Kurt Roper: "They're Trying To Play Fast"

NC State offensive coordinator Kurt Roper met with the media to discuss the start of spring practice, the quarterbacks, and much more.

NOTE: Click the video above to watch the interview with Roper.

How's the first couple days of practice going? 
It's good. It's obviously a learning process for these guys, but they're trying to play fast. They're trying to play with a sense of urgency and trying to get fundamentally better every day. It's a good start. It's two days, but it's a good start.

Does the terminology language change or is it pretty much the same?
There's a lot of terminology change. Obviously, we kept it the same where we could keep it the same, so you're not having to re-learn something that is not important. Some of it is that I need to be able to adjust my system to some of this terminology just to make the transition a little bit easier, but there is still quite a bit of change.

CJ talked Tuesday about how excited he was to see you promoted and, you know, just how much you've done for his growth. What does it mean to know that he speaks so highly of you? Well, you know, I'm fortunate to coach him, right? 
He's a great young man first, and then obviously he's a really talented young man. And so he's just a fun guy to be around. He brings a lot of positive energy every day. He's always got a smile on his face, maybe not necessarily at 6:30 in the morning all the time, but by the time we get to the field, he's got a lot of positive energy. And I've always said, you watch back through the years, good coaches are products of really good players. He gives us a chance to be a good football team. 

Change kind of pushes people, right? Like, and so we've got you on offense and DJ on defense. Do you feel kind of a tangible energy that comes with that? 
Well, yes, and I think the biggest thing is there's learning, right? They have to spend time in their books and figure out how to go out and function at a high level on a practice field with a new system. So those guys are challenged, right? New creates growth at times. And so we've been good around here a lot in football, but sometimes change is a positive thing. 

Whoever it is, will be in the third center in three years. How vocal is that position and how would you like to see that position get settled? 
I think we've got to spend time finding that out this spring. And we've got several guys that are going to rotate in through that. And it's huge. It starts with the snap, right? And that's last year we all maybe got a little complacent in how good Zeke was at really snapping the football. We asked centers to do a lot more than we did when I first started 30 years ago. And we're underneath the center. We're asking them to, gun snap and hit us right in the same spot in the chest and come off on a 300-pounder as fast as they can. There's nothing easy about that. So it starts with the snap, and then the guy's have to understand the system, get everybody on the same page, and create a cohesive unit. We're looking forward to watching that battle. 

Last year there was a lot of new when it came to the players. This year, obviously, the scheme is different. But you have a lot of the same faces back with CJ, Justin, Hollywood, people like that and Noah (Rogers) obviously. How much does that continuity help when you're implementing a new system? 
Experience is the best teacher for all of us, right? And even though we might be saying something a little bit different, they can correlate it to what they've done in the past, right? And we've all been around together for a year. So our ability to communicate with each other is quicker. Just the guys have played a lot of football, and that makes a difference. It's not a lot unsimilar to 2019 to the 2020 change. And when you looked at 19’. offensively, we were a lot of young, young guys, new players playing. And then 20’, we were obviously a year better with the experience. And so, like I say, experience is the best teacher.

I know there's some secrecy involved with closed practices and no spring game. But what can you share about what you expect the offense to look like?
That’s a good question. Obviously, I've said I think we've got to have the ability to function faster at the line of scrimmage, right? And I think we've been pretty good coming out of a huddle. I think we're good at that as a team. We understand how to do that. We've got to be able to change the pace of play, if that makes sense. So, we've got to be able to go fast, maybe mix in some huddle, mix in some sugar huddle, as I've said. But beyond that, we've got to find the best 11 players to put on the field. 

What was it like for you last year to be able to see Hollywood's growth throughout the year? 
And by the end of the year, you seemed to be a clear winner. It was actually fun recruiting him. I still remember the first time I saw him play in person, and I didn't know much about him. I saw his tape, but Joker and I went down and watched him play a game when he was a junior year. And I came away there really realizing how much more physical he was as a football player. The speed and the ability to score from a long way away jumped out at you. But you found out how tough he was and how physical he was as a football player. And I think he's just going to keep getting better as he works in the weight room, works in the offseason and understands our system. 

How unique is that relationship with you being kind of his lead recruiter early on before moving over to the quarterback side of things and now being the offensive coordinator? 
We've known each other a long time. I gave him a hard time because he told me no the first time, right? It's kind of like my wife. It took me a long time to get her to say yes, but eventually we made ourselves that way. And I think him going off and starting somewhere else and starting here, I think he really embraces being close to home and realizes how awesome this opportunity is for him. And we're obviously excited and fortunate to have him as a guy on our team.

You've been in the booth. You've been on the field. What are the perks of both? 
I've always called it in the booth. And you just see so much better, right? You can see the alignments. You see shades of corners and linebackers. And so I think maybe my mind processes the information better and I can maybe put together a plan as I'm seeing it rather than waiting after a series and looking at the iPad and adjusting from that point. It's good in this sense that it's very quiet and calm in the box. And on the field, it's not that. So it's good in that sense that it's quiet and you can think, but you don't feel the emotions of the game down there. You don't feel the energy of the game. And so sometimes that's important to feel that. 

What's it look like? Having Zac back on staff. 
Yeah, I mean, it's my brother. It's fortunate to have him around and all that. But we grew up the same in the sense when we started coaching, Cut is really both our mentors. And so we think alike. So when you're trying to make adjustments during a game, just having his insight is going to be important.  

I feel like last year, a lot of the problems came from just trying to get the offensive line rolling. How are you kind of already starting to kind of solve that problem or kind of work on that? 
Yeah, I think always on the focus, if you want to be good up front with five guys as a cohesive unit, you have to ask them to do the same things repetitively over and over and over again. And you have to get good at that because things that are going to multiply really quickly on the offensive line with the defense, whether it's a front change, a pressure change, those type things. So if you add, put too much on their plate to say that you're going to function at a high level when the defense is added to that becomes more challenging. So I think the biggest focus for us is let's find out what we're good at and do it over and over.