennessee loss, Grayson McCall, Louisiana Tech's defense, and much more.

NOTE: Click the video above to watch the interview.

We've seen Grayson kind of take that leadership role. They personally talked about it yesterday, saying that he's kind of one of those guys that speak up. 
Yeah, man, he's a great leader. Every time the coach is asking a question, he's right on it, answering it spot on. And just because he may not have the best performance, he's still a great leader.

We don't take anything from him, and I'm glad to have him as my quarterback. He's a great guy, great leader, and he's pushing me to be the best receiver that I can. 

How is that helpful when you guys are in an offense where guys are still kind of trying to mesh, playing together, a lot of guys that haven't played together in a game like this until now? 
At the end of the day, it's all about, it's not about who you got, it's about how you play and how you play together.  If I'm not getting the ball, I just want to make sure I'm doing everything on my end so my teammate can get the ball. It's not being selfish, that's a big thing we take pride in here.

The ball's not coming your way. Are you going to block? Are you going to execute the play? So it's just small things like that that lead to big errors. 

There's a lot of negativity going on right now after you guys, after being so much, so many positives on this NC State team. How do you guys handle that? 
There is no pressure.

It's still the beginning of the season and as long as we keep working and keep finding our weaknesses to strengthen it, everything is going to be alright. One important thing that we got from the last game, as long as we keep believing in each other and playing hard, everything will fall in place.

We are capable and know what we can do.  The last game was just a fluke. I believe we're much better than that, and we're going to keep this thing rolling. 

That said, how do you expect this team to come out against Louisiana Tech this week? What do you expect, you know, how the offense will play this week? 
I'm expecting to play some great Wolfpack football. That's really as simple as that.  We just have to come out strong and get to it early. 

Talk about watching film, you know, after the game. After the two games, what are some things you feel like you've been working on through two games at NC State? 
From the two games, I feel a lot more comfortable from not playing college football.

But from those two games, I learned that, I just gotta keep trusting myself and keep listening to what my coach is teaching me.  It's all there and it's all going to fall in place, and later down the road, things are going to start getting scary for a lot of guys. 

Do you feel like there's still kind of a need to find a way to get the ball deep down the field for you guys and some of these passing teams as well? 
Not necessarily deep. I believe that we can get it short, intermediate, deep on the run, different ways. So as long as we just keep finding ways to get our playmakers the ball and make the plays, everything's going to be all right for us. 

You talked about avoiding a slow start on offense for the third week in a row. How do you kind of do that? What have you guys been working on, I guess, to avoid that and kind of come out hot? 
It's just execution, starting out fast, being exact, making sure everybody's communicating properly, and was that the best you could have done on that play? It's just all the small things that lead to big things, and we're trying to eliminate every negative in our offense that we can. 

The guys are really standing behind Grayson, even though I know he struggled on Saturday. What does it say about him that the team has so much confidence? 
To see him come in the next morning with a smile on his face and being able to, wanting to get better, staying late nights.

That's what you want to see in the guy, the guy that's not going to quit, and I believe in him and everybody else does.  He's one of our greatest leaders on this team, and as long as he keeps bringing in good energy to our team, everything's going to be alright, because at the end of the day, we play for each other.

So we got his back.

It's not [easy] getting 18 or 19 years old [to listen]; trying to lead kids. Do you see that when some of the older guys on the team speak up? It's just that you have that life experience.
The older guys on our team, they kind of preach to us, a grown ‘A’ man. So I hear we're not here to be little boys. We want to be grown men out here, and as long as you preach that in our ears every day, you realize that you're the guy who has to be in a position to lead quicker than you think.

And that's kind of been a theme since Sunday. A little bit. 
Since Sunday? 

Well, just after the Tennessee game. That's stepping up.
Oh, no. It's just leadership.

As long as we keep staying bonded and stay together and not everybody in different corners coming off of a loss... that's all we're looking at.

You mentioned playing now as opposed to last year. Is getting on that college field now, is that the new normal? Is there still an excitement to it? I'm fulfilling my dream of being out there. 
No, I do this every day. So it's not filling my dream. It's just coming out and just doing what I love... ain't no pressure on me or anything. I’ve been playing on ESPN since I was 12.

So this is your normal. 
Yeah, this is just normal. It's just going out here and just doing what I love, honestly. 

And then La Tech, you guys are in game prep mode for them, I would think. 
Yeah. 

So what do you do? You know anything about them? What do you know about their style? 
I just know that the way they play their defense is very familiar. I've learned a lot of a three-man front scheme like that 3-3-5. So I do. I am into this week, and seeing how we get after it, I'm expecting big things for us and I know we're going to silence the haters.