Notebook: NC State players at the 2021 ACC Football Kickoff

NC State head coach Dave Doeren and three Wolfpack players answered questions from the media Thursday afternoon in the Westin Charlotte at the 2021 ACC Football Kickoff.

Redshirt sophomore quarterback Devin Leary, redshirt junior center Grant Gibson and redshirt sophomore linebacker Payton Wilson represented the players for the Pack.

Doeren and the NC State players answered an array of questions relating to the high expectations for the team entering the 2021 season, the program’s vaccination rate and how the locker room has responded to athletes now being able to receive compensation for use of their name, image and likeness.

Notebook: Dave Doeren on vaccines, Devin Leary, playoff expansion and more

Coming off of an 8-4 season that included a program-record seven ACC wins, NC State enters the 2021 campaign with plenty of offseason hype. The Wolfpack has been a popular pick to finish second in the ACC Atlantic Division behind Clemson, a program that has won the conference title in each of the past six seasons.

The team isn’t shying away from embracing those expectations either. In fact, the locker room’s own aspirations are much higher than even some of the most optimistic external forecasts this fall.

“I don’t think anyone has higher expectations for us than we do,” Wilson said. “I think people have expectations for us, but they don’t know what we’re truly capable of. They’re not with us every day, so they don’t know. Our expectations are a lot higher than a lot of people have set for us.

“We want to be the best, we think we can be the best, and we’ve worked to be the best. Living up to that expectation, it’s not pressure but more excitement. We want to be there, we want to knock the big man off the table.”

Much of the offseason excitement is, in part, due to the lack of roster turnover from last year’s team.

The Wolfpack has 19 returning starters, including 10 on defense, but there is still competition at almost every position according to Doeren and the players.

“When you get guys back, you don’t have to start with the basics,” Gibson said. “We can just keep building off of the stuff we did last season. For us it’s huge because we’re picking up where we left off.

“Guys are trying to compete because they want to get on the field and help, but it’s not bad competition. It’s not the kind that would divide a team, it’s good. It helps us keep going.”

Whether this NC State team will rack up double-digit wins or float around .500 this fall comes down to execution. But on paper, this Wolfpack roster is among the conference’s best, and a true camaraderie amongst the players has the program believing it can achieve the unexpected.

“NC State’s always had talent, we’ve always had good talent,” Wilson said. “But I don’t think we’ve ever had a team this close. No other NC State team has had to go through COVID together. That brought us so close, and it made the whole team a brotherhood. Grant Gibson’s on the offensive line, and I talk to him every day. The offense loves the defense, and the defense loves the offense.

“It’s a goal of all of ours to be the best team in the ACC and in the nation. But we’ve got to take it one game at a time, and our focus right now is on South Florida on Sept. 2."

One of the primary topics in Charlotte this week has related to the efforts of the league’s teams to reach their respective vaccination goals ahead of the 2021 campaign, one year removed from a season that nearly didn’t happen due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

First-year ACC commissioner Jim Phillips revealed that at least six of the league’s teams (plus Notre Dame) have already reached the conference’s target vaccination rate of 85 percent.

NC State’s exact vaccination rate was not shared Thursday, but the players and Doeren mentioned that a majority of the team has been fully vaccinated.

The team also paid close attention to the Wolfpack baseball team’s run-in with the virus in Omaha. The Wolfpack reached the College World Series semifinals this summer but was disqualified due to multiple positive tests. Of the baseball team’s traveling roster of 27, just under half had been vaccinated.

“Seeing what happened to our baseball team was really tragic, and it was really a learning experience,” Leary said. “It’s definitely eye-opening. Hopefully, everything stays the way that it has been and everything continues to be clean and we can have everyone at full capacity.”

“It had a little bit of an effect,” Wilson added on the baseball team’s early exit from Omaha. “It was a terrible situation. Some of the guys that were vaccinated were the ones that couldn’t play. But also, you get the vaccination to eliminate some of that from happening because if you don’t have the vaccine, a lot of that stuff can happen at a higher percentage.”

NC State’s athletic department and the football coaching staff has left the choice of whether or not to be vaccinated up to the players, although Doeren added that he’s had conversations both with his team and individually in an effort to give his players as much information as possible on the vaccine.

