ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE FOOTBALL KICKOFF

July 22, 2021

Grant Gibson

NC State Wolfpack

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Questions for Grant.

GRANT GIBSON: Morning, everybody. How is everybody doing?

Q. 20 starters back. Coach was talking about the competition at so many positions. As an older guy, is this one of the deepest teams you've been around? Talk to the experience you have.

GRANT GIBSON: So this NC State team that I'm on right now, this team is great. Just the guys that we have that have played that are going to come back, but also we're close as a group.

I think this team that we have, we're so tight-knit. Last year really brought us all together just with all the events that happened. I think the guys that we have that came back is going to be huge for us this year.

Q. This past year and a half obviously has hopefully taught everybody a lot. What have been your biggest takeaways off the field? On the field you talked about this being a family. How that family stayed close?

GRANT GIBSON: So last year when we got sent home, we talked as a team. It was like, Listen, we need to grow from this. We didn't know how long we were going to be at home. We were home for I think about three months. But during that time, though, we had Zoom calls, just trying to stay in touch with all the guys so that we could perform well next year.

But I think this past year has just taught us as a team that we can fight through anything. There was a lot of thing off the field, too, like George Floyd got killed. I think that brought us together as a team, as well. We had some tough talks amongst our team about how we can grow from these issues, how to teach other guys. I think last year as a whole taught our team a lot.

Q. When I talked to Devin last week, he was talking about the fact there's so much leadership on this team. There's guys, every single player on this team can talk and everybody else will listen. What is the leadership like in this program going into this year?

GRANT GIBSON: Oh, it's great. I mean, like, all of us here can speak for it. It's so many guys on this team that can lead. I think when you want a team to be great, that's what you need.

Like when we work out and things like that, it's not one guy that talks the whole time. It's 18 guys that talk the whole time. I think when you can hear from all over the place, that helps the team grow, that helps keep the team on track.

Q. You received team awards last year for your winning attitude, your integrity, your sportsmanship. Who do you attribute your character to?

GRANT GIBSON: My mom and my dad. Like, I would not be here without them. My dad helped me get to this point just with all the workouts that we did back when I was a kid. Like he helped me get here.

I can't thank him enough for that.

My mom, as well. She taught me the importance of school and trying to treat others right. That's something I pride myself on, is that I try to treat each person the same way.

So I thank them both for what they've done for me.

Q. You ranked 12th last year in total offense, which is kind of surprising considering your strong one loss record. What do you feel like you can do better this year starting with the offensive line in terms of generating more pass yardage?

GRANT GIBSON: We just need to execute better. I think last year there were times where we didn't execute. The small things killed us, like the false starts, the post-snap, things like that. We talked about this as a team, that we need to execute and cut down on those small things so we can be better this year.

THE MODERATOR: Grant, thank you.