WATCH: Wesley Grimes’ Attributes Career Night to Increased Confidence (with transcript)

Senior Wide Receiver Wesley Grimes had his first 100-yard receiving game in NC State’s 24-17 win over ECU in their season opener last night. He caught 4 passes for 121 yards and a touchdown.

For perspective, Grimes only had 319 yards receiving last season.

The former Wake Forest Wide Receiver has always had tremendous potential. ON3 ranked him as the #36 overall player nationally in the 2022 recruiting class, out of Millbrook High School in Raleigh.

Grimes showed off his 4.24 40-yard dash speed on a 48-yard post route that resulted in a touchdown last night.

Last night, Grimes met with the media after the Wolfpack’s victory. You can watch the video above, and read the transcript below.

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It seems like you and CJ (Bailey) already have developed a connection. Can you talk about the chemistry y’all have developed over the offseason, that led to the performance you both had tonight?

The whole offseason, we were throwing extra, hanging out, bonding. I feel like that was a big thing with our connection, learning each other’s tendencies, him getting the timing down and how fast my routes. Over the offseason, just having fun with it, working and enjoying the work.

I think that process in the offseason really helped out, and it showed today.

CJ hit you on that deep ball down the middle. What’d you see on that with two defenders right there, that you were able to come down with it?

I knew I had to step on my guys’ toes. I probably could have taken it a little closer to them, to beat them a little better, but I tried to cross his pace as best as possible.

Credit to Keenan (Jackson). He did a great job on holding that other side’s Safety. I just saw the ball in the air, and I didn’t let anybody else get to it but me. So credit to CJ, big credit to Keenan, but, you know, I was just there to make the play.

There are times when guys have really big career nights, and the team doesn’t win. You had a career night, and y’all won. What was the reaction in the locker room? What are the vibes right now?

The vibes are definitely very high. I wasn’t keeping track of any stats. I didn’t want to think about that. I just wanted that win.

I knew we needed that win as a team, and it was a big moment for us, especially after last season. I think it was a good start point, but we definitely have a lot of work to do, but vibes are definitely high. We’re going to enjoy this for 24 hours.

Talk about what you saw in the offense in the second half, compared to what you saw in the first half.

Like I said, we have stuff to work on. We know that, but we definitely showed a lot of flashes of great things. We have great players on the line protecting CJ.

CJ is obviously a great player. We have great guys in the receiver room. Learning off the things that we messed up today, getting better and just staying hungry…that’s the big thing.

It’s there. It’s definitely there. We’ve just got to keep going forward in the right direction.

You had your first 100-yard game at the college level, on four catches. How much do you pride yourself on being that kind of guy that can get downfield and make big plays?

This year I feel more confident than I’ve ever felt in college.

It’s always been there, and I’ve always been the guy that can make plays. I just had to have confidence in myself, and I think when it happens, I play loose, free, and have fun with it. I’m just going to keep that mindset and keep leaning on God to keep me that way. Credit to the team for believing in me. That helped my spirit out a lot with my confidence.

What changed your confidence from last year to this year?

A lot of prayer. I would say a lot of prayer. Leaning on my Lord and Savior, He helped me a lot. I just talk to Him a lot.

My family helped me a lot. Not overthinking and getting in my head about things, has been a big thing. Trusting the plan, that everything is happening for a reason in my life. When I just trust in that and believe that, it just works out. I don’t really need to worry about anything. Put all my stress on God, and it always works out.

How much does it help you to have a returning QB, and some of these returning guys around you, to help give you confidence that you can do this?

It’s huge. Yeah, it’s very huge.

Me and CJ in the offseason, we got a bunch of throws and a bunch of catches, and then the receivers, we’re all familiar with each other. We’re comfortable, so we know how to give each other tough criticism and back each other up.

We have each other’s backs, and we believe in one another. Having all that, all those guys in the room together, having each other’s backs is huge and makes everybody play more free, like we were back when we were kids playing football. Making sure everybody’s getting better and staying hungry has been a big thing in the room.

I love all the guys in that room.