“They give us the option,” Wilson said. “If you want to, you can get it. I think that most of our team has already gotten it. I’m fully vaccinated. I think it’s anyone’s right to get it. If they don’t want to get it, I think that’s totally up to them. I don’t have any opinion against them getting it or not.”

There have also been conversations within the locker room. Wilson and Gibson both shared that they have been fully vaccinated, and it’s assumed Doeren and Leary have also been vaccinated considering their attendance at the media event.

The reasons for getting vaccinated have varied from player to player, but the primary motivator within the locker room to date has been the desire to play the entirety of the 2021 season uninterrupted compared to the multiple cancellations and postponements that took place due to the virus last fall.

“I got my shot, I have been vaccinated,” Gibson said. “The reason why I got my shot was I wanted to take care of my team and also my mom and dad. My parents both still work from home, and when I come home, I know I’ve been around more people than they have. So I wanted to make sure I’m taking care of them.

"Also, I didn’t want to get to the point where I might have to miss a few games if I did get contact traced. But we have had talks as a team about, ‘Hey, we don’t want to be in a spot where we can’t play because we don’t have enough guys.’

“We’ve had those talks, and we try to teach people what it’s about, what the vaccine’s about. But at the end of the day, if some people don’t want to do it, you can’t force them. You have to respect what they’re doing. We’ve had those talks, and the guys are about it because we all want to play the game. We don’t want to get to a point where we can’t play because we didn’t get our shots.”

Another popular theme from the 2021 ACC Football Kickoff related to the new allowance for college athletes to receive compensation for use of their name, image and likeness by third-party businesses.

In reaction to a wave of legislation in several states that would have allowed athletes to receive such compensation, the NCAA enacted an interim policy that lifted restrictions on athlete compensation until uniform federal legislation can be passed.

All three of the Wolfpack players in attendance in Charlotte viewed the move as a positive change for athletes, but they’re remaining cautious as they learn more about marketing themselves as potential endorsers.

Of the three Pack players, Leary was the only one that mentioned he had already begun to take advantage of the new allowance. The Wolfpack starting quarterback says he’s on Cameo, a third-party website that connects celebrities with fans to create personalized video messages for a fee.

“I think it’s really cool,” Leary said. “It’s a great opportunity for us players to use our platform to expand out to others, and for businesses to have us represent them. I think that’s a great opportunity. Multiple players on the team have done little endorsements, like percentage codes on websites for discounts and that kind of thing.

“For me personally, I haven’t dove deep into NIL yet as far as understanding the regulations and rules. The only thing that I’ve done is Cameo. I’m on Cameo now, so I give different birthday shout-outs or pep talks, little things like that. It’s been really cool. As of right now, I think I’m going to wait a little bit to understand the whole process more and then really dive deeper into it.”

Gibson agreed that the change was positive for athletes, and one that was overdue, but he also reiterated that the focus remains on football.

“I think it’s good for athletes as a whole, not just us but all over the place,” Gibson said. “I feel like this should have been done years ago. We have had those talks as a team.

"There are some guys trying to dive in and do something. But we all know we need to keep our main focus on football and playing the game. We understand that if you have those deals on the side, but you play bad, it’s not going to matter. We’re just trying to make sure that we work hard and keep doing what we need to do.”

Not long after the NCAA lifted its restrictions on athlete compensation from NIL on July 1, the NC State Athletic Department introduced a new program called “ALPHA,” an initiative designed to educate Wolfpack athletes about their marketability and to give them the tools necessary to maximize their marketing value.

Players are already attending voluntary classes once a week to learn more about the new opportunities, including items such as paying taxes on potential compensation from endorsements.

“It hasn’t even been a month yet, but it’s awesome,” Wilson said. “We’re able to make a little bit of money, help our families out, help ourselves out. For me, I’m trying to keep the main thing the main thing, and that’s playing football. I’m definitely willing to work with people and advertise, but I’m honestly focused on football.

“We actually have classes from 5-to-6 once a week, just going over rules and regulations. I know nothing about taxes, being in college, and we have to do stuff with taxes now. We have educational programs that are really helping us out and keeping us eligible so we don’t do anything wrong.”

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