LOCKER ROOM REPORT: Wolfpack Players

NC State's C.J. Bailey and Caden Fordham met with the media following the Wolfpack's 59-35 Textile Bowl loss to No. 21 Clemson Saturday afternoon.

NOTE: Click on each player’s respective thumbnail to watch each interview in the player above.

C.J. Bailey

"It was a fun experience. I’d rate it 10 out of 10. I love how many hits I took and how I adjusted mid-game. It was actually a fun experience. It was really great to hear the crowd noise and be behind that snap. That was really fun. It was a really fun experience for me."

"I learned that I got more fight than I thought I had. I'm really a good leader. I didn't see it before, but I'm really a great leader. I got a lot of fight in me. I noticed that the team goes off my energy. I had a lot of great energy for the offense. The offense said they have my back. That's what I learned about myself. Moving forward, I want to keep that going."

“[Completing each of my first eight passes] helped a lot, trying to keep a calm head. Those first eight passes were great.”

"There are so many more leaders in there. We’ve got Davin [Vann], [Devon] Betty. We’ve got Sean Brown. On offense, we got K.C. [Concepcion], we got [Jacarrius] Peak. We've got a lot of leaders in there. All those guys were saying the same thing: ‘Keep fighting, and keep your heads up, and we'll keep on finishing the game.’ That's really great that we have those leaders and those guys ahead of me."

“It’s really great to have a coach that believes in this team. It’s great to have a coach that believes in me as well. I really thank him for that. [...] Going into halftime, there were a lot of long faces, but Coach [Dave] Doeren isn’t that kind of guy. He’s the one to lift us up and tell us to keep going. [...] I’m thankful for Coach Doeren and everything he does for the program.”

"That's one thing we were saying on the sidelines. We had to finish drives. Those drives were important at the beginning. It was starting fast and everything. We have to put it behind us and keep going. That's not the end of the daylight. We still have way more plays to make out there and way more things that we could have done better for the game. Most importantly, we had to finish those drives early to get our defense some momentum."

“We still have a goal to finish: finish the season out, get a bowl game, and we can still get to the [ACC] Championship. The Tennessee and Clemson games really showed us where we’re at and where we can go with it.”

Caden Fordham

"It starts with me on the mic. I've got to start controlling the defense better. It starts in practice. Everything we do has got to change. The way we approach every day, we've got to come out with more intensity from the jump and start communicating better."

"A big emphasis was coming out fast. You've got to play better at the end of the day, communicate better, fit the run better. That's all you can do."

“Certain guys weren’t where they were supposed to be in certain fits. We’ll get in the meeting room tomorrow, fix it, and learn from it. That’s all we can do at this point. We’ve got eight games left. We’ve got to come out and play better ball.”

“We’re not playing tough right now. We’ve got too many people not giving enough effort, including myself in some plays. That’s our identity. We’ve got to continue to play tough.”

“It sucks anytime they get a big run on you, especially that early in the game for a touchdown. My mindset is just to move onto the next play. It was early in the game, so at that time, we still had time to make our own plays.”