WATCH: CJ Bailey’s Postgame Press Conference After NC State’s Win Over #8 Georgia Tech (with transcript)

Sophomore Quarterback CJ Bailey met with the media for his postgame press conference last night after NC State’s 48-36 win over #8 Georgia Tech. You can watch the video above, and read the transcript below.

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First question, every time Tech would get there, your defense would make stops, hold them to a field goal. You guys would march down, get the score. To keep them kind of at arm’s length, how important was that for you guys to never bend and keep answering the Yellow Jackets?

Yeah, it was very important. Our mindset was just try to score every drive. Every time we touched the ball, that was the mindset. Throughout the whole week, that was our plan. No matter what game, no matter what team it is, that’s our mindset. We’ve got to score every time. That’s what kept that lead. That kept that two-point possession lead from them, and with our defense getting a couple of stops, it helped us out a lot.

To be a leader, obviously there are times where you have to ignore the conjecture and speculation outside. You have to focus on the locker room. As you’ve gone through this last month, how has it helped you as a leader, and do you think that experience is what helped compel you to lead your team to a big win tonight?

Yeah, like you said, I wasn’t paying attention to anything outside. I didn’t know what was going on outside of our facility. You know what I mean? So my leadership and confidence has been the same throughout the year. I’ve been leading the same way.

I poured into it more throughout the game this game, because we needed it. We needed those extra stops and those extra touchdown drives. I’ve just always stayed the same throughout the year.

What was it like for you to see the way Duke Scott played today without having Hollywood (Smothers) and having him step up in the backfield?

Yeah, I wasn’t surprised at all. I’ve already seen Duke since last year. He’s a great, great person. He never complains. He comes to practice, comes to the weight room every day, and works hard. He is a very strong guy, very fast guy, and people don’t see it, but him and Hollywood, they’re a great duo.

Hollywood went down, and he took it upon himself to have a great day, and show the world who he is. I’m proud of him.

You guys obviously came into this game with a lot of injuries. It seems like every week you guys preach this next man up mentality, and that was very evident between Duke and Cody Hardy’s performances tonight. Can you kind of speak on that mentality and what it means to you and your teammates and Coach Doeren?

It’s been like that since I got here. Even with me, it was next man up mentality for me as well.

We do a good job of preparing our guys for prime time, you know what I mean? Duke came in. Cody and Dante Daniels came in, and they said, ‘Our tight end is down. Let’s go work for him.’ You know what I mean?

I trusted those guys. I trusted everybody out there. They all came with a good mindset, especially Tristan Teasdell. They’re all these guys who just stepped in and made plays for us, and it was great.

This is kind of random, but the team has been electing to receive when it wins the toss the last several games as opposed to electing to defer. Does that change the approach in-game when the opposing team is going to have the ball first in the second half?

I feel like I honestly don’t go into the decision of who gets the ball first, or if we’re defending or not. I feel like it’s just a game-time decision or whatever it is, but when we go out there, we’re just thinking of winning.

If offense is going out there first, the defense will support us, and we’re going to go down there and score a touchdown for them, or do the best we can for them. So it’s just all having a positive mindset throughout, whoever gets the ball. It doesn’t matter.

What does it mean to have these great vibes going into the bye week, going into the final three games of the season with so much on the line?

It’s really great to get a win against a Top-10 team. Going into the bye week, we’ve got guys that have got to rest. There’s a lot of guys that are beat up. We’ve got to just calm down, because we’ve got another game coming up.

We’ve got Miami, and that’s the one that I really want. I need everybody. I need to come to play as well as I did today, and I need those guys to have my back, and I already know they’re going to do it. So we’re going to pull through for the rest of these games.