Joe Sculthorpe: "The Chemistry On The Field Was Great"

NC State’s offensive line put in a monster performance Saturday against Wake Forest, paving the way for the rushing offense to pick up 270 yards on 49 carries and keeping quarterback Bailey Hockman mostly clean. 

Guard Joe Sculthorpe was a big part of that effort, and he spoke to the media via Zoom Tuesday about what the Wolfpack’s big win and preparations for Virginia Tech this week:

Now that you’ve had a game to work together, what was the chemistry on the field like for the offensive line?

I thought the chemistry on the field was great with the guys on the offensive line. We spent a lot of time in the offseason connecting as a unit with the offensive line and we spent a lot of time connecting as a team in general. I think us as a position group, we really took that to heart and I’m really glad you said that, because I think it was noticeable on the field. We felt going into this game and going into camp that we were a lot closer and a lot more of a tight unit and we could play a lot better together.

There was a play in the first half where Ricky made a cut and got into the open field. How cool is it when you’re making those blocks to see guys get out in the open and do what those backs did Saturday?

I think from the offensive line position, we kind of see the game in a very different way. We see it on a very small scale because our face is buried blocking a defender. So we don’t really see what happens unless it’s a big play like you mentioned. Whenever you see the running back take off sprinting downfield, going past you about 35 yards, it’s definitely a good feeling because you know you did your job, blocked your man. You get a chance to sit back and watch the play happen and see your teammate score.

You guys only had 10 explosive runs of 20 yards or more last year and Saturday you had seven. What was the difference? 

I think putting in a lot more work in the offseason and really coming closer as a unit. I think offensive line is one of the very unique positions on the football field where camaraderie and building chemistry as a unit really translates to better play on the field. And honestly, what it comes down to too is everyone praises offensive linemen whenever you have a great game rushing the ball. A lot of times as offensive linemen, we just get the play started within the box, five yards down the field, 10 yards down the field. 

When you see those big, explosive runs, you see our backs finishing blocks on guys downfield in the secondary. I thought our receivers did a great job finishing blocks in the secondary which allowed us to get those large, explosive runs. It really just comes down to everyone doing their job on the field, to the running backs, O-Line, receivers to everybody getting their job done, finishing their blocks, getting those receivers out in space so they can show off their speed and get some good yards.

You guys lost a 14-point lead, how big was it to overcome that?

Losing a lead is a tough feeling, because it can almost be a wheel breaker. But we’re not the same team as we were last year. We spent a lot of time building up leadership among our team and getting guys in leadership roles so when things get tough and we get put in positions of adversity, we don’t break. We might bend, we might give a little but we never break. Coaches say all the time, ‘Bend, never break.’ Of course, they’re a good football team too, they’re going to have good plays. We never let that adversity get into our heads, and it’s always a next-play mentality. If you have a play, you mess up, next play. You can’t sit on that too long. Otherwise you’re going to affect the whole game. 

So you didn’t sense a panic on the sidelines?

We were poised from the beginning of the game to the end of the game. We were very poised.

You and Ikem Ekwonu both wrestled in high school. What translates from that sport to make really good offensive linemen?

You hear a lot of time coaches and players start to know, offensive line is a very contact-heavy position in terms of going against another man and his body positioning, center of gravity, hand fighting, positioning of your head. And really, that’s what wrestling is. Wrestling is balancing your center of gravity, balanced hand fighting, getting in that position. So there’s a lot of things that translate over, in my opinion, from the wrestling mat to the football field, especially on the offensive line.

It teaches you how to throw your weight in the right way, feeling your momentum and feeling the weight of the other guy so if he pushes one way, you know how to throw your weight that way. So when you can kind of throw yourself, coming off balance, staying low on pad level, I think a lot of the things that you practice on the wrestling room are amplified on the football field.

Do you and Ikem ever swap wrestling stories?

We talk wrestling every now and then. It’s kind of funny, because in high school our max weight limit’s 285 and we’re like 300 pounds now. So it’s kind of funny thinking and going back to those wrestling days, you’d have to lose 15-20 pounds just to get back on the mat. So we used to swap wrestling stories. We play around in the locker room sometimes or on the field, just a little wrestling here and there to relive the glory days of getting on the mat, but me and Ikem definitely bond over that a little bit.

How many maple syrup bottles for pancake blocks do you have and what is the feeling like when you get the bottle of syrup on Sunday?

