When NC State Wolfpack football redshirt junior offensive lineman Bryson Speas played at Dudley High in Greensboro, N.C., he was not recruited by Duke, who will be making the short trip to Carter-Finley Stadium in Raleigh this Saturday.

In fact, Speas was more familiar with NC State’s opponent prior to the Blue Devils, Virginia. He made a commitment to the Cavaliers before ultimately flipping to the Wolfpack.

Furthermore, Speas confessed to not knowing anybody on the Blue Devils’ current roster. Add to that having never played Duke before, despite being an in-state player on a team located 30 miles away from the Durham campus, and Speas does not find it weird that the two old rivals only play each other once every seven years.

“I wouldn’t mind playing Duke every year,” Speas added.

So while the excitement and energy has picked up this week for NC State, Speas added it’s not exclusive due to the opportunity to play a rival of close proximity.

“We just know it’s another football game for us, and we try to attack each week with better energy than we did last week, trying to keep on building each week,” Speas noted.

The 6-foot-4, 304-pounder has been playing a prominent role in the Wolfpack’s building momentum in the 2020 season. After starting six games in 2019, Speas began this fall with the expectation of being a valuable rotation member on the line as a backup guard.

An injury to fifth-year senior and starting right tackle Justin Witt however has put Speas back into the first-string lineup at the position he handled for much of last season. Speas started in the wins on the road at Pittsburgh and Virginia.

Speas noted that the transition back to tackle “has been fairly easy,” thanks in part to his offensive line coach.

“Coach [John] Garrison also made it easy, cause during fall camp I was supposed to a guard, but just being able to be versatile is fine with me,” Speas noted.

“Last year I was kind of learning a little bit more, but this year I have been playing a lot faster, I feel like.”

That seems to be showing up on film. When NC State sophomore running back Zonovan Knight scored on a wide zone running play at Virginia, Speas noted when he watched the film he noticed he was acting “like a little kid.”

“I jumped up and down,” Speas recalled. “I was so excited. I had my arms up in the air.”

Speas said that when a running back like Knight runs for 101 yards at Virginia or scores on a big play, it’s a lineman’s dream come true.

“It’s out of this world,” he explained. “Every time they score you get to run down the field and give them a hug because you know you just helped lead the way for them.

"It’s a fun feeling.”

In order to do that this weekend against Duke, Speas knows the offensive line has to be prepared for an athletic front, even if he is not personally familiar with any of them.

“We practice every week so we can match up to the best of our ability to our competition, but they are a group of quick-twitch guys,” Speas noted. “And they have a lot of athleticism on the front, so we are working on that aspect this week in practice.”

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