NC State’s Cian Slone, Wesley Grimes, C.J. Bailey, and Caden Fordham met with the media following the Wolfpack's 24-17 win over East Carolina Thursday evening.
NOTE: Click on each player’s respective thumbnail to watch each interview in the player above.
Cian Slone
"It was honestly just great to be out there with my brothers. There's no other place in the world I'd rather be right now. With just the atmosphere from the fans to the preparation we had going into the game, there's no way I wasn't going to go out there and play it hard as I can. From ECU, they're a very respectable team. They're playing with that uptempo offense. They're definitely keeping us on our toes, but I'll just say the conditioning that we put in in the offseason and all the work we've put in up until this moment had got us all really prepared. It was just a great win, and I'm super happy right now.”
"I feel like I'm pretty happy with what out there. Obviously, there's still a lot to learn, and I still got to get a lot better. I'm not where I want to be at right now, but I'd say, from effort and how I played, I'm definitely satisfied with what I did out there. I understand that there's more to be done, and I'm not where I want to be yet, but it was just a great team win all around.”
“They're a respectable team. We knew that going in. It's a game of runs. They went on a couple of runs. When it came down to it in our red zone, we [held] up and stopped them on fourth down, and we won the game. It was just a great game.”
"I don't know used that right, not ‘satisfied.' I'm definitely happy with how I played, but I just know that there's still a bunch of small tweaks and stuff that I need to get better at. Just going week by week, there's always room for improvement, so that's kind of where I was getting at. I'm still as happy as I can be with this win. I don't want that to be misread.”
"I think it's a great momentum starter, honestly. Obviously, every team in America wants to start 1-0, and we did it in front of our home crowd. I think this is a huge step in the right direction for us”
“We knew we had to be super physical. Third down and fourth down were all in between two yards. We had to bow our necks back and just be physical, and just credit to all the guys on the field, knowing their assignment and just playing as hard as they can. We ended up getting off the field, so yeah, it was great.”
“[The rush] always in the back of our mind, for sure. Obviously, I wasn't guessing out there. I was still reacting, but it was definitely a possibility. [Our back-end guys read it perfectly, and they were able to make a play in the ball. That just goes down to just our preparation before the game even started, just the knowledge that we had in the back end there.”
"I feel like our defense was just fast and physical today. We'll see the tape, but I feel like there wasn't a whole lot of mistakes, and effort wasn't a problem at all today. All 11 guys wanted to get to the ball, wanted to hit the ball carrier as hard as they can, and it's just a great way to start off the season, and I couldn't be happy with my brothers and my team.”
“That's just football, I'd say. Plays like that are going to happen throughout the game. Obviously, we were faced with a little bit of adversity early on with that, and I feel like we did a great job of rallying and limiting those type of plays later on the game. Adversity's going to strike, and we all knew that. We've got a bunch of dudes who've played a lot of football on the defensive side, and I feel like we handled ourselves really well in this situation.”
“[Sabastian Harsh's] my boy. He was on my visit when I when I first committed here. He's an outstanding player. There's no one who plays harder, who plays more physical, than Sabastian Harsh. It was just an honor playing on the other side of him. We both made a pretty good impact in the game. We've just got to carry that momentum into Virginia next week.”
Wesley Grimes
“The whole offseason, we were throwing extra, hanging out, and bonding. I feel like that was a big thing with our connection: just learning each other's tendencies, him getting the timing down with how fast my routes are, overall just having fun with it, just working, and enjoying the work. That process in the offseason really helped out, and it showed today.”
“I knew I had to step on my guy's toes. I probably could have taken it a little closer to him to beat him better. I tried to cross his face as best as possible. Credit to Keenan [Jackson]. He did a great job on holding that other side safety. I just saw the ball in the air, and I didn't let anybody else get to it but me. Credit to C.J., big credit to Keenan, but I was just there to make the play.”
“The vibes are definitely very high. The whole game, I wasn't keeping track of any stats. I didn't want to think about that. I just wanted that win. I knew we needed that win as a team, and it was a big, big moment for us, especially after last season. I think it was a good starting point. We definitely have a lot of work to do, but vibes are definitely high. We're going to enjoy this for 24 hours.”
“Like I said, we have stuff to work on. We know that, but we definitely showed a lot of flashes of great things. We have great players on the line protecting C.J. C.J. is obviously a great player, and we have great guys in the receiver room, I think just learning off the things that we messed up today on, getting better, and just staying hungry is a big thing. It's definitely there. We’ve just got to keep moving forward in the right direction.”
“This year, I feel more confident than I've ever felt in college. It's always been there, and I've always been the guy that can make plays. I just had to have confidence in myself. When it happens, I play loose, I play free, and I have fun with it, so I'm just going to keep that mindset and keep leaning on God to keep me that way. Credit to the team for believing in me, and that helped my spirit out a lot with my confidence.”