Anytime you eat pancakes, you’ve always got to have a bottle of syrup with you. It’s no different on the football field. Everytime you get a pancake, you’ve got to have syrup to go with it. I think it’s a great thing, and I really do like it. Because as an offensive line, we don’t really have stats. The only stats we have are negative. Sacks let up, TFLs, stuff like that, pressures. So the only stats we get to showcase are the negative ones or lack thereof is where you get to show them off. So whenever we get to have pancakes or knock downs, give a little bit of highlight on that, it always gets the team excited. 

Because it’s always a great feeling to have a great block on another person down the field, driving them and then just finishing it, burying them in the dirt. It’s a really good feeling and it’s definitely fun coming into the O-Line room and seeing our shelf filled with bottles of syrup from last year and this year from the guys playing hard and finishing blocks. I do like the syrup, and hopefully we’ll get a lot more. 

Even with Bud Foster gone and Caleb Farley opting out, you’ve still got a very strong defense in Blacksburg led by Rayshard Brooks. When you watch him on tape, what do you see that makes you say ‘OK, there’s the preseason All-American, there’s the All-ACC guy with all the accolades that he’s received so far?

Going into game prep, you always scout the defensive-line personnel, seeing what they’re good at. You always look up their stats from the last season, if you’re later in the season you see their stats from throughout the year. Since they haven’t had a chance to play a game since they were going through the pandemic as we were, it’s kind of hard game prepping for a person you haven’t really seen on tape yet. So you have to go back to his film last year, which got him all his accolades this year. I think everytime we go on the field, our opponents on Saturday, I respect them all. I treat them all the same. 

Even if they’re a preseason All-ACC, All-World, all whatever you want to call them, I treat them as if they’re a top-tier opponent. Because the preparation doesn’t change for who you’re going against. I have a lot of respect for all of the D-Linemen that I go against, because they’re Division-1, Power Five football players just like me. There’s no such thing as an easy defensive line. That just doesn’t happen. Everyone here is on scholarship, everyone here is playing at just as high a level as I am. I treat everybody the same. I’m looking forward to going against them, having some good competition and hopefully we’ll have a similar outcome as we did last week. 

Is running the ball something you expect to be this team’s identity?

I think the stereotypical answer is every offensive lineman wants to run that ball. But I think here at NC State as an offense, we want to score points. Whatever that takes to put points up on the board. If we run the ball 100 times, throw the ball 100 times a game, split it even down the middle, heavy on one side, I don’t care. We could run QB sneak 1,000 times, whatever it takes that works that gets the ball in the end zone is what I want to happen. That feeling is pretty mutual amongst the offense. 

In the run game, it’s a team effort. A lot of people just put in on the offensive line because it’s what we’re known for. But those big runs really come from the receivers finishing those blocks and getting guys on the edge open in space. So Just as much as offensive linemen like to hang their hat on rushing for 250-plus yards a game, it’s really a team effort getting that done. So they’re just as involved in it as we are. So if we go into a game, we throw the ball for 400 yards and we rush the ball for maybe like 100, and we win, that doesn’t matter to me. I just want to win the game, get as many points as the other team and make sure our quarterbacks are safe, our running backs are safe, our receivers are safe. Make sure everyone gets on that bus happy and we come home with a win. That’s pretty much it.

Coming into camp, everyone thought Devin Leary would be the guy, but what did you see from Bailey Hockman throughout camp and his demeanor in a leadership role going into the game when he found out he was going to be the starter?

Coming into the season, we knew we were going to have a quarterback competition amongst all our quarterbacks, and I thought from the beginning of camp up until the very last week, they competed their butts off and they got after each other. I think they played at a very high level for both of them. At some point, a quarterback has to make a decision. Luckily I’m not the quarterback coach so I don’t have to make that call. I was very proud of them. I thought they played very well. 

Whoever’s back there, I feel confident and I feel comfortable with whoever's in that pocket, throwing the ball, making sure their responsibilities are taken care of and leading the offense to score some touchdowns. I was really happy with Bailey’s performance. I thought he did a great job. I thought that week of practice when he got announced as the starter going into the game, he had a laser focus throughout the week. He did a really good job prepping so that when we got to the game Saturday, he was just showing off his skill. 

But that’s not to leave Devin out in the dust. He was just as locked in as Devin. Even our third-string quarterbacks were getting locked in. I thought as a team in general, it was really, really solid. We took care of our preparation so we could give ourselves the best chance to win on Saturday.