ELITE+: Cory Durden Is An Example Of The Positive Impact NIL Can Have

In the latest Elite+ video feature, NC State defensive lineman Corey Durden shares his thoughts on the importance of NIL, the struggles college athletes can face financially, his love for Raleigh, and much more.  We've made this feature free to all members to provide a glimpse of Elite+ content.

NOTE: Click the video above to watch the interview with Durden.  We’ve also provided a transcript below.

As a student athlete, I'm sure when you heard about NIL it probably intrigued you. What were your initial thoughts when you first started to hear about that opportunity that athletes would have to take advantage of their name, image, and likeness?
I was glad that they were finally giving athletes the opportunity because you work so hard in every sport from football, to basketball, to all the women's sports.

I feel like the scholarships are the bare minimum, because ultimately if your family doesn't have money back home, you don't have somebody to call to give you the help that you need, then you don't have that help. So NIL gives the opportunity for student-athletes to be able to provide for themselves based off just how good you are in your sport.

You're in a unique situation. A lot of student-athletes don't already have a family, and so for you, this gives you an additional way to provide for your family while you're in college and continuing to pursue your degree and then possibly going professional.
Yeah, I'm thankful for that opportunity.

Just having a family, obviously, like I said, the scholarship, it definitely wouldn't be enough having two children. So, just God allowing me to be a good football player -- that gives me opportunities for NIL deals. A lot of the NIL deals, they go to the better players on the team, so that is a good thing.

You started your career at Florida State, and I'm sure you had a bunch of options. What went into your decision to pick NC State once you decided to leave FSU?
A lot of things. I mean, faith was the main thing, because we were in a dead period. I didn't have the opportunity to visit NC State. The only time I saw NC State was when I came here to play in the visiting locker room.

So, just going off what my teammate told me, Cyrus Fagan, you know we talked every day in my recruitment process, and he was just telling me like everything that was going on. He was just, he wasn't forcing me like, "Oh, come to NC State." He was telling me, “Make your decision.” 

Ultimately that helped me make my decision, and just planning against these guys and knowing the type of guys that were here. So it was just... I don't know, it's the place that I slowly fell in love with.

When you made that decision to come here, how was that? Going to your partner and explaining that to her, "Hey, we're going to North Carolina."
It was hard because the football thing, I feel like she's just kind of been along for the ride. So hitting her with that, it was hard because it's for the state. I kind of told her, "I'm going to league, that's every football player’s dream, NFL, NFL." When I hit her with that, "We're transferring, this didn't work out for me." She was like, "What the heck?" We're about to just pick up everything and move to another state.

So it was hard trying to get her to keep that faith, but ultimately when I got here and I built my foundation and I got everything going, it was just easier for her to build that faith in me, because football is what I do.

Covering you since you got here, and the limited media availability we've had, you just continue to rave about Raleigh. Just expand on that a little bit, just how much that you've liked it since you've been here, and maybe that played a role in you coming back for another season.
I love Raleigh. I have loved Raleigh since I got here. The food's great, the people are great. I actually reached out, I started an internship coaching at Millbrook high school. I was talking to them about the high school coaching thing, so I'm excited about that.

Raleigh, it's a great place. It's different. Just being from Florida, people are different. And that was my biggest thing, is I didn't want to get hit with the culture shocks. Just being here for 20-something years and picking up everything and moving.

So, coming out here and seeing how everything is, if the people are truly great I would stay in Raleigh forever. I would raise my family in Raleigh.

You mentioned internship at Millbrook. Is that something that, after football, is that one of your potential aspirations is -- to get into coaching?
Yes. I want to coach. I feel like I had an unfortunate situation in high school. I lost one of my best friends to violence; not death, but he's in the prison system. So I feel like I could be the change for that, not just me, individually being the one person to change that. You never know just how a coach affects a student when they're with them, the two hours that they're lifting or the two hours that they're in practice.

I want to change kids’ lives because I had a coach, Coach Johnson, my basketball coach, I love him to death. He changed my life in high school, so I'm thankful to him for that. I only imagine if I coach after I got them playing football, how many lives I could change?

I know you've been adamant about the culture. You talked about how much you love Raleigh, but you've also discussed the culture within the program here. I remember when I first interviewed you after you committed, and you gave a vibe, like it was a one-year thing. "Hey, I'm going there taking care of business. They put Larrell Murchison in the league. I'm going to be next." You get to NC State, you're All-ACC. You easily could have made that decision to go pro after the year you had. What all went into that? And how difficult a decision was that for you? 
It was a difficult decision on the aspect... It wasn't a difficult decision because I love my teammates and I love my coach, I love everything about this university.

