So it's been an interesting week for sure. Um First of all, an awesome two weeks by our football team, our staff and uh proud of them, you know, to, to come out of our bi week the way we did, um, maybe the most disappointed and embarrassed. I've been after a game to go into our bi week and, and really spell out what we need to be and for there to be ownership in that you don't get better at anything without ownership. And so super proud of the team and, you know, beating a great team with a great tradition between those two teams, there's eight national championships and for us to beat them in back to back weeks coming out of what we did says a lot about the character of this football team. Um, as you guys know, uh MJ has chosen to Red Shirt and Brennan Armstrong is our starter and I didn't announce that on Monday. Um I was hoping we could maintain a competitive advantage in our preparation with Wake Forest having to prepare as you've seen with two quarterbacks on the field at the same time. That plan didn't work. Ok. Somebody found out, put it out there on Tuesday is what it is. But as I told you guys previously in, in one of my press conferences earlier in the season, I think it was after our, uh VM I game, our plan was beginning of the year uh to try and Red Shirt MJ and that was the plan and to give him a chance behind an experienced quarterback to develop and grow and uh as the season unfolded and we struggled offensively, I felt it was time to reassess that plan. That's part of my job and the team needed a spark, you know. So I met with MJ coach Roper and I, and asked him if he wanted to play and, and uh because I thought he could help our offense and our team and he agreed and we pushed forward with that plan in place and him playing and as games progressed and time went on MJ came to me and let me know that he was still thinking about preserving his red shirt. Uh I was surprised, you know, by that because he was our starter and, and really didn't expect that, you know, for a starting player to, to want to sit back down. Um He said he wasn't sure which way to go, but he wanted me to know that that was something that he was thinking about and talking with his family about after the fourth game. Um He was very decisive and telling me it was important to him and his family to preserve his red shirt. And so we're honoring that decision. And uh with that, Brennan is our starter. Um Our team has embraced him in this role and we're rallying around him and super excited to see what he does in this opportunity. Uh With his finish, he's handled this uh as Aidan said yesterday, like a grown ass man couldn't have been said any better. Um A guy with his storied adventure, I guess you'd say journey through college football and what he did at, at Virginia and then what he suffered there and then when he came in the good and the bad and just the way he handled everything, um excited for him, very excited, you know, and there's always, you know, I just ask, there's a lot of opinions, there's a lot of storylines, there's a lot of hate, you know, just be a good person, you know, cheer on these guys that are playing, get behind them, be excited. This team has a lot to play for. Uh NJ was on our scout team this week. He gave us a great look, Brennan has prepared and the guys are playing hard for him and he's earned a ton of respect in our program. And so it's his team now. And so we're excited to see him finish the season and, uh you know, like everything, it's an opportunity and, and I look at all of these moments for me as a leader. Um adversity brings out the best you can fight or you can run and I love to fight. And so does Brennan and this team has proven that, that they are fighters. And so we get a really uh incredible opportunity in two weeks in a row now to go on the road and play someone else's senior day. That's a memorable day for those football teams to play at Wake Forest as you know, uh a place that not many have been successful from NC State, I think in my tenure, just one team with Jacoby and the rest of them have been pretty tight ball games come down to the wire. A lot of from Ricky Persons uh onside recovery that was denied um to a Mecca play, we spend a lot of crazy games with these guys. And so, you know, as I said, my early um press conference to start the week, I think Dave Clawson is a tremendous football coach and his team will play hard and for us, you know, it's just building on the last two weeks, a defense that stops people creates takeaways, denies explosive plays for scores, plays with swagger plays physical, dominates line of scrimmages, you know, offense that can be efficient man. Take care of the football be opportunistic score in a red zone, uh protect the line, the, the quarterback and, and keep him clean the pre snap stuff limiting that. You know, our special teams have been tremendous all year and just continuing with that and bringing the effort, you know, it's gonna take and regardless of the crowd noise or lack of whatever we end up with in the, in the game, it shouldn't dictate how we play. We need to go in there with a great focus and, and have fun playing this game that we love. So with that, anything about the game you guys wanna ask? That's a great question. If I knew the answer to that, you know, we've put ourselves in position to win there many times and just haven't gotten it done. And in some cases, I would argue that we did get it done and just had a bad break, you know, to cross the goal line with the ball and fumble to recover an onside kick with momentum to go win the game. And because they didn't have enough camera angles, we didn't get the catch, you know, just been crazy down there and you just got to earn it. You know, we gotta go earn this win, we gotta make it undeniable, right. We gotta hand the ball to the official when we score. You know, we gotta make sure that we're in position and, and we put the game away, put the game away and the home team's been able to do that. You know, we've had our success here. They've had their success there and