Chandler Zavala: "It All Starts With Practice"
NC State’s offensive line, a group it hopes will be one of the best in the ACC this year, brings back a number of players with experience from last season. It also brings in a new face in guard Chandler Zavala, a transfer from Fairmont State.
Zavala spoke to the media after practice this week about his transition to D-1 college football, making the necessary adjustments, his football journey, and much more. Here’s some highlights of what he had to say:
How anxious and excited are you to be just over a week away from football?
I’ve been waiting for a long time. It’s been since January, so it’s been a lot of months that I’ve waited to put the pads on and work with the O-Line, so I was very anxious and excited to get back on the field with them.
What was your journey like making the jump from Fairmont State to the ACC?
The big thing for me is I wanted to be closer to family. I was so far away from my mother and my grandmother. But another factor was I wanted to also play at a high level against better competition. And I also wanted to get a higher education, get my master’s.
Was it a big adjustment? What was the hardest adjustment you had to make in making the switch?
The big adjustment was the size and the speed. At the Division-2 level, you have competition, but when you come to the D-1 level, everybody across the board can play. So that was a big factor.
What’s it been like for you trying to find your role and your fit within this group?
Coach [John Garrison] said one thing to me when I came here. He said ‘Don’t try to fit in, just work, and you’ll fit right in with everybody else.’ So as the older guys started to see me work, they started to take me in. [Grant Gibson], [Ikem Ekwonu], [Dylan McMahon], [Bryson Speas], we started to talk and hang out a lot together. We started to watch film. We even watched last year’s practice film together. Now we watch USF together.
Do you feel like you have a lot of room to grow as a player? How much has NC State helped you develop?
It’s a big thing. Coming from the Division-2 level, it’s a lot of technique, but there wasn’t so much room to grow. But at this level, you have a lot of room to grow and a lot of little things you can tweak to make you a great player, and Garrison has helped me a lot in the areas that I needed help in. And playing with [Ekwonu] and [Gibson] now, I’ve kind of got a feel for them. It’s going really well right now.
How did you end up at Fairmont State?
Before football, I was a basketball and soccer player in high school. And then unfortunate events happened during high school. My grandmother and grandfather passed away, and they loved the game of football, so that junior year going into my senior year, I decided to give football a shot in honor of them and it worked out. So I only had one year coming out of high school of experience with football. So Fairmont took a chance on me when they didn’t have to. So I took that, played freshman year there and then sophomore and junior year, and then I got better and better. … So after that, I kind of got a feel for the game. When I went to Fairmont State my freshman year, I kind of took the game as just in honor of them, but as I got older I started to love the game and took it more serious, and saw what I could be.
What do you see with this offensive line?
I think it can be really great. We just have to communicate and look at the little things on film, point out anything that we can see. Just build off that each practice. It all starts with practice.