Competition drives NC State’s top cornerback duo

NC State’s next two opponents might want to take note of what the Wolfpack’s outside cornerbacks, Aydan White and Shyheim Battle, did at Wake Forest. If they still decide to target that duo, good luck to those wide receivers. 

Battle and White combined to allow just three receptions for 24 yards on 12 targets against the Demon Deacons. The duo combined to shut out Wake Forest’s star receiver Jahmal Banks, who was targeted a total of five times and did not record a catch. 

“I thought our two corners, [Shyheim] Battle and Aydan White, played collectively the best game I’ve seen them play at the same time,” NC State coach Dave Doeren said earlier this week. “I thought they both really played well. … I was really impressed by the way they played contested coverage.”

White was primarily on Banks all day, and he recorded three pass breakups while he was in coverage against the Demon Deacons’ 6-foot-4 wideout. 

Battle thought the effort to shut down Banks helped the Wolfpack cruise to a 26-6 win at Wake Forest, the team’s first win in Winston-Salem since 2015. And White drew that responsibility for much of the contest. 

“Aydan, he’s a dog — what do you expect?” Battle said. “I expect that from him. He’s a big dude. He believes in himself. I believe in him. Coaches believe in him. He knows all he has to do is do his job. That makes everything else easier for us.”

But White was not the only cornerback to line up against Banks. Battle did too, and he held his ground for an incompletion as well. And that might be a good window into the duo’s relationship. 

Battle and White are a year apart, but the two have been key in the Wolfpack’s pass defense over the past two seasons. Battle broke onto the scene with seven pass breakups during his redshirt freshman season in 2020 and has continued to build off it. White is the younger one, but he burst onto the national landscape with an All-ACC season last fall, his sophomore campaign. 

As the two both have NFL aspirations, and could become one of the top cornerback duos in the ACC, they feed off of competition. That drive to be better than the other begins between the two players before they look around the country at the top cornerbacks. 

“We compete every day,” Battle said. “Aydan, that’s my dog, that’s my brother. Since we came in, me and him have always been competing, always trying to get better. …  He’s a great player, I’m a great player, every day we come to practice and we try to outwork each other.”

Confidence is not an issue for either player, and their play has proven that. Battle has 34 total tackles with a pair of tackles for loss, two interceptions and three pass breakups. While, meanwhile, has 27 total stops with 1.5 tackles for a loss, a sack, two interceptions and seven pass breakups. 

Who is counting, anyways? The two of them. 

“On game day, that’s our chance to compete for who’s going to have a better game,” Battle said. “We love competing against each other. Why not compete against the guy across from you? We’re competing with the country, but we feel like we’re competing with each other and making each other better.”

While they compete against each other, Battle and White also work together to make each other better on and off the field. They watch tape together, and study each other to see where they can improve both of their games. 

So far, the two have fed off each other, and their statistics can back it up. But they have also thrived in NC State defensive coordinator Tony Gibson’s 3-3-5 defense, which puts the defensive backs in 1-on-1 coverage to make a play. 

The defense has propelled the Wolfpack on its three-game winning streak as the team has allowed just 9.6 points a game since its bye week. Both Battle and White are key pieces to that, but the former passed the credit to Gibson’s scheme. 

“We’re ready to roll,” Battle said. “Coach Gibby, he just brings the energy, and he lets us go. We’re just some loose dogs out there playing ball. We give credit to him because it’s a great scheme for the defense. He allows us to go make plays, and puts the ball in our hands. … The ball is there, and we need to go find the ball. That’s our mentality.”

That mentality has paid off for the entire defense, which has forced 20 turnovers this season, but especially its standout cornerbacks, Battle and White.