During the ACC Spring Football Coaches Teleconference Q&A, N.C. State football coach Tom O’Brien said he’s satisfied with his team which finished spring drills without any new injuries.

“We only had two guys not participate, scholarship guys. That is the least amount of injured that we’ve had coming out of spring,” he said. “We’re looking forward to getting ourselves ready to play a great game against Tennessee.”

Q. Coach, could you go a little more
into the program and what your players benefit
from that experience and where you first saw
that and thought that could be of help?

COACH O’BRIEN: Well, the program is
something that we did two years ago. It was first
brought to my attention. It was started up in the
New England area, so I had some idea. Learned
about Eric, a fellow Naval Academy graduate and
what he was trying to do with it. It’s all about
leadership training and team building.
I think it worked very well for us two years
ago, so we brought him back and did it Monday
night. We were on the field at 8:00 o’clock Monday
night. Got off the field a little after 11:30, and were
in the pool 4:30 the next morning.
He brings basically himself, who is special
operations, two other fellow Marine officers, a
captain and a major that were special operations, a
former NFL player, and they run the team through
various drills and various team building exercises.
I think it’s a great experience for the team. I think
they really enjoy it, especially once it’s over.

Q. What did you come out of spring
ball kind of feeling more encouraged about that
maybe you were looking to learn about your
team in the spring? On the flip side, what do
you go into August thinking I didn’t see enough
of what I wanted to see positively in this regard
in the spring, and thinking I hope I can see that
in August?

COACH O’BRIEN: Well, I think this is the
biggest thing we have to solve in August is the
linebacker position. We lost four kids. We planned
on losing two. Weren’t sure about Mann when he
went, and then certainly D.J. Green was a big
surprise to us. So not a lot of experience coming
back there at all. Have to play a lot of young kids.
Hopefully coach Tenuta can get these guys
headed in the right direction.
The other position on offense is the wide
receiver where we lost three kids last year that
played a lot of football for us.
Those are two key areas that we have so
solve. I think we’re making progress in some other
spots. We spent a lot of time on the offensive and
defensive line shuffling guys around. We have
experience coming back at those positions, but
aren’t anywhere near set on who is going to play
what position except with Wentz playing center.
So those are areas that we have some
guys but we kept moving around and kind of happy
with where we can be, then the experience with
secondary showed up at spring practice with those
four kids back there, that three of them are going to
be three-year starters, and the other ones, a
two-year starter, going into three years, and their
experience played out well in spring.

Q. For those of us who are old enough
to remember his father is an all ACC defensive
lineman, is R.J. ready to take that step on the
offensive line?

COACH O’BRIEN: We think so. I think he
has NFL potential. We’ve kind of moved him
around. He’s played about every different spot on
the line. He was a right guard, a right tackle and a
left tackle. We’re trying to get settled into a
position for him. But he has the skillset to play at
the next level. I think that he’s going to need a
good year this year to do it.
I’m glad he’s on our team. He’s got the
same fiery personality and leadership traits as his
father. He’s one guy that when we did the program
and the leadership drills the other night, he stood
out to this football team.

Q. The spring prospect us listed him at
313. Is that a good, comfortable weight for
him?

COACH O’BRIEN: Yeah, I believe so.
He’s moving well. He had an injury last year where
he had a floating body in the back part of his ankle
that required surgery in the off-season. We
thought he was going to miss all of spring practice,
and he missed the first five days.
So you didn’t see many ill effects coming
off the surgery with his ankle. He played through it
last year, but he certainly looked quicker on his
feet this spring than he did at the end of last year.

Q. I wanted to ask you about David
Amerson and how does he follow up a year
where I think they said it was the most
interceptions in a season by anybody in the
FBS since 1968. In my past experience, when
guys have big interception years early in their
career, they don’t get many after that because
people won’t throw at them. Is that something
you expect to see? How do you prepare to use
a weapon like that?

COACH O’BRIEN: Well, that’s left to be
seen what teams do. I think that happened a little
towards the end of the year, but certainly in the
bowl game they threw at him. He got his record
setting pick and played one of the most remarkable
interception returns for a touchdown I’ve ever
seen. Then he got the last play of the game.
I think that may be the case, and hopefully
he doesn’t get frustrated. But if that is the case,
that takes away a third of the field from a lot of
people, which then helps us with the rest of the
defense.

Q. Is there anything he could do
better? I mean, he obviously had a great year.
Could he improve?

COACH O’BRIEN: He’s really humble
about the situation. He’s studied a lot. As far as
technique and the thing that we’ve talked about all
the time, we want to be much better fundamentally
as a football team in the spring, not as concerned
with the X’s and O’s and concepts, but as
individuals our team improves.
There was a laundry list of things that
Coach Reed gave him that he wanted him to work
on: Back-pedal, breaking on the ball, those kind of
things that maybe he looks pretty good at, but he
can be a lot better at. Those are all things we
concentrated on in spring practice.

Q. After the game Saturday, you
mentioned Rodman Noel and his athleticism. I
was wondering what you saw that made you
think he would be a good linebacker? And how
much can you expect him to contribute next
year?

COACH O’BRIEN: Well, he’s in a similar
situation that D.J. Green was in last year. Both of
them had played back-up and special teams as a
freshman at the safety position. The way we
played defense for years is that field linebacker
position is a hybrid/strong safety/linebacker spot.
He has a lot of the same skill sets of guys that
we’ve had there through the years. He’s tall. He’s
got length to him. He can run. He’s smart. It
might have been a spot if E.J. was there, we would
have moved him to to start off as a back-up
anyway. But because E.J. isn’t there, he’s been
pressed into playing a little quicker.
He has the skill set that’s required to play
that position. Just a question of gaining the
experience and confidence to be successful there.

Q. At what point during the off-season
do you think that you’ll make a decision on the
status of Mustafa? What will happen with him?

COACH O’BRIEN: Mustafa’s on the team.
He just didn’t make it through spring practice. I
expect him to be with us in fall practice. If he
continues, he’s doing all that’s been asked of him
from that point on.
So as long as he continues and completes
what we’ve asked him to do, we should see him
when practice starts in August.

Q. With Mike last year, 31 touchdown
passes, 12 picks, and more than 3,000 yards
way above 60%. What are some of the subtle
things he needs to improve on in his senior
year?

COACH O’BRIEN: Well, the thing that we
like most is that he finished the year strong and
really used the time from the last game against
Maryland. I think he threw five touchdown passes
there in the fourth quarter to the bowl game. He
got better in the bowl game.
I lot of the things we stressed to him from
that point on was to get back, to set up quicker, to
deliver the ball and be more decisive in his reads.
We’ve carried that over into spring practice. The
thing that’s been good for him is we’ve talked
earlier about the experience of those kids in the
secondary.
When you have a kid like that, he’s
challenged Amerson all spring. Now Amerson got
him in the spring game, but that’s all part of the
challenge of going best against best. Both of our
safeties are three year starters. The other corner
is a three-year starter.
So he had a great opportunity this spring
to go against a good, competitive secondary,
getting that back foot down, getting the ball out and
making good decisions.