July 25, 2005

BY TIM PEELER

HOT SPRINGS, Va. - NC State senior linebacker Oliver Hoyte was the leading tackler on a defense that was ranked first in the nation in total defense, yet he wasn't picked on any of the league's three All-Conference squads after his successful junior season.

That may change this year, particularly now that the media knows a little bit more about the engaging Hoyte, who held court Sunday at the annual ACC Football Kickoff at the Homestead Resort and Spa.

Hoyte's overall message was that the Wolfpack's defense will be just as good, if not better, than last year. Here is a portion of his conversation with the media on Sunday.

Question: How many people have asked you already if the defense can be as good as last year?

HOYTE: An endless number. Every time I talk to someone about football, that is the first thing they ask, how good the defense can be.

Question: What is your standard answer?

HOYTE: Just as good, if not better. That's how I look at it. We have great players on both sides of the ball. We lost four starters on defense, all in the back seven. We replace those guys with people who have been around just as long as I have. Not all as starters, but they have been around. {Cornerbacks) Marcus Hudson and A.J. Davis have both played a lot - they have been starters for two years in my opinion.

Question: You have Virginia Tech to open the season, a Sunday night game, with no other games on that night. What is it going to be like?

HOYTE: That's big time: A running team, with power, smash-mouth football. That's what I like to play. I love teams that run the ball. I will enjoy that game. And they are going to be fired up because we beat them last year. We are going to go out and play the best game we can.

Question: What do you have to be to be better this year?

HOYTE: We have to eliminate foolish penalties: offsides, holding, pass interference. And don't give up any cheap touchdowns. That comes from discipline, discipline, discipline. That's one thing that Coach Amato stresses every day.

Question: How good can Mario Williams and Manny Lawson be on defense?

HOYTE: It is endless. If those corners can cover man-to-man and make the quarterback hold the ball, then those guys will get to him. The quarterback can't make a good throw and the receivers can't catch the ball. And the linebackers can prevent him from running.

Question: Do you have enough depth at linebacker to be as good as you were, with the loss of Pat Thomas and Freddie Aughtry-Lindsay?

HOYTE: They have me and the other linebackers learning two positions. I am an inside linebacker, but during the spring, I did nothing but play the outside position. I feel that I am a pretty good outside linebacker. Pat Lowry is very versatile as well. Stephen Tulloch can do the same thing. I don't think it is something that people should be concerned about. Now that we are interchangeable, we have more depth. All spring long, Pat Lowry proved that he belongs with the first team.

Question: What kind of transition has the team had with the change in coordinators (to former Syracuse defensive coordinator Steve Dunlap)?

HOYTE: We pretty much run the same thing. It wasn't so much us changing what we do as it was him changing what he does, in terms of terminology and stuff. He just tweaked some things a little bit. He likes to play a little bit more zone than we are used to. We added a little bit more zone, to go with our man-to-man coverage.

Question: You led this team in tackles on a defense that led the nation, but you weren't on first, second or third-team All-ACC. Does that bother you?

HOYTE: It doesn't so much bother me. I am more bothered by the fact that we went 5-6 last year. All this other stuff is good, but I am here to win. All those individual accolades don't mean much to me.

Question: But you are still one of the least known linebackers in the league for someone who has performed at a really high level.

HOYTE: I guess I just have to do better. I have to improve.

Question: Do you think you get overshadowed by the defensive linemen, like Mario Williams and Manny Lawson?

HOYTE: I have no idea. But the defensive line deserves all the attention they receive. Those guys make my job so much easier. I feel as anybody could do what I do, playing behind those guys. I have never seen a group of defensive like them. I watch games on ESPN Classic all the time. I don't see guys like that in one group.

Question: Talk a little bit about John McCargo, another guy who has performed at a high level but hasn't gotten a lot of attention.

HOYTE: He takes up blockers. One guy doesn't block him. That just leaves me to take on one blocker or sometimes just tackle the running back. It's pretty simple.

Question: Has the ACC now evolved into a defensive league?