It was a difficult decision on just my family. I'm 22, I was 22 at the time, 23 now, but I was 22 at the time I was making the decision. So being a 22-year old football player, I played, I started three years at another school, I came here, I started here, "Do I want to put my body through another year of playing football and not getting paid?" So, just ultimately making that decision, sitting down and looking at every piece that I had on the board, it was just the best decision was to come back here. Just being around my teammates, I fell in love with my team, just the locker room, everything.

So it was like, the year was over after the bowl game; we didn't play. And it was that uneasy feeling of, "It's not over, it can't be over." I didn't want to live with that feeling. Whether I went to the NFL and played for 10 years or I go to the NFL and play for a year. I didn't want to live with the feeling that at NC State, it wasn't over and I had never finished it. So I had to come back and finish, and I'm excited to be back.

Do you feel like there's some stability here that maybe you didn't have obviously at FSU – with Doeren and the staff? Did that play a role?
I definitely feel like there's stability in that situation. Because here, I know, not necessarily what's going on, but I know how my coaches feel about me. I know coach Jordans says, "Okay, Cory Durden is my all ACC defensive tackle. I'm not going to pull the rug from under him and say, Corey, this, this, and this." I know he has my back.

I'm not going to make him look bad. I'm not going to make our brand look bad. But ultimately I know he has my back, regardless of anything that happens. When the head man... when you know the head man feels like that about you, what more do you want? Having that stability and having someone who believes in me and has me in a leadership role on the team, like I couldn't ask you anything more.

Is there an opportunity for you to be even more versatile, you think, and to really showcase what you want to do? Because I know when we first talked, you talked about the ability to be able to play inside and out and how that could help you get to the next level.
I definitely think our d-line, we have the potential to have one the best d-lines in the ACC, because we get CJ back, and he is a great player. Josh has stepped up; he's lost a bunch of weight. So I feel like that'll give me opportunities to be a more versatile player. I'm excited. I love playing nose guard, but just playing outside, just playing that edge, there's nothing like [it], so I'm excited.

Most d-linemen probably want to play the edge... right?
It's the ideal spot, but I feel being realistic myself, I'm an NFL 3-tech and an NFL team is going to put me in between the guard to tackle, not head up on the nose. But that is just the scheme I'm in right now, I'm part of the scheme.

What enabled you to do that? What is it about your game; do you feel like you were able to come in right away and it hit where you could have that type of a season in that scheme?
What's crazy is two years ago. If you'd asked me, "Cory, do you want to play..." Three years, ago two years ago, if you'd asked me, "Cory, do you want to [be] head up nose?" I would have looked at you and said you were out of your mind. I would have told you, "You are crazy."

But when it came, God forbid you hate to see anybody go down. So I was put in an awkward situation, because I had practiced nothing but end until the Clemson game. CJ got hurt on a Wednesday, so I got put in that situation. I had a Wednesday practice at nose and I was getting blocked more than normal. I was telling myself, "You are going to have to do stuff to be creative.” So I went and I was watching film, just watching film, like the Clemson game.

I remember just sitting in my hotel room the night before the game, just watching film, watching film on Sheldeon Richardson when he was in Tampa Bay. He was just so creative, and so I brought that creativity to the nose, and I feel like it changed the way we play nose all together now.

I feel like in the past, not in the past, but that situation or that position was more of a mirror position and not getting after the quarterback... we were rushing the quarterback, all three of us, getting after the quarterback. It has set the pace for that position in the future. Our coaches, in the middle, they expect us to be playmakers, not block, not just take up blocks. So I feel like that's something that's important.

Another thing we were discussing before you started taping was the culture in terms of the former players. I know you mentioned that you use an example of Jaylen Samuels returning and how that really caught your attention.
You see all kinds of former Wolfpack players everywhere. I worked out yesterday, I can't think... James Smith-Williams, he was in there, working out. I don't know them as much personally, I see them, but you know the guys, you know they're the NFL players. You mentioned Larrell Murchison, they've been working out over spring break. So you run into guys like that, Bradley Chubb right before the practice, before spring break started him and Jaylen Samuels were out there like that.

