Spike Sowells: "It's Been Great"
NC State center Spike Sowells met with the media to discuss his first fall camp, his time in Raleigh, and much more.
NOTE: Click the video above to watch the interview.
Your first crack at fall camp, man. I mean obviously you were here for the spring and early on portion, but this is your first time getting to focus going into a season. What has it been like so far?
Oh, it's been great.
Me and Jalen Grant, we sit next to each other in the meeting room so I'm taking everything that I can from him to really help my game. You have a six-year guy. He's been through it all so I take everything a little bit when we're watching the film. I ask him like JG, what do you think about this? Why'd you call this? Why'd you call that? How can I make what I did better? And you know, he's been great through the process. It's really nice to have a guy who I'm not only sitting next to competing with just being able to teach me the way he is.
How can you tell that the nose tackles like Brandon Cleveland and the others are making you better?
Shoot, practice, you know going against them, you know the different techniques and stunts and that of that nature It's like it's really making me having to think, so I'm really having to get the bigger picture of what I'm looking at. Brandon Cleveland and Jojo are two really strong guys, So it's how can I generate enough force to start getting movement? So we just move the first level to the second level.
You profile as a true center but we watched Jacarrius Peak kind of throw you in at the guard position yesterday. First of all, what has it been like to work with somebody like that that does have so much experience, and second of all playing the guard position. Is that something that you feel like you could profile as well at the next level?
Oh, it feels great playing next to Peak. Peak played a lot of ball here. He's a guy who I want to be like to play a good amount of years here. Then you know Peak's gonna go off to the NFL next year. I'm just learning from him. Getting reps at guard next to him, seeing what he thinks, that also helps me with center because it's like, okay, I'm playing guard, I'm listening to what he's telling the guard, and then I translate that back to center and then I think in the future I mean, I want to be versatile and be able to play all three.... but I think it's good yeah, by being able to show my versatility.
Of course at the college level is big and so if it translates to the NFL, at center/guard.
Your Dad is a big-man himself, did he ever give you the options to play other positions?
No, my little brother right now, he just got back from Houston. He does track. He was at the Junior Olympics able to play whatever position he wanted, running back, safety, linebacker, D-line everything. I can't win my dad because my dad, he got drafted to the Browns a few months later. He knew he was having me probably as soon as he knew he was having me offensive line. You don't have a choice. You don't have a choice. High school my senior year I got to play a little bit of defense besides that, and then with my mom being a little bit shorter... He didn't know how tall I was going to be so he was like center. So I played center most of my life and so it just helped to translate to college easy.
How old were you when you made it for a snap?
Maybe maybe three or four because I have pictures of me not even a foot and a half off the ground with my Dad's helmet and his gloves and cleats on so it's been bestowed through me my whole life. Go go to the NFL, you know, two centers are on rosters right now.
A lot of offensive linemen from NC State go to the NFL, does that inspire you? Is there pressure, a little bit of both?
I just think of it as a blessing... Coach Doeren, he's been here for a long time and one great thing that he does is develop offensive linemenn. That's one of the biggest reasons why I came here, I still talk to Zeke sometimes, get some knowledge from him. You know Garrett Bradbury won the Remington and I want to win a Remington so I kind of looked at those things when making my decision.
You were a player for most of the major recruits, what was that like for you?
Oh, it's amazing.
I've just gotten here in January and then they're like we want you hosting guys because I guess my charisma somehow. Maybe I'm a funny guy, but just doing my best ability to carry up the future that I have for NC State and that's the ACC championship and then go on to win a National championship.
To do that you got to get guys who you feel can play next to me. I need some guards and tackles. So that's why when they're like, “Spike you want to host somebody?”
Yeah I'll host somebody. Some weekends I was hosting two linemen and I did it almost every weekend and I was fine with that because I want to see NC State take it to another level.
We saw you talking. Is that just you or is that the fact that centers need to do that?
It's a mix.
Coach Tujague and them from coming into high school, you know. The biggest thing is like you're not a high school player anymore. Like I'm having elite grown men, like some of these guys were playing college football when I was in middle school so, I have to really man up as you can say. The demand on these guys is that we have to have a job to do to protect CJ Bailey, and day in and day out we have to do whatever we can to do that. And so that means I got to talk more. I got to talk more.
What does it say about this program that you're such a young guy? But they're trusting with that responsibility to to get reps against the older guys to cross-training guard to host recruits. What does that say about how much confidence this program has in you and your ability?
It means a lot. I think it goes both ways, you know I'm not a guy who I see problems or I see a cloudy future or I'm gonna hit the portal. I have no plans to do that. I want to play three to four years here then go on to the National Football League. I have a vision here and Raleigh, North Carolina is where I'd like to stay here and raise my family. Coach Tujague has been there from the day they offered me in August of 2023. They were on me every single day and they made it apparent to me that we have a plan in the future for you. They didn't recruit no other center. They would say we want Spike. So I took that to mean if I'm gonna come here I want to do everything in my power to make this the best place it can be.