NC State opens up Spring practice!

Before Shopify, were you wondering, where are my sales at? Now you're selling with Shopify, the global commerce platform supercharging your selling. You have no problem selling online, in person, on social media, and beyond.

Gary, easy on the cha-ching. Oh, sorry, but my Shopify sales are through the roof. Start selling with Shopify today and discover how millions of businesses around the world use Shopify to ignite their selling.

Sign up for a $1 per month trial period at Shopify.com slash listen, Shopify.com slash listen. But first, Corey Smith, PAC Pride, NC State spring practice is upon us. I guess the the Wolfpack are in bloom, if you will. So you and some others, but mostly you got a chance to look at a lot of the new guys.

So talk to me. Grayson McCall out there. I know Casey Concepcion is still there. He hasn't been poached, so that's good.

Talk to me about what you saw. Yeah, I mean, we saw a lot of great throws on the air, so it looks pretty good. Now, I mean, you know, the big thing that that, you know, we talked about with this with Coach Doran afterwards was, you know, how much can you really learn from Grayson McCall on day one? And it's it's more of seeing the, you know, the confidence that he has walking out there. And that's what you want from a starting quarterback. If they didn't have him right now, it'd be C.J. Bailey as your number one guy.

And that's not you know, that's not a comfort level thing that you that you would have. So I think that the biggest thing getting to see him out there, getting to see him, you know, work with the running backs, work with the wide receivers, working with Justin Jolie at the tight end position. There's a lot of new faces around the team. And, you know, getting to see him throw to some of those guys, you can you can kind of see the pieces coming together.

Obviously, if they want to spring camp, we'll learn a lot more throughout spring camp and throughout fall camp. But I mean, the roster that they have looks looks pretty complete right now around Grayson McCall too. Corey Smith, Pac Pride at Corey R. Smith on Twitter, NC State opening up spring practice.

So for people and I may or may not be referring to me for people who don't pay the closest attention to names that come out of the portal. Give us kind of a from 20,000 foot view of like who are the new guys, the people that we are going to need to pay attention to, maybe whether out of the portal or guys who didn't play last year that you figure will have an impact this year. Yeah, one of the biggest guys and obviously great to McCall.

But, you know, one of the bigger guys that they got in the portal and, you know, he's a familiar name for people to follow. The ACC is Jordan Waters at the running back position, getting to see him. He was actually running with the twos today.

They still had Kendrick Raphael running with the one. So I do think that the two of them will split carries as well as getting a guy like Hollywood Smothers and who comes from Oklahoma, originally a Charlotte native. He came over with a four star running back that they missed out initially. So the running back position, they have some serious talent there.

Jordan Waters, I think ultimately being the guy that's going to run that. And then, you know, at the wide receiver position, you bring back Casey, which is a big one to get back. And then you bring back to Kari Collins, who's somebody who's kind of split under the radar a little bit. Former Clemson wide receiver came to NC State didn't play a big role early last season, but played a pretty big role at the end of last year. You obviously the big name splash as they bring in, they bring over Wesley Grimes from, you know, from Wake Forest. And then you bring over Noah Rogers, originally from Raleigh, went to Ohio State, initially comes to NC State.

You know, I think the integration for the two of them is going to take a little bit longer than, you know, day one of spring camp and getting to know the offense, getting to know what Dave Doran looks for out of his practices. And then a couple other guys, you know, Justin Jolie that I mentioned at the tight end position in particular, a big one. They've got several guys on the defensive side of the football that are still trying to figure out where the roles are going to be for them. One that I saw today, Devon Marshall, moving over to the nickel position.

That was something that a guy named Hoogie Kennedy kept on lockdown last season was actually the number one graded nickel corner last year by a pro football focus. So some pretty big, you know, shoes to step into for, you know, for Devon Marshall there at that spot. And then, you know, you bring back Aiden White, who's a big role player, and I think Brandon Cisse is another one to watch for at that outside corner spot for NC State. Just because he was one that stepped up in a big way last year, him and Corey Coley that came over from Maryland, they're going to be competing at that spot. So there's a lot of new faces, but, you know, some serious talent coming into the roster for NC State.

All right. Bigger question on the defensive side of the ball, and the answer to this question might be, like, there are five people who are needed. How do they make up for the absence of Peyton Wilson?

