Savion Jackson: "Our Defense Wants To Be Tested"

NC State defensive end Savion Jackson shares his thoughts on his recent play, defending Miami, and much more with the media.

NOTE: Click the video above to watch the interview.

Obviously the Miami quarterback made some comments about they were confident. They feel like, based off last year, they can move the ball on you guys pretty easily. Does that add any extra motivation, or are you guys like, "We still going to do what we have to do. We don't pay attention to stuff like that?"
I would say obviously, it adds motivation. It does add fuel to the fire, but you've probably heard it before, we just focus on ourself over here.

We've got to focus on what's going on on our side, on our team, and we just handle it that way. But yeah, it definitely does add some... makes us want to play harder and stuff like that.

How does something like that spread through the locker room? Guys showing each other their phones like, "Look at this video," or do you guys hear what such and such said?
It definitely spread quick. Definitely, probably everybody on team has watched the video, but it just gives us that task that we need to handle. It gives us a “we need to complete this mission” type of thing.

As a defense, it gives us exactly what we want. We want to be tested by every team. So if someone's feeling confident... the thing we want to do is just make them not feel confident after that game.

Definitely just focusing on ourselves.

When you hear comments like that, what's the best way to respond?
Exactly how I'm responding. There's no point to say anything back. The game is won between the lines and the whistle. So just taking everything that we collected, all... the interview that he gave out, just taking it to Miami and handling business, it's literally that simple.

Again, just focusing on us and just playing the game like we do.

When you see something like that, though, do part of you say like, "Oh man, they...?" Is it almost like a sign of weakness when you see a team talk smack? You're like, "Okay, they already need to talk. Well, we can show them how to play" kind of thing?
Yeah. To me personally, it's funny. It's funny when you see stuff like that on social media. It's just funny to me, but yeah, like I said, our defense wants to be tested. There's no fun of just beating teams, and it's just easy. It's easy when we play against good teams and we beat them. So no, it definitely adds some spice to the game and making us have to play hard.

You, Cory, Daniel, Terrell off the bench, Davin and Josh, the whole group, have been very disruptive since this year. The sack numbers may not be high, but it seems like every pass play, you guys are in their faces or getting held or getting double-teamed. What's been the key for that group to be disruptive in the passing game this year?
I feel like it starts at practice. The way we practice, we practice hard. The cliche thing, practice like you play. So, definitely just going hard in practice and just going one hundred percent.

Well, you know how our D line rotates and everything. So, we're able to go full speed, four or five plays, whatever how long the drive is, and then we put a whole new set of people in and they're going full speed.

We're definitely a tight, tight group in the position room, and we take pride in being that defensive line and getting TFLs and sacks... definitely more sacks in the future and plays made.

There's been some cases this year, say against Clemson, even Boston College, you guys give up an early touchdown and then really tighten up. What is it about those early moments that kind of... Is it a wake up call, or do you guys get together and talk as a defense? How do you guys kind of fix things so quickly?
It is a wake up call. I feel like every school in the country has good players. Everybody makes plays. There's going to be times when we miss one thing and they score a touchdown, but I feel like after that touchdown, everybody comes to the sideline and we regroup... we make sure it doesn't happen again, because everybody's going to make plays in the league. They're definitely regrouping on the sideline, getting our corrections and just going back out, make sure it doesn't happen again.

Definitely a wake up call. We don't want it to happen, but it happens. Why be sad about it or get  down? It's early in the game. We've got a... We have to keep playing four quarters.

With each win, I can imagine that the confidence in this team is growing from week to week. What's it like in the building? What's it like around practice? What's it like in the weight room? It's being around a confidence bunch that's seeing the fruits of their labor on the field, but still know there's room to grow and there's still plenty of football to be left this year.
That's a good question. We have this thing where we say, "Don't get too high. Don't get too low. Stay right in the middle."

So, we know we're winning, we're making plays, we're doing all that. Yeah, it does give us confidence. It does show us what type of team we have but don't get complacent... don't get too high.  If we were losing or anything like that, don't get too low. Don't get too sad.

You've got to keep going, but just staying right in the middle, just staying hungry.

On Sundays when we re-watch the game of the film from the game on Saturday, even if we win or anything, coach Doeren is straight to stuff we need to fix. We call it our one more. Every individual player needs to find their one more. So every week we find something that we need to fix.

We celebrate after the game, but Sunday, it's on to the next game... fix everything that we messed up on.

Coach Doeren has been semi-vocal about these late-night games, particularly road games. What are they like for a player? Is it tough with those really long nights and getting home late Saturday morning? Or are you just like, "Who cares?"
It's tough playing, especially away, playing that late and then just having to get in the locker room and do everything, shower and everything, and then get back on the plane and come back three o'clock in the morning, back to North Carolina.

It is tough to play that late, but just got to keep winning these games. It doesn't really matter at the end of the day. We can't do anything about it.

It is tough sometimes. It would be refreshing to get an earlier game at some point, but it is what it is.

Along those same lines of playing those late away games, I imagine when you're on the road, you're sitting around all day because of these late games, the team becomes closer because it’s just you guys in your hotel. How does that kind of help this team bond? Because you're sitting around, but you've got to find ways to kill time, but it kind of translates over to the field with the bonding.
Yeah, definitely. When we come in on... we travel on Friday. We get there Friday and then we do our meetings and eat and stuff like that, but after we get done with our meetings and corrections, we get time to chill. When we have night games, we just sit around the hotel and just hydrate and stuff like that, and stretch. 

But just being with the teammates and kick back, play the game or watch a movie or watch college football games that's playing earlier in the day. Just able to... there's a lot of people in my football team. There's some people you might not talk to that much because there's so many, but being able to talk to a guy you don't really talk to that much and get to know him, that definitely helps us bond.

Then, when meetings come around closer to the game, we're locked in and ready to play.