TheWolfpacker.com - Video interview: Leroy Harris

May 13, 2010

The Wolfpacker staff
TheWolfpacker.com Staff

Leroy Harris was a rare four-year starter at NC State. He starred at both guard and center for the Wolfpack from 2003-06, and the former Southeast Raleigh High standout now plays professionally in the NFL for the Tennessee Titans.

Harris returned to NC State last month for the spring game reunion, and he took time to do a video interview with The Wolfpacker.

Click play on the video module on the right to watch that interview. A transcript is provided below.

Tell us a little bit about what you've been doing since you left NC State.

"I'm coming up on my fourth year with Tennessee, hopefully I'll be starting at left guard this year. Other than that, we've been hanging in Tennessee, just had our second child, started a new business. We try to come back here as much as possible, this is our hometown, we come back mainly in the summer time but we run a couple football camps in the Southeast Raleigh area. I'm just enjoying it, I'm fortunate enough to be with a good team with a great coach and a great offensive line coach so I'm just enjoying it.

What's been the biggest adjustment to the NFL?

"I wouldn't say it's been an adjustment but, for me, it's been the technique, just learning the different techniques. You can't just rely on your strength at that level, you have to learn the techniques that work. Fortunately, I was blessed and put in a situation where I got to learn from some veterans, one was Kevin Muwae, a wily, 16-year veteran now but they're all different types.

"That's the best thing about it, nobody on our offensive line is exactly the same. Kevin is very athletic and does a lot of tricky stuff and I got a chance to watch that and learn from that, learn how to not always bear hug and hold guys but knock hands down and get them on the ground. Then, there's Jake Skiler, he's a smaller guy but he's really good with his hands and his hand placement. I learned that from him, just learning how to switch it up, he doesn't do the same thing all the time, sometimes he shoots his hands outside and sometimes he shoots his hands inside.

"That's just been the biggest adjustment, just learning the techniques of the offensive line. When I came to NC State that was really my second year playing offensive line so I just relied on a lot of athleticism to get it done. When I got [to Tennessee], I had to learn a lot of technique stuff. What you do is you take what you learn from other guys, then you apply it to yourself and you see what works out for you. That's what I had to learn, that's what the difference was. Over the past three years, I have watched them play and took some of their stuff and put it into my game, trying to use it on the field."

What stands out about your time at NC State?

"It's tough, the people is what you really remember. When all the playing is done, it's the guys you played with, that's what you really remember, those friendships because you're still going to talk to those guys forever. That's what I love about this [reunion] and coming back, that's what you're going to remember. You might not actually get to talk to them because we're all spread across the United States, guys go back home and stuff, but you text message each other and find other ways to talk to each other.

"Nowadays, we got the Internet and facebook, I got a ton of guys that I played with on facebook. That's what you remember, the relationships with the guys you played with, because you spent a lot of time together, on and off the field. That's what you remember and that's what you take from it. You're never going to forget that, you might forget some of the plays and some of the hard times but you'll never forget the guys who played with."

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