Playing on the offensive line is all about responsibilities. It’s about pass-blocking responsibilities, gap assignments and blitz pick-up responsibilities. Not to mention the complicated rules on running plays.
An offensive lineman has a specific responsibility unique to every play call.
But for fifth-year senior left tackle James Newby, his on-the-field or in-the-classroom responsibilities are secondary compared with his responsibilities at home.
Newby, who married his high school sweetheart a month after they graduated, became a father in the summer of 2005.
When Lindsay gave birth to Emma last July, Newby said it just added another log into his already crowded fire.
“Being a dad is tough,” Newby said. “It just added another category I have to concentrate on. A lot of the guys on the team just pretty much have football and school. But I have football, school, a wife and now a little girl. It definitely puts a strain on my time. I don’t get much sleep at night.”
But despite the hectic schedule, Newby said he balances it all by keeping the different aspects of his life separate.
“When you’re at school, you’re at school, and when you’re at football, you’re at football. And when you’re at home, you got to be with your family,” Newby said. “You can’t combine the three. They are totally different things. So I have to take it like that.”
Lindsay said separating the three has made James a better father as well as a better football player.
“He’s a great father,” she said. “He loves spending time with Emma, especially now that he can play with her and wrestle around with her. But being a father has made him want to try harder at everything, including football. Anytime someone has a child it adds responsibility, but he’s handled it well.”
For James and Lindsay, their journey to Raleigh started in Athens, Ala., when the two were in middle school. Their families had known each other for years before that, but the kids had never met.
James’ grandfather and Lindsay’s dad had known each other more than 20 years.
“I asked my dad why he never introduced me and James before then,” Lindsay said. “But he just told me he had never really thought about it.”
Eventually they started dating and did so all through high school. So when it came time for James to start deciding on colleges, Lindsay’s input had a lot to do with it.
“Lindsay obviously was going to help me decide where I would go,” James said. “Because she was going to have to be there too.”
For Lindsay, though, N.C. State wasn’t her first choice. After accompanying James on some of his recruiting visits, she liked Vanderbilt the most.
“I really liked it at Vanderbilt,” she said. “But the ultimate decision was James’, and I guess he wanted to go somewhere where he could win football games. So he chose State and I liked it here too. The landscaping was beautiful. The stadium was really nice, and the people were really nice to us too.”
Besides having more football success than a school like Vanderbilt, the Wolfpack had another advantage when it came to landing the 6-foot-5-inch, 295-pound tackle.
A high-school teammate of Newby’s was already on the team. Former All-ACC quarterback Philip Rivers was a sophomore at the time, and he had played with Newby at Athens High School, where Rivers’ dad was Newby’s coach.
“[Philip] definitely had some influence on me coming to N.C. State,” Newby said. “His dad was my head coach, too, and he had good things to say about N.C. State. And Philip had good things to say too. When you go to other places — like I went to Louisville and some other places around the South — you talk to these random strangers that you meet for a weekend and they tell you about how a great a place this is. But when you got a guy like Philip and his dad both telling me about this place and how they see it going places, it made me feel comfortable about making the decision.”
Since coming to State and redshirting his freshman year, Newby has gone from playing in just four games in 2003 to playing more snaps than anyone on last year’s offense. And his improvement has been noticed by the coaching staff and his teammates.
“It’s very hard for a kid to come out of high school and play early on because you’re playing against veteran defensive linemen most of the time and they’re 21-, 22- or 23-year-old men,” offensive line coach Pat Meyer said. “So if you can have fifth-year seniors, it’s super, super important, not only with their body, but with the mental aspect of it. There’s a lot that goes on. And it helps that James is one the smartest kids we have.”
Coach Chuck Amato said Newby’s progress from what he was as a freshman to what he is now as a senior has been tremendous.
“James has really gotten better and better,” Amato said. “You talk about seniors. We’ve got a senior in the middle, a senior at left tackle and you got a senior at right tackle. And Newby’s probably come as far as anybody. And he keeps getting better even now.”
Fellow senior offensive lineman Leroy Harris, who is also married with a baby, said Newby’s experience makes everyone else on the line better.
“He’s been here for a while, and he knows defenses and different formations,” Harris said. “So it helps out a lot with the calls. When a guy comes to the line of scrimmage, I can really trust Newby to make that call and alert me up. Just little things like that in the offense.”
This year the line has only allowed seven sacks and didn’t allow any against Wake Forest. But for Newby, it’s just another responsibility he welcomes every game.
“Coach Meyer sets a goal every game that the quarterback shouldn’t even get touched,” Newby said. “And obviously that’s a pretty high goal. But we all strive to reach it.”