For NC State linebacker Kenny Soares Jr., the bye week couldn’t have come at a better time. Fresh off the team’s most complete win of the season against Georgia Tech, the timing might have worried some players—momentum is precious in November—but for Soares, the week off was exactly what he needed.
“Pretty good, honestly,” he said of the break. “Get the body right. A lot of dudes are nicked up. So it’s just good, perfect timing after a physical game against Georgia Tech to be able to get back and get ready for this week against Miami.”
Even if the win over a top-10 Georgia Tech team had the Wolfpack rolling, Soares didn’t feel as though a pause would disrupt anything. If anything, it allowed him—and the rest of the defense—to reset and refine.
“Honestly, no, I’m not worried,” he said. “I feel like we really needed it, because for me, being a fourth-year guy, being a linebacker, playing in the box all the time, hitting everybody—that kind of hurts sometimes. Being able to get back in the training room and take a second, and really refine all of our details… we’re trying to make sure we have the best game plan possible for Miami.”
For Soares, who began his career during the era of single bye weeks, the second break in the schedule offered something else: a mental breather for a roster filled with players far from home.
“It allows guys to go home and see family and everything like that,” he said. “You got people from Canada, people down south, people up north like me. It gives you a pause to really take that reset and refocus your mental and also your physical. I don’t feel like it should affect us in any sort of way—besides helping us be more detailed in our preparation.”
That preparation is especially meaningful with NC State traveling to Miami, a homecoming for several key contributors, including quarterback CJ Bailey, defensive tackle Brandon Cleveland, and linebacker Caden Fordham. Soares has watched the Florida natives embrace the week with a little extra edge.
“They all got friends on the team,” he said. “They grew up playing against some of these guys in high school, middle school, pop warner. They have their little rivalries. They’ve got an extra little chip on their shoulder.”
As for Soares, who spent previous seasons playing in frigid conditions up north, the appeal of the trip is a bit simpler.
“I’m just happy to be playing in 70-degree weather,” he laughed. “I was up north playing in negative degrees, in the snow, in Minnesota. I’m just happy to go down south and play a hard game.”
Still, the matchup is no vacation. Soares has spent the past two weeks studying a Miami offense he says deserves significant respect.
“A lot of respect for them, honestly,” he said. “Good team, great players. A lot of size up front. I feel like what we need to do is play detail-oriented defense on our side of the ball, and let the offense be the people that they are, because we’ve got a lot of explosive guys.”
And in his mind, there’s an opportunity awaiting the defense—a chance to finally put it all together.
“I feel like on the defensive side, we still haven’t played our best game yet,” he said. “If we’re able to put everything together within these past two weeks with what we’ve been practicing, I feel like we can have a good game.”
The reset is complete. The details have been sharpened. And for Kenny Soares, Miami represents more than a warm-weather road trip—it’s the chance for the Wolfpack defense to show exactly who they’ve been preparing to be.