You say Bradley Chubb's name, everybody knows who that is, he was the first-round pick Pro Bowler. Having somebody, having people like that, you can walk up to Bradley Chubb and ask him anything about football and he will take out the time and say something to you. And just to have a player of that caliber talking to you, giving you advice, that goes a long way as a college player, because you are going to listen to that. What more do you need? That's where you want to go. What more do you need? Who else do you need to give you the keys to be successful? Like why not?

You went to Florida State, and you have a degree from there.  You have roots there. You're going to have two years at NC State when you're done playing here. How do you mold those two together in terms of your overall college experience?
It's kind of tough, because football was good to me at Florida State. We weren't very good, but football has been good to me. I've had... God's allowed me to make plays all throughout my college career.

When you think back on that, I think of what I went through and just all the hardships. I never expected anybody to feel sorry for me, because I made the decision. I had 40 offers coming out of high school and Florida State was my dream school. I made the decision to go there. My head coach left, that was unfortunate. So when I think back on Florida State, I have a lot of memories, just friendships, family. I made a lot of just relationships, all kinds of stuff.

But when I think about the football aspect, it's different because when I came here, when I came to NC State, I was already a seasoned player, I'm here to play football. I'm not here to be a college student. I'm not here to party. I'm not here to do anything but to play football. I'm here for seven and a half months to play football.

At first NC State was a stepping stone, that is how I looked at it, but I swear within a month I had fallen in love with everything about the school. So when I look back on my overall college experiences, I look at the lessons that I learned from Florida State, I took them all from Florida to NC State.

For instance I took school serious, but when I came here, I was an all-ACC and All-Academic for the first time ever in college. I do stuff like that my first semester here.

I look back at it's like... wow. Obviously you have fun in college. I had fun in college, but when I look back at my overall college experience, I learned a lot of lessons and I think God brought me here for a reason and I'm going to take advantage of it and use all the of time that I have.

Circling it back to the NIL, you're in this position, or players get this position, because of the NIL. You can afford to take another year in college, where maybe in the past players are saying, "I have got to go pro." Is that an aspect of it, that probably a lot of people don't talk about when they think of the NIL and in terms of giving you another year of education and the college experience and maybe help you get to a higher level, because you were talking about your draft status. Now you've got the opportunity to build on it. Is that something that maybe doesn't get talked about?
Yeah, I feel like that doesn't get talked about as much. I feel like NIL is going to shake up everything. It is going to shake up recruiting. It's going to shake up where players go. Why [would] I go to Alabama and sit on the bench for three years when you could go to Georgia Tech -- I only use this for an example -- to Georgia Tech and be a superstar?

It's going to change up everything. I feel like people don't talk about that as much, NIL deals, and I feel like what's misunderstood about it is NIL deals aren't given to you. You have to earn them; most NIL deals, like I said, are going to go to the better players on the team. So it's going to give players a reason to go harder.

Like I'm broke, I have no money, my family has no money. Why not go out and play ten times harder in football? What I came to college for. So I feel like that's something that's got to be talked about more, the opportunities that the NIL deals do provide. Because I mean, there is opportunity out there.

There is a perception that when you're in college, you're on a scholarship. You have enough, right? There's a perception among some fans, and I see it speculated and talked about, "Well, why do you need this, because they're on scholarship?" But to hear you talk about it, you've kind of referenced it multiple times. Like you may be broke still, even if you're on scholarship.
After I paid all my bills, this was four years at Florida State. After I paid the only bill I had, which at Florida State was a phone bill. My phone bill was $57. My rent, I stayed on campus. Our check was, I think we got like $1,400 a month after they took out my rent for my dorm, I had $61 left to live off of, for the rest of the month. That was every month for four years, I couldn't call my mom and be like, mom, bro, I need some help.

It was like, figure it out on your own. I applied for food stamps, all kinds of stuff, just trying to get assistance. People don't understand that.  It's like most regular people see somebody with food stamps and look down upon it, but they don't know your favorite college football player could be living on food stamps and you don't even know it. He could have been on food stamps for two, three years struggling. But on Saturday he's the best player on the field. A lot of people don't think about that.

No doubt. [NIL] means a lot. That just shows how people care about you, because you see other schools, student athletes complain that there are no NIL deals. So just to have people reach out to you with NIL deals, you're not having to go try to find a way your own it's. It's a blessing, it just shows the type of people that you are around.