RAPID FIRE: Dave Huxtable

NC State defensive coordinator Dave Huxtable recently spoke to Inside Pack Sports with the Wolfpack set to host North Carolina at Carter-Finley Stadium in the final regular season game. 

Huxtable discussed which players have the potential to coach, dealing with a left-handed quarterback and the maturity he has seen from some of his players over the past four seasons. 

What has been like watching the seniors on defense over the past four or five years? 
It has just been a fun process watching them grow, learn and become men and become leaders because those seniors have really been great leaders for us this year. There has been some disappointment but they have done a tremendous job and I could not be more proud of them.

What do you expect them to do after graduation? 
I wouldn’t be surprised to see a couple of them go into coaching. I think Boone would be an excellent football coach. He is very, very smart. He works really hard at the game. I could see him carrying around a whistle one day and being a coach. 

Airius, but maybe he is too smart to be a coach. He could maybe take a different path, knowing Airius.

What about Moore’s linebacking cohort?
Fernandez, I could definitely see Jerod because Jerod is so passionate about the game and I could definitely, maybe, see him doing it. His dad coached at his high school so there is coaching in his blood.

Have you noticed growth from Fernandez since he arrived at college?
I really have. When he was a freshman he was a knucklehead. He was never where he was supposed to be, never doing what he was supposed to do and I have seen him just grow and mature, be more responsible.

I watch Jerod on game day and he is down there with the offense ‘Let’s go boys. Let’s go boys.’ I see the special teams come off the field after making a play and he has just got that spirit about him. I have seen him grow a lot. I am very proud of him.

Does playing a left-handed quarterback change the way you prepare? 
It is a natural thing, you know, with a right-handed quarterback -- your boots, your sprints are going to come from their left hash, our right hash. Not all the time but a better percentage. Now you have a left-handed quarterback and you see some of those same tendencies.