LB Da'Kaari Nelson: "It's Time to Show People That Last Week Wasn't Us"

NC State linebacker Da'Kaari Nelson met with the media to discuss losing A.J. Richardson, the Richmond game, and much more!

NOTE: Click the video above to watch the full press conference!

As far as the next man up, how do you kind of take on that opportunity?

No, losing a guy like AJ is a hard thing, especially how long the season is. But I feel like I did—not even just me, the whole linebacker room—we did as good as anybody when it came to preparing from spring to now.

So it was like, it was more stepping in than stepping up.

You guys got a home game. Have you scouted Richmond? Any thoughts on what you're facing?

Yeah, they're a good side of the team; they're good at what they specialize in. But this game, we're gonna go out there and mainly focus on the things we struggled with, proving us right more than anything. But they're a decent team; they do a good job.

They have two nice backs, a quarterback, and a solid receiver corps. So it'll be another test.

First home game, and then of course, they're having to get uniforms in the military and stuff. Does that conjure up any excitement on its own, or are you just worried about the game?

A little bit of both. The game, football is football. We came to college to play football. I'm very excited about football.

The uniform definitely—my mom is a military vet, so this game right here is gonna be a game for her, for me personally.

But the uniform is definitely sweet, but it's more of a game.

I'm very excited to play it. We talked to Kenan about the ability to bounce back from a loss, not letting it linger, but also letting it fuel you. How do you balance, like I said, not letting it bring you down, but also letting you use that as fuel for the next game?

It's like a fine line between forgetting about it and using it as motivation. The more you have to forget about it, as in, alright, it's in the past; it happened.

But now you have to use that fuel. What happened, happened.

So now it's time to fix what happened and make it right.

What differences have you seen maybe from—you had camp, you had Week 1, Week 0, down to next week? What differences have you seen, kind of the improvement that can happen after that first game?

I would say the hunger and the strain. I spoke last week about how we strain, the urgency and stuff, and how it was at a high level.

I feel like since then, it's been more strain and less talk. 

'Cause, as I said, it's time to show people that last week wasn't us.

And that right there won't happen again.