"A lot of prayer, I would say, [helped my confidence]. Leaning on my Lord and Savior, He helped me a lot. I just talked to him a lot. My family helped me a lot, and just really not overthinking and getting my head about things has been a big thing. I’ve been trusting the plan that everything is happening for a reason in my life. When I just trust in that and believe in that, it just works out. I don't really need to worry about anything. I leave all my stress, put all my stress, in God, and it always works out.”
“That's huge. It's very huge. Like I said, C.J. and I, in the off season, got a bunch of throws and a bunch of catches, and then in the receiver room, we're all familiar with each other. We're comfortable, so we know how to give each other tough criticism and back each other up. We have each other's backs, and we believe in one another. Having all that, all those guys in the room together, having each other's backs is huge, and it makes everybody play more free like when we were kids playing football. Making sure everybody's getting better and staying hungry has been a big thing in the room, and I love all the guys in that room.”
C.J. Bailey
“It's great to see Wesley play like that. We all knew he had it in him since last year. There could have been way more games where he could have way more yards, but this offseason showed me a lot from Wes. He kept grinding. He worked hard, especially when it was came to our time with throwing in the offseason. He worked really hard to do what he did today. I really expected it from him because he's a senior. He's one of our leaders, too.”
“I would say [the biggest improvement has been] my ability to take a shot downfield. I'm really taking shots and taking risks. I’ll say I'm also running the ball better, running the ball a little more this year, in this game for the most part. I won't know until a couple more games come up to really see the growth from last year.”
"I'll say [I need to improve on] just being more accurate when I'm under pressure. The ball started to sail out of my hand when I was taking hits, or whatever the case may be, and I could be better in those situations. I made those throws plenty of times before, so it's just throwing under pressure. That's really what it is.”
"I expected it. I told you guys in an interview a couple days ago, and I told you that I saw a lot of growth in Teddy Hoffmann, and it showed today. I told you guys, 'Teddy is a great player. He's amazing.’ He’s a freshman out of Florida as well, so it's amazing to see what he did today. He's another one who came in the offseason working hard. He put in a lot of work to do what he did today as well. He made a lot of contact catches and a lot of plays for us, and we needed those.”
“It's a very, very explosive offense. [Kurt] Roper's a very smart guy, and he's calling a lot of great plays. I love it from him. He's pushing the pace, and he pushing the tempo. He's not just one of those laid back guys. He understand the situations, and he calls the right plays in the right times in the right moments. It's really big to have an OC like Kurt Roper.”
“The mindset is really finishing better. We started off at a good pace. The offense got it rolling. The defense got it rolling. We've just got to come out of the half way better than how we did. Part of it is just me, as a leader, getting the offense going. We started to feel comfortable with our lead; we can't do that. I've got to get those guys going.”
“It's a great drive. I got [Hoffmann] the ball four times. He's a playmaker. He just gets ball in his hand. He’s going to make a play for us. That trust is trust from the offseason. Like I said before, he was another one of those guys who came in to work, and I just trust him. He gave us the look that we wanted, and I got him the ball in space, and he just kept on making plays for us."
Caden Fordham
"It's awesome having guys like [Slone and Harsh] come in and play like that first game here at NC State. It's awesome to see people, your teammates, out there fighting like dogs every play and going out there making plays. I love having them on my side.”
“It makes it a ton easier, especially in coverage: getting pressure on him like that, making him make quick decisions, and then even in the run game. Having those guys in the backfield as much as they were, you can't ask for nothing more out of your D-line.”
“They're both veteran guys in college football. They played a lot of a lot of snaps, and you can see it on the field. They came in day one, new defense for all of us. They learned right away, really got in the playbook together, and started picking up on things. They started in practice in preparation. I could tell just by the way they practice, how hard they practice, and how serious they took it that they were going to be great players, and it showed tonight.”
"First, I just want to say thank you to God for giving me the opportunity to be back out here and healing me. It's awesome. Anytime you can get back to the sport you love so much and be able to play in any situation, it's such a blessing. It was so much fun going out there with my brothers, fighting tonight, and getting the win.”
“No doubt. It is just a number, but here at NC State, it's a number that comes with a lot of respect and responsibility. Having Coach [Dave] Doeren give me the opportunity to wear that number, I don't take it lightly at all. I do think it pushes me every day, just knowing that, every day I come in this building, I've got to be on my P's and Q's, giving it my all for for my teammates.”
"Sean Brown actually wore [the player microphone]. The preparation and all, it was amazing, just kind of learning new things. You know [D.J. Eliot’s] been in the NFL before, so he kind of has a different knowledge of the defensive scenarios, situations, and play calls. It's cool learning and seeing how an actual D-coordinator thinks about things and goes about his practice and preparation. It's so cool to continue to learn from him, and he does a great job."
