Davin Vann: "I Don't Really Like Them"

NC State defensive end Davin Vann met with the media after the Wolfpack's 35-30 road win over rival North Carolina.

NOTE: Click the video above to watch the interview.

Your career against UNC, how special is that feeling? 
Very special, not a lot of people can say that. But it's just been fun being able to whip on them every year I've been here. 

As someone who's been here for five years now, what does hard, tough, together mean to you? 
Kind of like Coach Doeren said, it's just the foundation, the DNA of our program. No matter what we go through, we're gonna fight as hard as we can and just continue battling to find a way to win. 

How did you see that tonight? 
I saw it early in our offense. We put them in a bad situation in the last two minutes. They just went down the field and just continued hammering away, making plays, doing what they needed to do, and it really showed up in our offense tonight. 

What does this rivalry mean to you? 
It means a lot. UNC didn't really recruit me out of high school, so I don't really like them. I'm going to keep it PG, though, but I don't really like them at all, to be honest. They think they're a lot better than us, and I don't really think that's the case. So the rivalry means a lot, it means a lot to win.

You play with your emotions all year, so what's the key to balancing that fine line?
Honestly, just looking towards my teammates and my coaches, Coach Doeren and some of my teammates, they kept me in check during the game. Just reminded me they're gonna try and do some dumb stuff, try and get you out of character, just play your game. And that's kind of just the reminder that I kept going with.

What does it mean to you to be the one to bring that flag to the logo? How to be the villain? 
Ever since I saw Ben do it, I wanted to do it. So I wanted to do that real bad, it meant a lot. 

You had the strip fumble, can you just take us through that play, and how big was that to sort of get NC State going? 
We talked about setting the tone, and I wanted to set the tone early. It meant a lot to be able to start that, and have the offense go down and score off of that play. But yeah, we're just trying to start early. 

You guys had a lot of defensive backs that usually aren't in, playing a lot of key snaps. What was it like to kind of see them be able to step up? 
I'm very proud of them. Some of them guys, they haven't gotten a lot of reps all season. So to be able to step in a rivalry game like this, to go out there and not only play, but make plays, it's really amazing to watch. So I'm very proud of those young guys. 

With your career at State, if it were to close, what's kind of the biggest thing you've learned in the process? 
That's a good question. I guess I would just stay patient. Things won't always work out as soon as you want them to. God has a plan, and you just gotta trust it. 

You've seen a forth or fifth string quarterback in this series. You've seen the nickel position decimated. Today, a hold that didn't happen on an extra point. Did you just figure that's just par for the course, that there's always gonna be drama when you play in this game? 
It's always gonna be tricky, there's always gonna be drama, for sure. 

Do you feel like NC State set a standard against North Carolina? You guys have won, I think it's five of six in Chapel Hill, or something like that, and four in a row. Do you feel like you're setting a standard? 
We're definitely. I think the teams that, for years to come, they're gonna build off of this. I think what we've done is set the foundation for amazing things to happen in the future.