Duke Scott at the ACC Kickoff: “I Plan to Dominate the Opponent in Front of Me”

NC State redshirt sophomore running back Duke Scott met with the media Wednesday at the 2026 ACC Kickoff in Charlotte, where he discussed earning the prestigious No. 1 jersey, taking over as the Wolfpack’s lead running back, and the mindset that’s fueled his rise.

For Scott, the message was simple.

Nothing changes.

His goal remains the same every day.

You can read the full transcript below.

Q. You were honored with that No. 1 jersey for this upcoming season. How much does that mean to you? What’s the significance behind that for you?

DUKE SCOTT: It means everything to me. Like getting honor, getting that coveted honor as No. 1, it’s something that I take pride into since I got here on campus. My grades, my work ethic, how I lead the team. Being able to, like, represent my team in that way, being that face, it just means everything to me. I’m extremely excited about it.

Q. I believe in high school 4500 rushing yards, 66 touchdowns. What you have already done in your career, how you’ve shown yourself, what we can expect to see after everything you’ve already shown?

DUKE SCOTT: I always plan on staying true to myself, stay the same person. Regardless if that’s college or high school, I come the same person every day. I come with the same work ethic, same mindset. That’s just to dominate the day. That translates to game day. I try to dominate the opponent in front of me. That’s what you can expect this year.

Q. You power clean 405 pounds. You boast a 575 pound squat, and you you’ve run a 4.35 40 dash. How do you maintain those numbers? How does that translate to your performance on out onto the field?

DUKE SCOTT: Coach Thunder is great. He holds us to a standard, that a standard is never going to get dropped for anybody.

I make sure to be the best man I can be every day. I came with the same mindset, that’s to work as hard as I can every day. That leads to incremental improvement every day.

Q. When you were asked to step in for Hollywood Smothers last year in the Georgia Tech game, one of the biggest questions that media members had was what would the running game look like without him. All you did was put up 200 yards and some pretty long runs, including a 60-yard touchdown. Did that build up some momentum and confidence in you to be the lead back and take over as that workhorse?

DUKE SCOTT: 100%. It definitely built my confidence, made me understand I can do this against everybody. Georgia Techs was coming in unbeaten, No. 8 ranked. Let me know you’re here, too. This is the same thing you’ve been doing, it’s just football at the end of the day.

Having that confidence, having Hollywood in my corner telling me, You’re ready for this, you’ve been ready, you played football, this is nothing. It all just helped propel me to have a good I guess end of the year.