it's gonna be a great football game. We totally expect, you know, one possession, four quarter or more game and know that we got to make plays to earn the win. Oh, yeah, guys are in a good place right now. Uh, they also have an edge to them, you know, they're on a five game season mission to be the best team in the AC C for five games. And this is the third step and just do it again. It got to be something. Yeah, I was thinking maybe we put Dylan mcmahon at quarterback and, uh, or Peyton Wilson, maybe that'd be a good look in great effort by your defense this past week. And you said with the goal line stand, not allowing any touchdowns and pressure to be de early. I want to replicate that this Saturday put pressure and rich. Yeah, each week is a different challenge, you know, um, they're gonna be on the line fast. There's a lot of run game that's pass game at the same time. So you're fitting max protection or run basically. And, and the RP OS that go with that. And so you have to get off blocks, you have to knock their line of scrimmage back and, and when we blitz, we have to blitz with the mentality we're gonna win. You know, it's gonna be very challenging to have an unblocked Blitzer with how many guys they keep in their protection. So you gotta beat blocks and you got a strain and their quarterbacks walking up into the line with the football to throw, we got bat some of those balls up. But, uh, yeah, I mean, each week and this one in particular, it's a unique, unique challenge. Um, our defense is excited about the challenge and we know they will be too. You see a difference with Brennan doesn't have to do everything. Like maybe he thought he did going to the uconn game or no, you know, Evan didn't have a carry when Brennan was the starting quarterback, he didn't have a pop pass when Brennan was the starting quarterback. So this, I don't know, maybe they talked to Brendan at all about this, but it's a different team the last few games where you have the defense first formula and don't turn the ball over, don't have penalties, you know, be smart formula that maybe wasn't there because the team was finding itself the first few, first few games. I think you're like, uh spying on me, man. Like that conversation is exactly the one that we've had and actually I didn't have to have it. He said it to me. He knows what we're doing. He understands he's also in a very good mental space. I think that break for him was good. It was, it's time for him to reset, re evaluate what he was doing, watch what's happening and put his head down and work and uh could be more proud of, you know how he handled that break. But you're right, like we weren't huddling back then. You know, we weren't all together in the huddle. We weren't talking the way we're talking now connecting the way that we're connecting. Now, the guys are playing better around the quarterback and they have to do that in this game. They have to play well around the quarterback in this game told you he wants to remain in the program. You know, everything about this is Wake Forest right now. We'll get into everything else later. I made my statement. So anything about Wake Forest you guys want to talk about? I'm definitely open to that. Yeah. You know, I think when you change offenses and personnel in and out of your huddle, uh, when you're together in the same system over time, maybe the huddle is not as important, but I felt we were disjointed, you know, we were dropping passes, we were in pre snap penalties and it just didn't look like a, a group of guys that was playing together. And to me, the first thing you do is get on the same page and what's the easiest way to do that? Hear the quarterback talk every play, get them all right there, get their eyes on his eyes, let him speak to them and then break the huddle together, connect, put your arms on each other, put your arms around each other, you know, bump each other fist bumps in the hut, all that, you know, and then let's go play the game. And so to me that was a solution to a problem that we had and I don't know if it'll stay forever. But right now I think it's been a good change, guys, guys playing well, Brennan. How crucial is it gonna be for the running back to start building on last week in there now? Yeah. No, those guys do a great job. You know, the role has changed, you know, because we are pitching the ball to some guys and they're not getting as many carries and they've been great teammates about it. They just want to win and, and so whatever we asked those guys to do, they've been tremendous and I know that's not easy, you know, as a guy that's a runner, you wanna run the football more, you know. And so what they've learned is, hey, whatever we need to win we're gonna do and when we get our touches, like you saw Kendrick get a, a touch, do something with it, you know, make somebody miss, don't let the first guy tackle you, you know, do your job in there. And like I always tell the players if you wanna play more, play better, you know, just put better things on tape, get in practice and make plays and then that thing starts to evolve in a different way. You know, there has been a cap for you guys at the starter and the backup, the whole experience. Yeah, he, he's been through a lot and I think, you know, the one thing I respect about him more than anything is just how he works day in and day out. I think your consistency as a person is what builds trust, you know, and if I know I'm gonna get the same five every day, Brennan every day, then I know how to coach that guy. And even, I mean, the first run, he tried to win every rep, the third run, he tried to win every rep the fifth, everything was the same with him and he's had to get better at some things in this game. But you know what you're getting, you're getting a tough dude that's gonna compete hard. He's gonna put it on the line, you know, I mean, try to run over that big safety for Miami like he got up smiling like damn, I got hit, you know what I mean? He came over, he, that's a big dude. I'm like, yeah, that is a big dude like, you