NC State quarterback C.J. Bailey met with the media following the Wolfpack's 48-36 win over No. 8 Georgia Tech Saturday night.
NOTE: Click on the video in the player above to watch Bailey’s interview.
On answering Georgia Tech’s scores…
It was very important. Our mindset on offense was just try to score every drive. Every time we touched the ball, that was the mindset throughout the whole week. That was our plan. No matter what game, no matter what team it is, that's our mindset. We’ve got to score every time. That’s what kept that two-possession lead from them, and with our defense getting a couple of stops, it helped us out a lot.
On staying composed as a leader despite outside noise…
I wasn't paying attention to anything outside. I didn’t know what was going on outside of our facility. My leadership and confidence has been the same throughout the year. I've been leading the same way. I poured into it more throughout this game because we needed it. We needed those extra stops and those extra no-touchdown drives [on defense]. I just always stayed the same throughout the year.
On Duke Scott’s performance…
I wasn't surprised at all. I've already seen Duke since last year. He's a great person. He never complains. He comes to practice, comes to weight room every day, and works hard. He's a very strong, very fast guy, and people don't see it. He and Hollywood [Smothers] are a great duo. When Hollywood went down, he took it upon himself to have a great day to show the world who he is, and I'm proud of him.
On the team’s next-man-up mentality…
It's been like that since I got here. Even with me, it was a next-man-up mentality as well. We do a good job of preparing our guys for prime time. Cody [Hardy] and Dante [Daniels] came in, they said, “Our tight end’s down. Let's go work for him.” I trusted those guys. I trusted everybody out there. They all came with a good mindset, especially Tristan Teasdell. All these guys just stepped in and made plays for us. It was great.
On electing to receive the ball first when winning the coin toss…
I honestly don't go into the decision of who gets to who gets the ball first or if we defend it or not. I feel like it's just a game-time decision or whatever it is. When we go out there, we're just thinking to win. If the offense goes out there first, the defense will support us. We’re going to go down there and score a touchdown for them, or do the best we can for them. If the defense goes out there, the offense is going to support them. It’s just about having a positive mindset throughout. Whoever gets the ball, it doesn't matter.
On the vibes going into the bye week…
It’s really great to get a win against a top-10 team. Going into the bye week, the guys have got to rest. There are a lot of guys that are beat up, and we’ve got to calm down because we’ve got another game coming up. We've got Miami. That's one that I really want. I need everybody, and I’ve got to come to play as well as I did today. I need those guys to have my back, and I already know they're going to do it, so we're going to pull through it for the rest of these games.
