Bryant: "It's A Great Opportunity For Me"
NC State senior defensive tackle Eurndraus Bryant is excited about the upcoming season, and he recently discussed his potential impact with Inside Pack Sports.
How are you health-wise?
I feel 100%. It’s good to be back out there with my brothers, competing every day. Camp is over now but I feel like I put all my work in and I feel like I got better this camp.
You and Darian have big opportunities this year, how are you approaching the opportunity?
I feel like it’s a great opportunity for me. Learning from those guys in the past, I feel like I’m in a great condition to go out and compete in a starting role, with all the knowledge I gained from those guys, playing behind them each year. I still watch their tape to this day.
With that knowledge, I’m able to go out there and still do my job. I had a decent amount of snaps last year so I’ve been doing this for three years. I’m comfortable.
Are you where you want to be physically?
Yes. There’s never too many things to do. You can always improve something. I can still do things to improve my body; there’s never too much.
Who are some young guys who have impressed you?
James Smith-Williams. Alim has shown promising things. Grant Gibson has stepped up. Larrell Murchison has been doing pretty well at the 3-technique. He’s shown big improvement from the spring. That’s good going into game preparation.
Some of those guys played other positions in high school or earlier at NC State. How does that help their transition to defensive tackle?
That definitely adds athleticism but it also add football IQ. You get to see offensive guard stances, and when you’re at end you can see where the guard is going and what kind of block you are about to see. He’s just expanding his ability, that’s a good thing to have, playing two positions. That’s not an easy position to play. If he can balance both, that’s great.
What details do you look for when you’re coming off the ball?
Everything here is gap sound. In high school, it’s not really gap. You just fire off and hit the guy in front of you. Here you have to stay in a certain gap or the ball is going for 80 yards. It’s that fundamental technique that you have to be alert for. That’s the biggest difference from high school to college.
So it’s more of a team effort and filling roles than just going out and playing?
Yeah you have to fit your gaps. Linebackers read off our gaps, if we have our gap then they can cover our gap and look back at their gap. Biggest thing is staying in your gap. That’s the biggest technique thing.
What have you seen from Ibrahim Kante?
He’s great coming off the ball. For his size, he can be a real force if he can add weight. He has great hands, great explosion into blockers and excellent knock-back which is good for 3-technique. If he can get his weight where the coaches want him, he will see a lot of time.