HOYTE: Used to be that Florida State as the only team you heard about on defense. Florida State, Florida State, Florida State. Now you have NC State, Florida State, Virginia, Miami, Virginia Tech. There's five teams that are in the Top 25 in the nation in defense. The addition of Miami, Boston College and Virginia Tech has made a difference in that perception.

Question: Does having those new teams in change the why everybody else in the league has focused on Florida State for so long? Do you no longer sit around in the off-season and think about Florida State?

HOYTE: Personally, I never sat around and thought about Florida State. I think about whoever we play next. I watch film every day and study my next opponent. I watched a little about everybody, but mostly Virginia Tech.

Question: Do you watch what other linebackers in this league do?

HOYTE: I watch all the linebackers who are on the All-America lists, first-team All-ACC. I go back and study them to see what they are doing differently than me and what I need to do to be where they are. I don't really see any difference, to be honest with you. Not to take anything away from them, but I don't see anything especially that I lack. I just don't see it.

Question: Who do you watch?

HOYTE: I watch all the linebackers in the ACC. I have watched film on A.J. Hawke from Ohio State. I watch Florida's linebackers. I watch a lot of old tape of Derrick Brooks, when he played at Florida State. I love watching tape. I am a student of the game. I watch most of the film at the Murphy Center, but I do have some old film of Derrick Brooks on a DVD that I have at home.

Question: Do you Derrick, since he is also from Tampa?

HOYTE: I met him a couple of times. I was in a program called Brooks Kids in Tampa and I met him there once or twice. He's not really someone I modeled my game after, though. I just love hitting people. I love running around and trying to make plays. I just like to see what people do differently than what I do. I try to evaluate my game and improve it.

Question: Why did you end up at NC State.

HOYTE: Chuck Amato came to my high school and told me flat-out: "If you want an opportunity to play early, I will give it to you." He pretty much was the only coach who out-right said that to me and he lived up to it. I have been playing since the day I stepped on campus. I didn't really care about the name of the school. I was recruited by some of the top schools in the country, Georgia, Florida State, schools like that, but the name or the tradition of the school didn't matter to me. I just wanted to play immediately.

Question: What was it like not going to a bowl game last year?

HOYTE: Sitting at home with my family on Christmas was something that was hard for me to do. Yes, I enjoyed being home with my family, but I would have rather been out there playing, competing and getting ready for a bowl game than sitting at home, relaxing with my family. That might not sound too good, but I love to play football. I just didn't see that coming.

Question: Do you feel like the defense did all it could do to make sure that you weren't in that position?

HOYTE: I don't agree with that. Defensively, I know we had opportunity to make plays that we didn't make in games that we lost. This year, to improve on that, when an opportunity comes along to make a play like that, we have to grasp it and don't let it go. Every big play, every opportunity. That is my goal as a senior, to help this team with. When I have an opportunity to make a big play, I am going to make that big play.

Question: How important for you is this season opener against Virginia Tech?

HOYTE: We are going against the ACC Champions. Therefore, that's the best team in the ACC. There is no better way to grade yourself or see how you compare to the other teams than to play the best team out there. They don't do anything tricky on offense. They line up and try to ram the ball down your throat. That is right up our alley. I have watched some film on them and I have a film on just the plays that Marcus Vick ran as a sophomore. He is a gifted athlete. He is fast. He can throw. I am sure our coaches will have schemes where someone will have his eyes on him at all times. We are not going to let him beat us with his legs. We are going to make him throw the ball. I feel we will have a great scheme.

Question: Is it in your favor that he hasn't played in a year and you are playing him in his first game back?

HOYTE: I wouldn't say that because of him coming back in this game. I would say what favors us is the style of offense that they play: Running the ball right at us. That's what any defense should want, a team trying to run it right down your throat. Then it becomes heart.

Question: But you think they will come in fired up, given that you are the only team to beat them last year?

HOYTE: Oh, they will be fired up, no question. Any team that give you your only loss, you will be fired up to play them. You want to get some revenge.

Question: What do you think about playing that game on a Sunday night? Do you think that could be a preview of your future, playing on Sundays?

HOYTE: That is my dream, to play in the NFL. If it doesn't happen, it doesn't happen. That is something I have been working hard to achieve.

Contact Tim Peeler at tim_peeler@ncsu.edu.