Redshirt Freshman Nickel Tamarcus Cooley met with the media after practice today leading up to NC State’s game against Wake Forest this Saturday. He talked about coming home, the influence of DK Kaufman, and playing his brother when they face Georgia Tech.
Cooley started his first game of his college career this past Saturday against Northern Illinois.
You can watch the video ABOVE, and read the transcript BELOW.
You’re playing for your home city school. What does it mean for you to suit up in the Wolfpack red and represent Raleigh when you take the field?
It means a lot, playing in front of my little sister and my mama.
So just having them at my game, that means a lot to me, they make me play harder.
Do you have a lot of family at the game Saturday?
Not really, I only get four tickets. I just give them to my mom, my sister and my little brother.
But hopefully, my family will start buying tickets so they can come.
What brought you back home? Why did you wanna come back?
I mean, it’s home. So eventually I was gonna have to come back.
And I wanted to come back because it’s where I belong.
What was last week like for you in practice? Coach, talked about how positions are open to go and fight for them? What was that like to be able to do?
Yeah, I just had a good practice. I’ve been waiting for a minute to take advantage of my opportunity.
There’s a group of you that started somewhere and have come back. Feels like there’s a lot of folks like that on this NC State roster. Do any of you talk about that?
Me and Noah (Rogers), we went to the same high school, so we was kind of best friends.
Me and Noah used to talk about it, but now we don’t really talk about it as much. It’ll come up once in a while, but not as much.
When you do have those conversations, what are they like?
It’s really just laughing, because ‘why did we leave?’
I mean, was there a sense when you were in high school and getting recruited of ‘I’m gonna go away from home and make a name for myself’ or something like that?
Yeah, I thought that, but it didn’t go as planned.
You guys are in game prep for Wake Forest. What are your thoughts on the Demon Deacons?
They’re pretty good, but they’re not better than the Wolfpack.
What’s it been like playing with DK (Kaufman) at Safety? He seems like he’s been able to cause a lot of big plays.
DK is like a big bro. He’s a good person on the field, and he’s a great person off the field.
Just playing with him make it better off the field.
What does he do off the field?
He loves film. DK, he takes us out to eat, me and Corey (Coley Jr.). DK is a great person.
I’m sure you’ll think more about it during Georgia Tech week, but how much of an influence has your brother been?
We talk every day, but when that week comes, I ain’t going to talk to him. I’m going to block him, stay away from him.