Offensive tackle Justin Witt spoke with the media in Charlotte as part of the 2019 ACC Football Kickoff, and during his interviews, Witt focused on the aspects of leadership he feels he can bring to the team, the camaraderie among the offensive line and other topics about the offense for the upcoming season.
On his style of leadership:
“I like to be a vocal leader. I like to lead by example. I feel like if I’m doing the right things, younger guys can look at that: ‘All right, I want to model my game after that, I want to act like that outside of the field.’”
On the tempo of the offense:
“Comes down to us as players. We control the tempo. Our coaches try to stress to us how to keep a good tempo throughout the game. It all depends on how fast we get up to the line, how fast can we get the ball snapped before the defense is ready.”
On the style of the offense:
“I feel like we’re going to run the same offense. We got great quarterbacks that can come in and step up after Ryan Finley left. We’ve got great running backs who can step up after Reggie Gallaspy left. I feel like we’re going to run the same style of offense, and with some of the guys coming in now.”
On the quarterback battle:
“We got a big group of guys right now that all play quarterback for us; we’ve just got to find who is going to be the right fit for our offense, who is going to be the best leader and who is going to be able to win games for us.”
On the running game and freshman running back Zonovan Knight:
“Running game is going to be explosive. We got a lot of guys who can step out on the field and make plays. Between Ricky [Person], Trent [Pennix], Zonovan [Knight] and the other freshmen that came in, they can all step out on the field and play for us if they have to.”
On the camaraderie among the offensive line:
“I think the best thing is everyone has their own type of personality, and when you get that together, we bond like a special feeling with each other. That is our whole group as an identity; we like to be a bunch of different guys, but when we come together, we are all the same.
“We got a lot of young guys coming in. We had guys in the past who taught me how to be a great leader, like Garrett Bradbury, Terrone Prescod, Tyler Jones, Tony Adams, who all taught me to be a great leader. I feel like I can pass that knowledge down to younger guys, who are going to have to step up one day and be another leader for us.”
On some of the new faces in the offensive line:
“Grant Gibson, Joe Sculthorpe, you all saw him last year, and then we got Emanuel McGirt, Tyrone Riley, Bryson Speas. Those are guys who haven’t really made it on the field that much, but when they make it on the field, they are definitely going to be able to make plays for us and be great.”
On the sale of alcohol at Carter-Finley:
“That is firing everyone up. It’s definitely going to bring more of an electric atmosphere in the third quarter, because we had a lot of fans who would leave to go drink in the parking lot. But now they are going to be able to drink in the games, and it’s definitely going to make it more rowdy in the stadium. We feed off that energy. We definitely notice the energy coming from our fans.”
For more from ACC Football Media Day, check out Technician stories on head coach Dave Doeren and defensive end James Smith-Williams.
Redshirt junior offensive tackle Justin Witt speaks to the media at the ACC Kickoff in Charlotte on Wednesday, July 17, 2019. Witt spoke about the upcoming football season.
