Devin Leary: "We've Just Been Getting Better And Better"

No. 10 NC State quarterback Devin Leary met with the media ahead of the Wolfpack's upcoming matchup versus No. 5 Clemson.

NOTE: Click on the video in the player above to watch Leary’s interview.

Devin how  a heart rate just about now, midweek getting ready for this game.
I'm excited. I'm excited. We just had another great practice, just stacking days on top of each other. Looking to go back at it, cleaning everything up, but really looking forward to tomorrow.

Is it easy to get ahead of yourself a little bit this week and?
No, I don't think so. I think each and every week you got to take it day by day. You need to perfect what you have to accomplish each and every day. Some days you got to grind them out. Other days you got to kind of take a step back mentally, and each and every day we've just been getting better and better.

How does the offense begin to prepare for what the weather might be come Saturday?
Yeah, I mean we've obviously got word that it might be a little bit rainy, so in practice we're having different wet ball drills, and quarterback center exchanges, having different climate effects with it, squirting the water all over the football or on our face, but just kind of adapting to whatever there is to come.

Is there any extra anxiety just given how big this game is?
No, I don't think so. Each and every week we have to prepare really hard, and I think each and every week you have to prove yourself. So as long as you prepare and you put in the work, and stack days on top of days, like I said, come Saturday, everything will handle itself.

Have you played in a game like this in the weather like that?
Yes, I have. The last time it was like a hurricane type of climate, was back in high school. My sophomore year we played a team called Washington Township High School in technically a hurricane.

How did you play in that game?
I played pretty good. I think I threw five touchdowns in that game. We were doing a whole bunch of under-center stuff, which was a little bit different for our offense at the time, but I mean it was definitely challenging.

Do you run the ball at all? Did you run the ball the last game, or not?
Me, personally? I did whenever they needed me to, but with the weather we had a rotation of running backs that were able to run the ball.

Top ten matchup. This was one of those big games in school history. Just says talk about what's what's ahead.
Yeah, I mean it's everything that we expected. We expected to be in this position, heading into the season, being 4-0. But obviously there's still a lot of room for us to improve. Each and every week we walk off the field, obviously, excited and proud of what we've done, but at the same time we're our biggest critique. We know how many plays we left on the field and our goal is to just get better each and every week.

How much did last year's win against them, after you guys have butted your heads against them so many times and not won, but to come through finally. How much did that change, maybe confidence, or the way you guys look at this series after struggling against them for so long?
It was definitely a surreal feeling, especially the way that we won in double overtime. But yeah, I think, for any team to beat the number nine ranked team at the time will definitely build your confidence.

And then as far as the series, it just goes to show that we could compete with the best as long as we prepare well and do our jobs. And I think we got a little bit of taste of that last year.

When you said spraying water in your face, do you mean, what, like somebody shoots the hose at you while you're trying to run a play or what?
Kind of like pre-snap, they'll walk by with the water bottle, kind of squirt the football and occasionally just throw it up into your face. So I mean, we're prepared for anything at this point.

How about 50 mile per hour winds?
Whatever they throw at us, we'll be ready for it.

You got teammates on the team, I know the whole team is tight and everything. Well, what about guys like Tanner Ingle and other guy from Florida? What kind of anxieties do you think they're going through right now? Or have they told you what they're going through right now with this hurricane coming?
Honestly, I mean that conversation has never come up. Guys are just ready for practice each and every day. Guys are looking forward to the opportunity and at the end of the day, whatever type of climate or weather that we have to adapt to, Clemson has to do the same thing. We're going to be playing on the same field at the same time and we're going to be ready.

Wake Forest was able to exploit a young secondary, just kind of what have you seen on the film from that?
We knew that when Clemson was playing Wake Forest, they had a couple DBs that were injured that were expecting to be back. They did a good job of rotating a bunch of different guys in the secondary, and their coach does a really good job with their different schemes and disguising.

Wake Forest is a great offense. I think Sam Hartman's a great quarterback and he gave his receivers a chance to make a play and they made plays. So, we definitely looked at that on the film, but at the same time, we know they're very good at what they do.