NC State Junior tight end David Grinnage did plenty to earn the trust of his quarterback Jacoby Brissett last season.  He had 27 receptions for 358 yards, and had 5 touchdown receptions, which was tied for the team lead.  Those numbers combined with his raw athletic ability have people besides his quarterback looking for him to do big things this year.  On July 8th, he was named to the Mackey Award Watch List, which is an award given annually to the nations top tight end.

After the first practice of the 2015 Fall camp yesterday, Grinnage said that building that trust with his quarterback hasn’t been rocket science.  It’s just been a lot of work.

“It’s not tough to develop trust with your quarterback.  It just takes a lot of work…a lot of reps,” said Grinnage. “The quarterback just has to see you.  He has to see you all of the time.  When he sees you all of the time, he starts to trust you.  He’ll even throw you the ball then when you’re not open, because with the trust he has in you, he knows you’ll go get it.”

Another Grinnage has earned Brissett’s trust is by actually catching the balls he has thrown his way.

“It’s like Randy Moss said “Just catch the ball,”  said Grinnage. “It doesn’t matter how you catch it or where you catch it.  You just have to catch the ball.”

Grinnage proved to have some of the best hands on the team last year, and when he was asked who had the best hands on the team, he wasn’t gun-shy in inserting his own name.

“I’ve gotta say me.  Of course.  Matt Dayes also has great hands.  Jumichael Ramos and Johnathan Alston also have great hands,” said Grinnage. “There are a lot of receivers that have really good hands.  It’s just a matter of how much they want to work on it.  It’s just getting out here with the machine and the quarterback.  You’ll get that confidence in your hands, and you don’t even notice that you’re catching the ball. It becomes 2nd nature.”