Isaiah Shirley: "We Got To Deliver"
NC State defensive end Isaiah Shirley met with the media to discuss his week of practice, NIU, and much more.
NOTE: Click the video above to watch the interview.
What's been the most difficult part of the past few days as you try to guess what happened to Clemson and you're trying to time the page, what's kind of the hardest thing for you all as a team?
I think the hardest thing, this is a hard thing for anybody in the world, is just being honest with ourselves.
No one, we're not old, you know, look at it, eat it, look at the film, that's what we put on film. We gotta do what we gotta do to fit it, we gotta fix it, we gotta move on.
That's kind of where the hardest part is just going on with that film, we put that on film, that's on film forever, but that doesn't define us, you know, we put that forward, and you think about football, you get another week, and we get to change that, you know, that narrative.
Isaiah, you used to begin the season way high, I mean, there's still plenty of football to be played. Has this team lost any confidence because of the two big losses?
I would say no, I feel like the way Coach Doeren is, you can't lose confidence. He believes in us, and I believe that he believes in us, and I think our teammates believe that.
Obviously, you know, it's a gut check, you get beat like that, obviously it's the hurt your pride, but I think we came out today confident that you wouldn't even know that we got beat on Saturday, to be honest with you.
You guys defensively, take a lot of pride in stopping the run Yeah, I think the first ball came off his chest. It's unusual to see, you know, Clemson making that many big plays in a running game. Is that easily fixable, because it gets all the right gaps in the running game?
Coach Gibby’s been running this defense for a long time. Who knows how long? People try to criticize it all they want, but I think it works.
When we execute with all of us, it works. So, I think we're just going to clean up all around from, you know, D-line, linebackers to the secondary, it's everybody. Just make sure we're not missing run fits, being firm, being tight, and that's, that will get fixed in this game.
I've seen it here, it works. So, we just got to execute, you know.
For you personally, how much was getting to play last year? How much did that prepare you for getting on the field this year?
I think so, I'm not sure if you guys know, I played tight end. I think that really helped my confidence in terms of, like, I'm strong enough to do this. I have the athletic ability enough to do this. That really helped my confidence. It really made me feel like I was helping the team. I mean, I always just, like, what can I do to help the team when I'm on the scouting team? So, I was giving the best effort I could, the best look I could to help my teammates because I wanted to win just like them.
When I was out there in AB, you know, pancakes a guy, I kind of had a sense of pride about that because, you know, I wasn't going to get smoked each week. And, you know, if I did it, it felt like I did. So, whenever I actually got to get on the field and actually help the team and do something that, you know, something small, but get to help the team, I was just really thankful. And I think that built my confidence up in terms of playing. If it wasn't for my confidence, I feel like I wouldn't have that the rest of the conference. So, that definitely helped.
What's your mindset on this team? You played a team that, from the MAC, that beat Notre Dame. So, I know you want to win the game, but what's your mindset going in?
Mindset is that, my mindset has been from high school. The only thing that we have here is respect to all, fear none. I mean, college football is crazy. I mean, they went out there against Notre Dame and got it done. I mean, they run the ball. They're going to come at you. They're going to attack you.
They got a good offensive line, good backs. I mean, they're a title four team. So, we got to come in here and, you know, give it our all. Play our brand of football. Hard, tough, together. Go out there and play physical. Fly around. And just know that they're not a pushover at all. They're going to come to play. They're ready to knock us around. So, we got to deliver.