NC State Redshirt Freshman Defensive End Isaiah Shirley has made the most of his opportunities this season, and according to Wolfpack head coach Dave Doeren, you can expect to see more of him on the football field as a result. Shirley met with the media after practice this week leading up to the Pack’s game against Northern Illinois tomorrow.

You can watch the video ABOVE, and read the transcript BELOW.

First career sack against Western Carolina. What went right on that play and how did it feel to make that game ending stop?

Well, I got a run through. No one actually blocked me on that play.

So we had a blitz on, everybody ran their blitz tracks. They didn’t have enough to block us and I was just having to be that guy on the edge that came free and made our layup, made the play. And couldn’t have done it without the linebackers.

They had their tracks, the rest of my teammates had their tracks. So I’m thankful for that. When I got up, I didn’t realize the ball was fumbled.

I was kind of just excited and something I’ve been thinking about since I committed here. So I was really thankful for the opportunity, and it was great.

One of the things that Coach Doeren said on Monday that there would be more competition and intensity in practice. Have you seen that?

Yeah, no, the intensity, the competitiveness that we had today was was really back, it felt like fall camp again, really.

I mean, guys were flying around, different guys in there moving around, just really trying to create some competitive depth in the room. That’s what you need, I think, to be successful at this level, is competitive depth.

And that’s something that we’re developing right now, and you can see it in the way we practice.

It’s a long season too, can you do that every week? Or is that something that just has to be kind of sporadically?

I think what we do here, hard, tough, together, if we wanna get back to our identity, that’s something that we need to do. At least every Tuesday, we need to be competitive, flying around, and if that’s less physical, you still need to be going fast.

There’s no reason to be on the field and going slow, because you never know when it might happen.

When a coach says, ‘well, we’re gonna make some changes on defense’ or something like that, what does that say to a player when you hear a coach say that?

I’m just saying that we got, whoever it is, we’ve got to log in and get ready to see, trust the coaches, remember the changes, trust them, and know that they wanna win just as bad as we do. And whatever that is, just trust your coach, do what you’re being coached to do, and go from there, and solid ball, play ball hard.

Have you had some of the older guys, leaders, just kind of step up at practice today, possibly?

Yeah, all around, Caden Fordham, all those guys, the veteran guys, we’re just out there flying around, giving calls. Brandon Cleveland in the middle was just giving calls. I mean, everybody out there was flying around, communication was on point, and that’s something I think we need to continue to do in the future before we continue with success.

What’s been the most difficult part of the past few days as you digest what happened to Clemson and you kind of turned the page? What’s kind of been the hardest thing for you all as a team?

I think the hardest thing for anybody in the world, is just being honest with ourselves. We have to be able to look at it, eat it, look at the film and know that’s what we put on film, and we gotta do what we gotta do to fix it and move on.

I think the hardest part is just swallowing that pill of we put that on film. Yeah, that’s on film forever, but that doesn’t define us. We move forward, and the good thing about football, you get another week, and we get to change that narrative.

NC State will be wearing Red helmets, Red jerseys and Black pants against Northern Illinois tomorrow.

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Spooky szn is almost here … #1Pack1Goal pic.twitter.com/8KsQSuNt1h

— NC State Football (@PackFootball) September 27, 2024

(@PackUniforms)

According to PackUniforms, this is only the 2nd time that NC State has worn this uniform combination under Dave Doeren. The only other time they wore this combo was in the 48-41 win over Marshall last season in Carter-Finley Stadium.

NC State ranks 60th in ESPN”s SP+ Rankings heading into tomorrow’s matchup with Northern Illinois.

How are the SP+ rankings calculated?

What is SP+? In a single sentence, it’s a tempo- and opponent-adjusted measure of college football efficiency. I created the system at Football Outsiders in 2008, and as my experience with both college football and its stats has grown, I have made quite a few tweaks to the system.

SP+ is indeed intended to be predictive and forward-facing. It is not a résumé ranking that gives credit for big wins or particularly brave scheduling — no good predictive system is. It is simply a measure of the most sustainable and predictable aspects of football. If you’re lucky or unimpressive in a win, your rating will probably fall. If you’re strong and unlucky in a loss, it will probably rise. (ESPN)

(ESPN)

NC State’s Offense ranks 56th, their Defense ranks 59th and their Special Teams rank 51st heading into Week 5.

NC State Redshirt Sophomore Offensive Lineman Val Erickson, who transferred in from Missouri this offseason, met with the media after practice this week leading up to the Wolfpack’s game against Northern Illinois. Erickson received his first significant playing time against Clemson after Anthony Belton was ejected.

You can watch the video ABOVE, and read the transcript BELOW.

My O-Line Coach in high school, RJ Mattes, was a big time player here, a couple years back in the day. But yeah, just the connection I made with him and it’s been great. It’s a really good program. I’m happy.

Did you hear at all whether Coach Drinkowitz talked to Coach Doeren?

I’m sure they did, because they’re close.

I know that he definitely put a word in for me. Maybe that’s another reason I never talked to Drink about it.

I believe in the recruiting process, you originally committed in Nebraska?

Yeah, I committed to Nebraska in my Sophomore year of high school.

So what have you kind of learned from committing to Nebraska, going to Missouri, and transferring to NC State?

I don’t know, I was a flippy floppy person, I guess you could say back in the day.

Main thing is just all the connections you make over time with stuff. I think that’s the most important.

We’re all young. We’re all learning. We’re all going through it. So that’s the biggest thing for me, is when I learn something or make a mistake from something or a decision, to just make sure I don’t make it again.

How much does it help that you have all these older offensive linemen around you?

Yeah, it helps a lot.

I mean, you are the young one.

Yeah, we’re a tight group of guys. I mean, yeah, besides (Jacarrius) Peak, all the dudes up there are pretty old.

They’re pretty old. So I mean, just learning from them, I’ve learned so much from them. Tim’s (McKay) always a big influence.

And AC, Anthony Carter, learned a ton from those guys. And same with Zeke (Correll), AB (Anthony Belton), even Peak too, the energy he brings.

Did you consider other schools besides NC State?

Yeah, I had a couple other official visits lined up after NC State. I was planning to go to NC State first, and then after I came here, it was a done deal. I was cool with it.

You talk about not making the same mistake twice. Does it help now having 30-something snaps of game film to look back on this weekend?

Definitely. They are also trying to make me flip sides, so it’s getting used to that left-handed stance to a more comfortable right-hand stance, but definitely all that film I got from that game in the second half and a little bit in the first half, definitely helping build on from that this week.

What’s the biggest thing you were able to take away from that film?

I think just playing faster, just getting used to the game speed. It’s a little faster out there. First time out there. So, especially against Clemson, they weren’t bad. So, getting used to the game speed, I think, and I mean, it’s football day to day.

I just think some guys are a little faster, but game speed goes faster, so that was it.

Did you mostly play Tackle at Mizzou and in high school?

Yeah, but high school was all Tackle and Mizzou was all Tackle, too. So, coming here, transitioning to playing Right Guard and Left Guard, still learning, but I think we’re going at a steady pace, for sure.

What’s Coach 2J been like?

He’s a great influence, great guy, always checking up on me. Kind of a father figure. He’s always there, checking up on me and everything.

But yeah, I couldn’t ask for anything more with him. I think we’re gonna start playing, stacking days, stacking games. Now with the O-line, thought we played pretty good as an O-line last week.

So, I think keeping that going, we’ll show what we can really do.