WATCH: NC State's Nyheim Hines Discusses His Big Day

NC State junior tailback Nyheim Hines met with the media after the 35-17 win over Pittsburgh.

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On the long touchdown run... you've been caught a couple of times this year.
Come on now.

You have.
I was on the track today. I got my knees up, arms pumping.

Running back is pretty good when you can get to the second level and just break one tackle, not worry about linebackers.  It was about me breaking a tackle, great job by the o-line getting  me there.

Balance on the long run...

He tried to take my legs out. We work on that everyday. Coach Kitchings does a great job of working on side tackles like that.

Were you able to set that up?

It was a great job by the line. When I'm running and don't have to break stride, it's really an arm tackle.
They did a great job of keeping everybody off me. When I'm running full speed and somebody is coming from the side, it's not hard to break it.

You're alone in first place.

It's crazy, it's good to hear, but we'll focus on NC State and not look at the rankings. It's one game at a time. We didn't start off fast today so we have to make sure we start off fast every game.

Even though we're on top, everybody is coming for us, giving us their best shot.

What is your mindset the next couple of weeks?

Get some rest, recover really well.

I'm really excited to go to Notre Dame. I got to see Notre Dame's campus during track season.  It's nice, it will be a great environment. I know they are a great team.

I'm looking forward to getting some rest during the bye week and see what they have the next week.

What was the talk in the locker room at halftime?

Not to beat ourselves honestly. 

We didn't make a lot of plays, we weren't finishing blocks, catches, tackles... we were fortunate to be tied at halftime with how we played in the first half.

There were drops, missed tackles...

It's a little both. It's ACC football. It doesn't matter what your record is or who you are. ACC, I believe, is one of the best leagues in college football. They were breaking up passes, we might have been dropping them, but we had to execute and do what we needed to do to move the ball.