Gallaspy Ready For Next Challenge

NC State is the largest public university in North Carolina while Boston College is a private, Jesuit school with slightly more than 9,000 students. 

Nearly 500 miles separate Carter-Finley Stadium from Alumni Stadium in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts.

According to Reggie Gallaspy, there are, however, some similarities on the football field. 

“They are a blue collar school like we are,” he said. “They live on that, to be tough, and they don’t really bring a lot of blitzes they just go big-on-big. It’s an our guys are better than your guys mentality of football so we are up for the challenge.”

The Wolfpack is seeking to rebound following consecutive losses to Notre Dame and Clemson that took NC State out of the national picture and stripped the team of control in the Atlantic Division respectively. 

Gallaspy knows NC State has to live with the consequences but is not ready to give up the fight. 

“Unfortunately we have two losses back-to-back, but we played some tough competition,” Gallaspy said. “It hurts but we have got to keep moving on. We have still got a lot of goals to accomplish, to be 7-1 in the ACC, we could finish the season 10-3. 

“We just have to focus and our hopes are still high. We are still motivated and we are still pushing.”

The running game improved significantly against Clemson after an injury to Nyheim Hines bogged things down at Notre Dame. The Wolfpack used a committee-approach, netting over 150 yards rushing with four players hovering around 40 yards gained on the ground. 

It was different than solely relying on Hines but offensively the Wolfpack got the job done for the most part against Clemson. 

“We made a lot of mistakes against Notre Dame,” Gallaspy said. “They have got a great defense as well so when you make mistakes against great defenses you fall short. We went into the week and worked on it and was able to execute Saturday. 

“It is the same. Boston College has a good defense and they have been really good the last three weeks so you want to make sure you are on your P’s and Q’s as much as possible.”

For Gallaspy, a key to winning with be not turning the ball over.

“Our thing is the turnover margin,” Gallaspy said. “The games we had a better turnover margin we have won. They ones where we were minus-one or minus-two we lost so we are trying to make sure we have great ball security and run our plays, read our keys and just do everything we can to win.”

The work ethic NC State has shown this week in preparing for Boston College will be as much of a testament of the Wolfpack’s character as any game result according to the junior tailback. 

Both schools mirror each other despite their different backgrounds. Gallaspy hopes to create separation on the field by winning the day at practice in the buildup. 

“It shows our character,” Gallaspy said. “It shows how gritty we are, how we really grind and we really push. It is unfortunate we lost the last two games but there is still a lot in front of us. We are still pushing on. 

“Win or lose we always have that grit. We are going to come back the next week and have a grind mentality so we move on to the next week, move on to the next play and next team. The [Clemson] loss hurt but we have still got a lot of games.”