know, but I think the players love that, you know, they love to see that and not just saying in him like they love to see consistent strain like Davin Van, the guys love Davin because what are you gonna get for Davin? I mean, you're gonna have to pick him up and carry him to the locker room at the end of the game sometimes, you know, he's pulling this brace on and this brace on and this, you know what I mean? Like that's players dig that man, like playing with dudes like that that are gonna put it in there. So Peyton Wilson similar thing, right? Boykin, what he had to do for a couple of weeks, you know, taping himself together and there's something to that, you know, and I think as a competitor, man, that's respect, right? And our guys love that part of this game and the DNA of our program, hard, tough together. Like that's part of it, you know, showing up every day with that tough attitude. Yeah, it, it is. And it was also why I was disgusted after the Duke game because I didn't see that on the field. I was really disappointed like that is not what I've worked 11 years to do, win or lose. Like I wanna see people hitting people. I went tough, you know. And uh that's me, that's the program that I wanted to be a part of when I came here and that we built and the guys have understood where I was coming from. Like coach, we're with you. That's not who we want to be either. And let's go play better and, and they have, and so now to do it again against a really good team because Wake Forest man, you go down there and play, it's, you're gonna get especially on senior day, you're gonna get a really good football team given Brennan's toughness and his ability to run the ball. You have to tell him, hey, we gotta be a little bit smarter, given no depth situation. I want Brennan to be Brennan. I want him to go play ball to go play ball the way that number five plays ball, cut it loose and play hard a lot, a lot and, and, you know, just to build him back up confidence wise and let him be a part of what's going on. He deserved that, you know, I mean, he's a competitive guy that works hard and there's a lot more to him than a runner, a lot more. So I'm glad that he's going to get an opportunity to show that too with his last start, start changes over the past, you know, I think, uh perspective, maybe perspective, you know, just understanding that these might be his last however many games, right? And he said it to me the other day, coach, man, I just wanna go have fun and, uh, I just want to enjoy playing this game and you could just see it, you know, in his eyes, he was really excited to play and that's cool. You know, I mean, I think he came in with some pressure on him, you know, and there's no pressure on him right now. Just go play football. When did, when did you talk to him? When did you let him know that he was gonna be a star? I don't remember these days of running together Sunday or Monday, something like that. I didn't slept in a week. So it's like one of those two days he found out in many ways when you discuss the culture, there's a certain humbleness with the place, mostly because some have gone through it. You've described, I would say the COVID year was very difficult and I'm sure humbling in many ways. Do you think that humbleness and that desire to, you know, serve whatever they want goals that they have? Get you through tough times? You know, I think be humble and be hungry is a part of our program and it's a part of uh for those of us that are spiritual, it's part of our walk with God. You know, it's humility and I, I think that's important, it's really important and sometimes you get humbled uh and injury humbles you, it does uh failure humbles you and, and usually that's what you have to go through as a person, you know, to understand and respect when things are good, you know, because a lot of us take good for granted. And so I was humbled many times in my coaching career. And uh I think back to those times all the time, I don't wanna go through that again, like I'm not doing that. And uh so with the guys, you know, it's any time I get a chance to prevent drop off the whole guys to a standard to not to say under achievements, ok? To say that under achievement is not allowed, you know, to deny excuses and, and try to get kids to understand that playing the blame game doesn't allow you to fix anything as a coach either. You know, you have to own your, your, your blemishes. Um I think that's a really good lesson for the guys and for the coaches, there's a lot of coaches out there that are, you know, big on themselves, you know, and I think the humility aspect of this sport and really in life is just critical for your personal growth. You know, if you want to reach any type of goals, as you, as you mentioned, a lot of credit to your defense. I like for guys to be disciplined this week and not get drawn into that slim mesh and see the assignment next week. I think we have a mole Annabelle like where all this information is coming from. Yeah. So when you play these guys, like you might be in your gap way longer than you're used to because the ball doesn't declare, it's just walking up slowly to the line and that got us a couple of years ago, you know, our guys on the edge were where is the ball and then they, and then the ball comes out. So, yeah, you have to knock the edge back to the depth of the football and then pursue and sometimes it takes you a little bit of time to get used to that in the game. We're practicing it obviously, but that is a concern, you know, uh, the timing of when the ball hits the gaps is different than any other offense you're gonna play. And so, and I would say that an advantage to us is we have reps playing against this team. We have played them every year. And so a lot of our defensive kids have played them and understand how not to play against them. You know, it's gonna be maybe the guys that haven't played against them that have to suffer a little bit in that. But, yeah, I know Coach Gibson's been working hard on that. All right, you guys have a great day.