WATCH: Cian Slone is Happy with Impressive NC State Debut (with transcript)

Redshirt Senior EDGE Cian Slone announced he was transferring to NC State from Utah St. back on April 5th. Slone earned 2nd Team All-Mountain West Honors last season with the Aggies, and he carried that momentum into his debut with the Wolfpack last night against ECU.

Slone was nothing short of disruptive, flying all over the field in NC State’s 24-17 win over the Pirates. He finished with 7 tackles and 3 QB Hurries.

He met with the media after the game. You can watch the video above, and read the transcript below.

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You were all over the field tonight. What was it like to get back out there playing in a game? Also what did you guys see from ECU’s offensive line that you were able to take advantage of today?

It was honestly just great to be out there with my brothers. There’s no other place in the world I’d rather be right now. Just the atmosphere from the fans, to the preparation we had going into the game.

There’s no way I wasn’t going to go out there and play as hard as I can. From ECU, I mean, they’re a very respectable team. They were playing with that tempo offense. They were definitely keeping us on our toes.

The conditioning that we put in the offseason, and all the work we’ve put in up until this moment had got us all really, really prepared.

It was just a great win. I’m super happy right now.

This obviously being your first game at NC State, do you feel like you made the impact you were hoping for. 

I’m pretty happy with what I did out there. Obviously, there’s still a lot to learn, and I still have to get a lot better.

I’m not where I want to be at right now, but I say from effort and how I played, I’m definitely satisfied with what I did out there, but I understand there’s more to be done, and I’m not where I want to be yet.

It was a great team win all around.

ECU kind of made that run in the second half. What do you attribute that to?

They’re a respectful team. We knew that going in. It’s a game of runs. When it came down to it, in our red zone, we bowed up, stopped them on fourth down, and then we won the game.

When you talk about things you’re not satisfied with, what are you hoping to fix or look at going into game two?

I’m definitely happy with how I played, but I just know that there’s still a bunch of small tweaks and stuff that I need to get better at.

Just going week by week, there’s always room for improvement, but I’m definitely as happy as I can be with this win. I don’t want that to be misread.

How much of a statement do you think this win over rival ECU speaks for you guys going into the season now that we’re one game in?

I think it’s a great momentum starter, honestly. Obviously, every team in America wants to start 1-0, and we did it in front of our home crowd.

I think this is a huge step in the right direction for us.

What did you see on that fourth down stop there? Walk us through that play and what you saw on the field.

We knew we had to be super physical. Just really had to bow our necks back, and just be physical. Credit to all the guys on the field, knowing their assignment, and just playing as hard as I can. We ended up getting off the field. It was great.

You guys really stopped their run. Did you get a sense on that fourth down play that they would try to pass?

It’s always in the back of our mind, for sure. I wasn’t guessing out there. I was still reacting. It was definitely a possibility. Our back end guys read it perfectly, and they were able to make a play on the ball. It just goes down to our preparation before the game even started. Just the knowledge that we had in the back end there.

They only finished with 30 rushing yards, with a lot of the game in the negative. What do you think the biggest reason was for you guys to be able to stop their run as well as you did today?

Our defense was fast and physical today. Obviously, we’ll see the tape, but I feel like there wasn’t a whole lot of mistakes, and effort wasn’t a problem at all today. All 11 guys wanted to get to the ball, wanted to hit the ball carrier as hard as they could. It was a great way to start off the season. I couldn’t be happier with my brothers, and my team.

Y’all gave up that 79-yard pass. What was going through your head on the play? How much of that was the defense not getting set? Was that a focus or mentality sort of thing?

I mean, that’s just football, I’d say. Plays like that are going to happen throughout the game. Obviously, we were faced with a little bit of adversity early on with that. I feel like we did a great job of rallying and limiting those type of plays later on in the game.

Adversity is going to strike. We all knew that. We got a bunch of dudes who have played a lot of football on the defensive side.

I feel like we handled ourselves really well in that situation.

You and Sabastian (Harsh) on the edges, y’all are the newcomers. How hard is it to come out quickly? Y’all were late transfers. You come in, and you both had a really big impact. Is there a bond between you guys?

That’s my boy. He was on my visit when I first committed here. He’s an outstanding player.

There’s no one who plays harder, who plays more physical than Sabastian Harsh. It was an honor playing on the other side of him. We both made a pretty good impact on the game.

We’ve just got to carry that momentum into Virginia next week.

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Slone spent the past two seasons with Utah St., after his first two years in the Junior College ranks at American River College.

As a freshman in North Highlands, California, Slone got off to a quiet start to his collegiate career, posting 39 tackles, 0.5 sacks, 1.5 tackles for loss, and 1 pass breakup. In year 2, Slone had the type of season that landed him at Utah State the next year. As a sophomore, he had 84 tackles, 12.0 sacks, 22.0 tackles for loss, and a forced fumble, leading the team in sacks and tackles for loss, while ranking second in tackles.

Slone’s progression with the Aggies took a similar path, jumping significantly in production from year 1 to year 2. As a junior for Utah State, he had 28 tackles, 7 tackles for loss, 2 sacks, and 4 pass breakups, starting in 6 of 13 games. Last Fall, Slone had 49 tackles and led the Aggies in tackles for loss (10) and sacks (7.5), earning 2nd Team All-Conference honors. Those numbers are even more impressive considering that he only started in the final 8 games (played in 12).