Yeah, you know, the quick answer for that is, you know, a guy that's not on the roster yet. They've added a guy, Cam Riley, actually, earlier this week from Auburn that they're hoping to come in and fill part of that role, too. They moved Sean Brown, who played a very physical free safety last year for NC State. They've actually moved him down to the linebacker spot. So, you know, maybe some shades of Jermaine Pratt there that have been brought up by some people that have, you know, observed the fact that a safety can move down a line. And then, you know, they've moved Kayden Fordham to the middle linebacker spot.

He's kind of holding that down right now. And there's going to be several other guys that are competing for those spots, too. I mean, Devon Betty is a returning starter from last year. It sounds like he's probably going to be the backup middle linebacker right now for them just because of the talent that they have. So I don't know exactly who's going to fill those shoes or if they, like you said, if they necessarily can right now. But, you know, the guys early on so far that we're hearing a lot about, Sean Brown and then, you know, they added, like I said, Cam Riley from Auburn, that they feel pretty good about being able to step into that role once he arrives on campus over the summer.

Corey Smith, Pack Pride is joining us. I've spoken already to several, like, NFL draft analysts that said the same thing about Peyton, like the only thing holding him back from being even a late first round pick are the medicals. I mean, he's older, yes. So like right now, he's just slightly younger, I believe, than Brian Burns, who's been in the league for however many years. But, you know, it's not going to stop teams from drafting him.

But the medicals are the only thing that's going to get in his way. They love everything about him. He's fast. He's he's certainly big enough even to play, you know, an interior inside linebacker position.

Corey Smith, Pack Pride is joining us here on the Adam Gold show. And I guess this is the big picture question, we'll sort of close on this element. Last year took a little bit of time, even though there was familiarity between Brennan Armstrong and Robert and I, it took a little bit of time to see the offense finally get into some sort of a rhythm.

What is the expectation for that? Realistically speaking, obviously, we don't have to worry about games for a while yet. But, you know, basically, how important is the spring just to start that ball rolling with Grayson and all the new pieces on offense? Yeah, I mean, talking to some people behind the scenes, the biggest issue for them throughout the spring and fall was still trying to identify who the playmakers were going to be around Brendan Armstrong. And obviously, you know, there were limitations. We I mean, I think a lot of people kind of expected to come in and be, you know, Brendan Armstrong of 2021 and he was just going to come in and swing the ball around Robert and his offense and and you just you notice it wasn't quite there for him.

And a lot of that had to do with the fact that, you know, the playmakers around them hadn't really gotten into those roles. So I think there's a little more urgency this year to figure out who they have outside of Casey that we've talked so much about. Is it Wesley Grimes steps up?

Is it? You know, it's a real Anderson. It's a true freshman that comes in, you know, a guy that was rated in the top 100 that's coming into the system. Is he somebody that steps up? But, you know, they put other veterans around him that I feel like there's a little bit more of a comfort level going into the season that if you're not able to hit those deep shots, you've got other guys that can be playmakers underneath. Jordan Waters, the great pass catching running back. Justin Jolie had 58 receptions this past year with two touchdowns.

And so you've got some familiarity there. You've got some guys that can play different positions. And then obviously you have an amazing slot receiver that can move around a little bit with Casey, too. So there's I mean, literally at this time last year, we were going, OK, there's a lot of guys, but a lot of guys that have proven themselves at all at the at the college football level. You know, I mean, the biggest name was Terrell Timmons this time last year.

And he was a guy that had only had a couple big time receptions the previous season as a true freshman, one against UNC and a big touchdown. But there wasn't any proven talent. They already proven, you know, veteran leadership at any of those positions.

You have all of that now. So it's a little bit of a different change there. Now, the big question mark is how quickly can they get this this team and sink and build some chemistry before the spring game? Because even even though, you know, we always say, hey, don't don't put all of your eggs into the spring game basket. There's going to be a lot of fans that are going to do that and say, oh, well, no way is the team isn't in sync. And, you know, they don't have it together.

OK, you still got another summer and all fall camp to get there. But yeah, there's a little bit of a difference there now and end up being year two of an eye not coming in and implementing a new system with every single person to who they playing in the spring game. Just kidding. Corey Smith, Pac Pride.

I always ask coaches, like, especially when we get to the fall and they like release their, you know, their internal scrimmage reports. Offense beat defense. What do you root for? I don't even know. Do you who do you root for as a coach?

I think you just root for I don't want anybody hurt. Corey Smith, Pac Pride at Corey R. Smith. I appreciate your time, my friend. I'll talk to you very soon. Yes, sir. You have a good one. You too. Corey Smith.