Doeren: "It's Not Me, It's We"

NC State head coach Dave Doeren discusses the 52-31 Sun Bowl win with the media.

Opening Statement...
First, I just want to say how thankful I am to the players and the coaches for a top 25 finish and a nine-win season and to our seniors for our third bowl win in four attempts so that’s a great finish and that’s what we talked about this whole bowl prep and so proud of those guys. 

A lot of seniors, um, don’t focus the way these guys do. You know, their minds are in other places and, uh, just says a lot about the character of these young men and I’m very proud of them and thankful to them to have records being broken in a game.

All-time leading receiver here in Jaylen Samuels, a 3,000-yard passer in Ryan Finley, a 1,000-yard receiver Kelvin Harmon, a 1,000-yard rusher in Nyheim Hines, uh, a bunch of guys played their butts off and player of the year in Bradley (Chubb).

It’s hard to think about life without a lot of these dudes. But a bunch of these guys are going to have “seniors” on their chest moving forward.

And to the fans that made it to our game, thank you. It means a lot. There was a lot of red in the stadium and I know that’s not easy to get here for one and to do it during the holiday season for two, so thank you for that and just another great momentum piece for our football team heading into our offseason program and you know our coaches and our players alike are looking forward to a week of nothing.

I know I am. I’ll come back to work here pretty soon, but we’re going to enjoy tonight and the next seven or eight days whatever it is, thoroughly. Any questions?

Do you feel like you’re proud of this team? Do you feel like there’s a page being turned in your program?
We talked about it in the locker room. Top 25 is the standard we want for this program and it’s where we want to live and this senior class got us to that point. That’s the standard we live by at this point and that’s what we want it to continue to climb. And they understand the work, they’ve visualized it and the work that they put in.

And there’s a lot of people, really great people involved in that process from the weight room staff to the training room, the nutrition, the coaches, everybody. The thing that I’m most proud of is these guys and just the way that they complete tasks and finish jobs and not everybody does that.

There’s a lot of talented people that don’t and these guys do and that’s what makes them who they are. It’s what makes my job fun to be around guys like that.

What got going with your offense in the second quarter?
Everything. I mean we dominated the line of scrimmage, running the ball, catching it, throwing it. Everything. I just thought we got hot and finished drives and the defense really started fast, got a takeaway and did some really good things.

I thought we’d score on the fake field goal and we didn’t so that was unfortunate. I thought Kyle was going to outrun that guy but uh, you know the guys got hot and I thought they just dominated the line of scrimmage as the game went on.

Speaking of special teams, how important were special teams in this game?
It’s always important. It’s always important. We had a couple of opportunities that went the other way. You know we roughed a punter. Had a chance to block a punt there. And then we had another unfortunate running into our returner. 

That was kind of a weird deal when Lacy ran into him trying to block for him and we lost the ball on that possession. Thought Kyle did a nice job and our kickoff coverage did a nice job. A lot of positives to take from that.

This is your first senior class as a head coach. Pretty much your entire head coaching career. You feel like they made you better as a head coach?
Oh absolutely. Like I said, I’m lucky to come to work with these guys every day and I think that is the fun thing in our program.

It’s not me, it’s we. And everything we do it’s about the players and about the coaches. It’s about the relationships we built together. And I’ve gotten better as a coach just like they got better as players.

I think that’s something from the top down we preach. It’s something that these guys believe in. You know it is a relationship, obviously there's a line there but it’s a relationship and they know that we love them and that we care about them and their lives after football and friendships I’m going to have with these guys when they finish their time here. It’s going to last a long time.

Probably end up employing a few of them as coaches cause they’re pretty smart football guys.

Talk about a new set of seniors coming in and how that’ll help recruiting.
It’s the legacy these guys wanted to have. Legacy is something that you earn and it’s a opportunity that is there and you take advantage of the opportunity. This was a legacy opportunity for our senior class.

There’s been 11 now 12 nine-win teams in the history of NC State football and there are 125 teams that have played so we’re in the top 10% of all time with this football team right now and these seniors helped us do that. They wanted to be a part of that they wanted to win 3 of 4 bowl games and be a 75% team in bowls instead of 50%.

Those things matter to these guys and for the guys replacing them, it sets the standards high. That’s what it did. I walked up to Steph and said “Hey senior” and he said oh my god I can’t believe I’m a senior already. Our offensive linemen that are returning, there’s a bunch of really good seniors coming back, and it’ll be their job to carry the torch.

You congratulated a lot of people on the field and then you danced with your wife.
They were playing Marty Robbins in El Paso, you have to dance to that song. No it was great, you know you won a bowl game and a lot of work goes into it. We report back to campus January 8th just like last year it was Jan 7th.

The season doesn’t start in August for the coaches or players, it starts in January. 12 months later, it completes and I’m going to party my butt off tonight, I’m going to have fun. That’s what we do.

We win, we have fun, we go back to work. I think that’s what you’re supposed to do. You put your heart into, you celebrate it when it comes out the way you want. Wins are hard to get in college football.

On Jaylen Samuels’ impact on football team over career.
I’m just so happy it did happen. I thanked him before the game for all that he’s done for our program.

You look at the names that are on that list too and it’s not like there’s just a few no names. There’s a bunch of guys that were phenomenal players here and in the NFL and his name is now on top. He earned it. He’s done it a lot of ways too. It’s been a lot for a career.