Timothy McKay: "I Hated UNC Growing Up"

NC State offensive guard Timothy McKay met with the media to discuss the rivalry matchup against North Carolina.

NOTE: Click the video above to watch the interview.

What does this rivalry mean to you? 
It means a lot. I'm an NC State guy from Raleigh, so I hated UNC growing up. Going out here this last time, my sixth year, and dominating the game, it was really fun. I'm excited to get out there. 

Do you remember how old you were when you first watched the NC State-UNC game? 
Probably middle school. It's been a long time, but I'm not sure of the age. It's been a long time watching Ryan Switzer growing up, all those guys. It'll be fun playing for them again. 

Was NC State players' current and past going to tell you what their record was against North Carolina? 
That's exciting.We talked about that in the team meeting yesterday. Being in four in a row is a legacy thing we talked about 70 years from now. Just thinking about it, wow, we beat them four times in a row over here. That's big for us. That's the plan this weekend. We're going to do a good job.

There's some new guys who haven't played in this rivalry in the position group, definitely on the offense. Have you talked to any of the guys about what this rivalry means to all of them? 
We talked on Monday about going out there and having a dominant day. I thought last year really dominated them, so we're going out there again and doing the same thing. It means a lot for us, especially being here for so long. Play for me, play for the other seniors in the room. Who've done this for a long time.

There are going to be a lot of emotions on both sides of the field. How do you channel that into being productive on the field as opposed to maybe playing sped up or making mistakes? 
You've got to breathe and harness the energy and really just take it out on the guy in front of you. You can't think about things too much and have high emotions. It's going to be emotional for sure, but just take the emotion out on the guy in front of you. 

Is there kind of like a rallying cry of how you want your season to go four more weeks?
We want to play more games for sure. This is really important for us to get involved with eligibility. Especially when you're up against these guys in our sixth-winning SEC, it's really important. It'll be a cool way to go out. 

Even though Carolina just announced Mack Brown is not returning next season, even though that doesn't affect y'all, does that make the rivalry itself a little bit more interesting? 
I feel like it's just another game. Head coach has nothing to do with us. We can play our brand of football and just play ACC football out there and just have fun.

You used the word dominate. How do you feel about the running game coming out of the Georgia Tech game? 
I feel really good about it. I feel like we got some things going with Hollywood and Jordan and all those guys. To continue this momentum into next week is really important. 

What was the key difference in your mind that allowed the running game to get going again on the road against a really good run defense? 
We knew they were really good going in, so just having a different mindset. But we had to really put it on our backs and just have a dominant day, which was really important. So we went out there and just really emphasized the running game and it showed. We didn't get the win, but we had a good day running. So we're going to try to continue the running game to this end.

You go against this defense every single day. Who do you think has the best chance at stopping Omarion Hampton? 
I think all three of them. They are really good guys. I think linebackers, too. I think we all did a good job of the defense going there and stopping them. I feel like no man is that big. They all show up the same way.