Tanner Ingle: 'Everyone's playing really good football'

NC State football brings back a great deal of talent and experience to its defense in 2021, including hard-hitting safety Tanner Ingle, who will be expected to be one of the team’s leaders on that side of the ball. 

Ingle spoke to the media after practice this week, here’s some highlights of what he had to say: 

We talked about the way that you were redirecting the intensity you play with and dealing with those targeting penalties.  How’s that going?

It’s been a focus for me during fall camp, just working on my strike zone and also just channeling my passion and my intensity. Overall, I feel like I’ve been doing a really good job. I’ve been leading really well, and I just feel like our team’s going to be really good this year.

There are so many guys in the secondary that have played a lot of football. What’s the competition been like, and who are some guys who have stood out? 

That’s a hard question. Competition wise, it’s a fluid depth chart. Everyone’s playing really good football right now. Everyone’s playing really well. So overall, the competition’s been really good, and just people who have stood out, [Cyrus Fagan] has come in and been a really good addition to our football team. Joshua Pierre-Louis, he’s been playing really good football. Devan Boykin has also been playing some really good football. So it’s a lot of people that have stood out. It’s hard to pinpoint everybody, because everyone’s been playing so well.

I know you guys are getting a lot of buzz. I know that’s something you need to block out, but is hearing the good things being said something you can enjoy as well? 

It’s always good to hear a little something good about you, but as a team we try to do our best to just really ignore it. We focus on being where our feet are at, and we just focus on day by day.

Watching you play back there at that safety position, you’re not the tallest guy out there or the biggest guy out there, but we know when you’re around the ball, because you bring that fire and that thump with every hit. Where does that come from? 

I don’t know. I’ve been this way since I was a kid. Growing up, I literally begged my Mom to go play tackle football, just because I wanted to go hit somebody. Literally, I told her I wanted to go play football because I wanted to go hit somebody. But growing up, I’ve just always been like that. Maybe it’s a little bit of a little-man syndrome, I feel like I’ve got to prove myself to people, I don’t really know too much. That’s just how I am. 

How much does it help to have a normal offseason with your defensive coaches? 

The strides we’ve made this camp vs. what we made last camp, it’s been completely different. Coming into this camp, we already had our stuff installed, we learned everything already. So being able to go into this camp just build off what we already have vs. trying to actually learn, it’s helped a lot. 

Has a coach ever had to dial you back in practice? 

Every day. It’s just how I live my life. I just try to do everything I can with 100% effort. Whether it’s in practice, whether it’s in the game, whether I go home and I’m making my bed, I try to my best at everything I do.