The Wolfpacker: An Independent Magazine Covering NC State Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1364233
MAY/JUNE 2021 ■ 19 TRACKING THE PACK QUOTING THE PACK PHOTO BY ETHAN HYMAN, THE NEWS & OBSERVER/COURTESY ACC MEDIA "It was amazing. It was just fun to be back out there in a live setting compet- ing with everyone. It was also great to compete with all my brothers. We've de- veloped such great team chemistry this offseason. It's been a pretty long time coming, but it was awesome to get back out there. "We know what we want to accom - plish. Being able to have so many famil- iar faces and a lot of the same guys back, it's great to see everyone with the same mentality." — Redshirt sophomore quarterback DEVIN LEARY after NC State's 2021 spring football game PHOTO BY ETHAN HYMAN, THE NEWS & OBSERVER/COURTESY ACC MEDIA "COVID sucked. It was bad. What we don't take into consideration is the mental aspect of what these kids have to go through. They didn't have a chance to be kids this year. They didn't have a chance to hang out with the student body. Our freshmen didn't have a chance to meet other people on campus. Not that we wanted those guys to go out to parties, but they couldn't. They didn't have a chance to go to the movies, and it was tough. "You don't know what these kids are going through and the struggles that they go through. They've got family members that may have passed away because of COVID. They've got family members that were sick because of it. "It's a tough deal, and I just hope and pray that we can get the vaccines to as many people that want it, and we can get to being back to normal because I would love for these kids in general — not just my guys, just guys in college basketball and all sports that had to do it a different way — to get back to being normal. "Things weren't normal. We can say what we want to. We play in a 20,000-seat arena, and those guys never got a chance to experience PNC [Arena]. They never got a chance to experience what it's like to play a true road game when people are yelling at you. "As a coach from my perspective, it's probably the toughest year that I've had to manage in college bas- ketball and my career. After every practice, before every night I used to text the guys to make sure you stay in. You can't go out, you can't hang out in groups, you've got to protect that bubble." — NC State men's basketball head coach Kevin Keatts on the COVID-19 pandemic's impact on the 2020-21 season "I really don't have any time to be nervous. This is not the time to be nervous or have butterflies. There's no time to waste, so I prepare for it mentally. This is all that I've worked for. "I've put the work in for it, and I'm ready to go in with a strong mentality almost like it's a game day. It's time to feast, it's time to eat, do what I need to do and just go in and ball out." — Former NC State defensive tackle and 2021 NFL Draft prospect ALIM MCNEILL ahead of the Wolfpack's 2021 pro day "We've just been coming together as a team. We're all so close to each other. We're all best friends. You could say we're all family. I feel like we've been fixing the little things that went on earlier in the season with the walks and not get- ting runs in at the same time. We're realizing we have something good here, and we've started be- lieving in ourselves. "We have so many games in conference play this year, it's unbelievable. Coach [Elliott] Avent talked to us saying we have a long season. We have to go game-by-game and really hunker down and fight for the wins that we need. That really helped us. We're playing better now, and we'll hopefully continue that." — Sophomore center fielder Tyler McDonough on the NC State baseball team's mid-season turnaround that featured 12 wins in 16 games as of April 20 after a 4-9 start 4.94 Seconds was ALIM MCNEILL'S 40-yard dash time at NC State's pro day. The former Wolfpack de- fensive lineman was invited to the NFL Combine, which was held virtually this year due to the CO- VID-19 pandemic. Only 10 of the 33 interior defen- sive linemen in the 2019 NFL Combine ran faster than McNeill's mark. He officially measured in at 6-2, 317 pounds, and also recorded a vertical leap of 30.5 inches, a nine- foot broad jump, a 4.59-second time in the short shuttle and 27 225-pound bench press reps. The latter result would have tied for ninth among all defensive linemen at the 2020 Combine (interior and edge players were not separated that year). The Raleigh native is projected to be a third- round pick by NFL.com.