NC State HC Dave Doeren: "It's Been A Good Week"

NC State head coach Dave Doeren met with the media for the final time prior to Saturday's huge matchup against rival Wake Forest.

NOTE: Click the video above to watch the interview.

Opening Statement...
Really good opponent. Playing a team that's coming off a tough performance, which I know personally speaking, when we don't play well, you have a lot of want to get back on the field feelings and get that out of your mouth. So I know they're going to be inspired, not that they wouldn't be anyway with it being an in-state game.

But excited to play them. It's been, oddly enough, 45-42 two years in a row, with us winning one and them winning one. A weird score. Hopefully we don't give them that many points but a very good football team. Clawson has done a great job building a program there and a lot of respect, and I know that they'll come in here and play hard.

We're excited to play as well. It's been a good week, a really good week of practice. And excited for MJ. He's really practiced well.

How's he done this week?
Really good. It's not just what he knows but how he interacts and his positivity, his energy. It's been impressive to watch.

What is the difference in MJ's practice reps say in September compared to what he's had to go through the last 10 days?
I think in September he was just trying to learn an offense. Now he's running an offense. It's different. He didn't know his teammates, probably didn't know half their names. He got here in the summer, so he's one of many now. Whereas before he was like, all right, who's that guy again?  What's that mean? What's that play? What coverage are you talking about?

Now he knows, he sees. The thing that impresses you the most about him is he's very, very coachable. You tell him something, he can transition from a conversation to the next play and that's awesome at that position to have.

He said yesterday that he's been more vocal in practice. Has that been noticeable for you guys?
I told him last week, you got an opportunity to make this yours. Go out there and ... I'm not going to use the words I said. But go out there and make it yours. And he did. And I told him, I'm proud of you, man. Now just take it to the next level. It's your group. Let them know what you expect and they'll follow you, and he's done that.

How much importance has been placed on sustaining what you guys did offensively in the fourth quarter?
Sure. Well, obviously we want to do that. I think there's this feeling that we wanted to not score touchdowns for 10 quarters. That's not the case.

So we want to be in the endzone. We feel like for two weeks there it was tough.  You lose your quarterback, you go play in a very tough environment, you can't hear anything up there, so it made it difficult regardless of who was playing the position.

Then we figured out who our guy was. He sparked us and got it going. So hope to build on that fourth quarter performance. Hope to bring that obviously into this game, and we've been able to expand the offense a little bit since then. So each week it'll grow now that we know who we're playing with.

Dave, something I was told, but seeking clarification from you. Was Kurt Roper calling plays in the second half on Thursday?
No.

Okay. Was Tim Beck the whole time?
Yeah, Kurt signals. Yeah. And he does tell people what the play is. But Tim calls the play. So that's erroneous.

Defense doing a great job still. What are you looking for them? I mean, obviously you want to see them lock down Sam, the receivers, but they had a tough time, especially with eight turnovers in one half. So can the defense on your side of things take any extra momentum, anything from that game?
I think that's so uncharacteristic of them. I mean, they've been top three in turnover margin in our league for a long time. So one game doesn't make a team. Obviously we want to get turnovers, we're going to take ... we call them takeaways on defense. And that's part of what we thrive for each week is two or more, really three when you're playing a team that'll have this many plays in the game potentially. So anytime we can punch a ball out or strip a football or tip a ball that creates a pick or go up and get one, we know that sets up our offense. and that complementary football is what it's all about. That's how you win games is setting up the other side of the ball.

How good was it to see the defense be able to finish some of those sacks off this past week?
Yeah, it's big to get that pressure. I think it's momentum play for one. Hitting the quarterback's great, but when it's not a seven-yard loss or a 10-yard loss or a fumble that comes out, those are big plays and we were able to get to the quarterback last year and there was a few times we were that close.  So we need to be able to continue to keep that pressure on and not make it easy for Hartman. He's a really good player.

Now that you know that MJ's QB1, do you try and simplify the offense at all to keep things easier on him or do you go full speed ahead?
We're going to do what he's capable of, but I think you saw in the fourth quarter we were running our offense. So it's more of what do we have that fits how we want to attack the opponent we're playing? Are they a man team, are they a zone team? What do they do in their front? What are their pressures? What fits that is easy for him to see? And making sure that we're running plays that fit the quarterback. It's not about simplifying because of him, it's about giving him the best plan to be successful.

MJ said yesterday you had to make sure he is running the victory formation correctly late in the game.
So we're burning timeouts at the end of the half, at the end of the game. He's young. We wanted to make sure he knew exactly how to handle those moments. So yeah, when you're practicing game-ending plays, four-minute offense is what we called that situation, your third quarterback doesn't really get reps. And so when Devin went out and he became the two, we're trying to play catch up with a lot of stuff.

How big is defensive discipline going to be, lanes and things like that, mesh point, things like that with Wake Forest?
The patience of getting to the depth of the ball, a lot of times you're used to how the timing of plays are on defense. You win on your outside of your gap and you know, just because you've done it enough, how long it usually takes for the ball to declare. With them, that's not the case. You have to really be patient, you have to get off of blocks, you have to get to the level of the ball or it will end up spilling out into your gap or bouncing out into your gap.

I think we had 10 of those against them two years ago when we beat them where the ball got off the edge late because the player ducked into another gap wondering where the ball was at. And so that discipline in the run game is critical. Getting off of blocks, which Louisville did a great job of, is critical, and getting our hands up too, the quarterback, one of the things about walking the ball up into the line like they do, he's very close to the line of scrimmage a lot when he throws, and he is not a tall guy, so trying to get some of our hands up helps us there too.

Is there any other team like that or are they unique in that way?
No, they're unique. I haven't seen another team do that the way they do. Everyone has the zone read where you're reading a safety or a backer or a defensive end or a counter or a power, whatever it may be. But the way they walk the ball up into the line is very different.