WATCH: Gavin Locklear’s Press Conference After Being Hired as NC State’s Tight End’s Coach

Back in January, Gavin Locklear had a press conference after he was hired as NC State’s new Tight End’s Coach. Here is a bio of Locklear that I released after his hiring. You can watch the video ABOVE, and read the transcript BELOW.

Obviously walked on at NC State, you’ve been around NC State, basically your whole football career after high school. What does this mean to be able to be in this full-time Tight Ends Coaching position?

Yeah, I think for me, man, it’s just a blessing. First of all, I want to thank Coach Doeren for giving me the opportunity and believing in me. Coach Roper as well. Thank God and thank my family.

I’ve come a long way from walking on here at NC State and to me, it’s just all about hard work. It means the world to me. I started as a walk-on that earns a scholarship. Then I started as a student volunteer, unpaid, that now becomes a position coach. So for me, man, it’s unbelievable. It’s something that you dream of. A lot of coaches would love to coach at their alma mater and I have the ability to do that and I don’t take that lightly and I look forward to maximizing this to the full potential.

What’s the biggest thing you’ve learned since becoming a coach at NC State, whether it’s in the volunteer role, whether it’s being a GA or now. What’s been the biggest thing you’ve been able to learn just being in the building on that side of things?

Man, I’ve learned so much. As a player and as a coach, I’ve been around here for a long time and I’ve tried to take a little bit of everything from everybody that I’ve come in contact with and I think that at the end of the day, your coaching philosophy is what it is, but it’s never just something that you design on your own. Like I worked for George McDonald and George was great. He was my position coach.

Coach Thunder. I’ve been with Coach Thunder for a long time and all the other coaches that I’ve been around and been able to study and listen and just hear them talk and talk about their experiences and things they’ve been through and just taking a little bit from each and every one of them is really what helped me become the coach I am today.

As you step into this first opportunity as a position coach, how nice is it to have a guy like Justin Joly in that room?

Oh man, it’s really a blessing. Justin’s awesome and I love Justin. For Justin and I, it kind of goes back to his recruitment. When we got him here and he was in the portal and all those things, we built a really strong bond really quick and that’s one of the things that I really believe in when it comes to recruiting and now that he came here, he showcased his abilities of what he was able to do last year.

It’s really exciting and the thing that I love about Justin the most is his passion. He’s a very passionate player. He loves the game of football and now that we’ve had some conversations since I stepped into this role and, it’s just really getting him to buy into each and everything that he does on a daily basis to outwork everybody else that’s in the same position as him.

But man, it’s a blessing for me to be able to coach somebody like that in my first full-time job.

You guys went out and added Cody Hardy as a grad transfer. What intrigued you guys about him and what did you like about him to bring him into the program?

Yeah, when it comes to Cody, that first phone call we had, I knew it was the right fit. You listen to the kid talk and you understand his makeup and you understand what he’s about. He’s a football player.

He’s a kid that’s passionate, a kid that loves the game, a kid that really wants to be good at the game and really he’s all about winning. He wants to help the team win in whatever way he can and he’s a big kid. He’s 6’5″, 260-270 pounds and moves well.

He’s a strong kid. He’s all about hard work, and I think some of the things that I really picked up on really quickly was he was a culture fit and I knew that if we were able to be fortunate enough to bring him into this program that we were bringing in a guy that was going to put his head down, go to work and do everything he can to really make this program continue to elevate.

I know you’ve been around Coach Roper now for a while. He’s been at NC State for a while as well. What excites you about this opportunity for him, just seeing him kind of get that opportunity as offensive coordinator?

Yeah, just being around Roper over the past few years, you really understand how passionate he is about the game of football. I was kind of listening to him talk earlier and he’s been around a lot of really good football coaches and so with that comes a lot of really good knowledge. For somebody like me that was coming up through the ranks and being able to be around him, I’ve been able to learn a lot from him.

The thing that I admire the most about him is, like I said, the passion that he has for this game of football. He loves the game of football and the game of football has given a lot to him. He really enjoys being able to give back to not only these players, but the coaches that are also on his staff and I’m really looking forward to working with Kurt.

Given your history with the program, I think it’s pretty clear that this matters a lot to you, that it’s an exciting moment for you both personally and professionally. Can you take us through the moment that you found out you would be getting this promotion and just what that moment was like? Did Dave take you into his office? What happened there?

Yeah, I’m not going to really get too far into it, but I’ll tell you where I was at. I was on a golf course. So on the golf course, and I was actually just playing a round of golf with my buddies, and got a call.

It all kind of went from there. But, you know, I probably swung my golf club about five times that day, through 18 holes. It’s a blessing.

It’s a dream come true. I’m very fortunate. Extremely appreciative for coach to give me this opportunity.

With the changes on the offense side of the ball with the assistant coaches, what kind of changes do you see in the offense with Coach Roper taking over? What do you see next year looking like?

Yeah, I think Rope hit on it earlier. He wants to play with tempo. He wants guys to get lined up fast. He wants to play fast. Just being able to pull it back a little bit if we need to do that.

But Kurt is a very competitive guy. So no matter what we’re doing, whether it’s individual, whether it’s team, whether it’s a group setting, whether it’s in the meeting rooms, he expects everybody to compete in everything they do. I think with with him pushing the element of that tempo and him pushing the mindset of competition, I think we should really be in store for some good things next year.

Building off of that, last year this team was ranked as one of the worst teams in the country in terms of tempo, in terms of snap per second rate, like 29.6 last year. How important is going to be to change that element going into the season?

I think it’s just really about what you believe in, and I think for Kurt, his belief is he wants to play fast.

He wants to score points, and I mean, at the end of the day, who doesn’t want to score points? His belief is we’re going to get lined up fast and we’re going to play fast.

I talk all the time, especially with the tight ends when I took over the room. Everything starts with a mindset. If you get guys believing in what you really want to do, you have a real legitimate shot to be really great at something.

I think that’s something that Kurt’s been really great at.

His mindset and the way he sees it. Now it’s just getting everybody to pull in the right direction. He said, ‘here’s what we’re going to do,’ and you can see everybody’s bought into it. So I’m really looking forward to see where it goes.

When you go out on the recruiting trail, how much more passion do you have being able to pitch a program that you played for as well?

I do think that is one of the strengths that I’m going to be able to have. I tell all these guys, the guys that are here, like I’ve been in your shoes.

I’ve done the things that you’re going through. I’ve been a part of those workouts. I’ve been a part of those fall camps.

I’ve been a part of those spring practices. So just being able to relate to those guys on that level, because at the end of the day, this game is not easy and there’s a lot that goes into it.

There’s a lot of early mornings. There’s a lot of late nights. Just getting these kids to understand that at the end of the day, man, life’s not easy.

So just being able to talk to them about life in general and my experience here at this college and this university and playing for this program. I think that really allows them to see the passion that I bring to my job every day.