Dave Doeren: "We've Always Been Resilient"
NC State head coach Dave Doeren met with the media following the Wolfpack's 24-21 road win over Virginia Friday evening.
NOTE: Click on the video in the player above to watch Doeren’s press conference.
Opening Statement
It was a heck of a football game. I’m very proud of our kicker, first of all, for making that kick. The psyche you have as a kicker when you have one blocked, even though it was a penalty, to be able to step back in there and knock that through for him in the rain, I thought that was a great moment for Brayden [Narveson]. I’m proud of him. We had a really good kick return there to set that up. ACC wins are hard to come by. Winning on the road is not easy. You’ve got to give Virginia credit. I thought they played a heck of a game. Their quarterback [Anthony Colandrea] is going to be a very good football player in this league. He’s an exciting guy for them. Their two receivers, Malik Washington and Malachi Fields, are very good players. We’ve got to play better, obviously, in certain areas. As a football team, we found a way to win on the road, and I'm proud of our guys for that. I’m looking forward to getting on the plane and going home.
On his concerns with the offensive line...
I'm concerned about everything all the time. I don't think there's a problem in pass protection, if that’s what you’re asking. There are some times where we got beat, but overall, no, I think we're doing okay. Can we get better? Yeah. It wasn't an issue all night, and I didn't feel like [Brennan Armstrong] was being rushed a ton. I’m more concerned with other things, to be honest with you.
On the final offensive drive...
Well, we felt like, with our kicker, we needed to get the ball to the 35 yard line. Because of the penalty and the return, we only needed 15 yards to do that, and the first play got us in field goal range. After that, we're going to be pretty smart with the ball and not risk turning it over. Brayden made a 60-yarder in pregame going that direction, so we felt like we were at a pretty good spot right there. If you looked at what they were doing defensively, we felt we could get a few more yards up the middle there on that last play.
On the defensive effort...
They found a way to get off the field. Third-down defense for both teams was solid. They were only 5-of-14 on third down. We were only 6-for-14. Our short-yardage defense, I thought, was extremely exceptional tonight. It was really good there. Really, where we struggled was on third-and-long and in the red zone which is kind of weird. That’s an area where you’d expect to be really good on defense for us, and that was where they got their points.
On his concerns following tonight’s game...
Having a consistent run game. Right now, it's been inconsistent. We've got to narrow some things down. We’ve tried a lot of things. As you get into the season, like I told you, Robert [Anae] is going to start, “Here's what we're good at. Here’s not.” It's just being consistent and being efficient with the run game. This offense has a lot of parts to it. There's a lot of new pieces playing in it. It’s just being more efficient throughout the game, doing some things that are based off of what we're doing, and being able to adjust and do some things off of that goes we're doing better.
If that refers to personnel or play-calling…
I think play selection. We have a lot of plays. We need to be able to kind of narrow down the book a little bit and get better in some things instead of doing so many things.
On K.C. Concepcion…
He's really hard to cover in man-to-man. They had a guy on both times. His other touchdown was man-to-man as well. It was a little fake screen and go that he ran. K.C.'s playing fast. He's playing well, and he's hard after the catch for people as well, as you saw tonight. There was a really good block on that play by Porter Rooks after the catch. There's a reason his numbers are what they are. He was targeted 10 times and had 116 yards for a true freshman. He's very talented.
On Armstrong…
I think he settled in. In the first quarter, the wind was behind this, and it was blowing pretty good. He had a lot of energy which you expect, playing in the stadium. He overthrew a few guys. As he settled in, he started playing better. The guys did a nice job catching the ball for him tonight. It was one thing, in the rain, you kind of get worried about; our guys did a great job.
On finishing quarters with points…
That's one of the cornerstones of every football team: to be a finishing team. To be able to exhibit finish is different than saying that you're a finishing football team, and I think that's a great illustration of that. To finish the half of the touchdown and to finish the game on the field goal after they score and gain momentum, it says a lot about the grit of the team. We've always been resilient. It's just good to see those guys be able to play well in clutch situations like that.
On Caden Noonkester...
He was tremendous tonight. His leg was a weapon, for sure. He had a 50-yard average, long of 67. He had too many punts, eight punts. He’s punting too much. He did a great job. We talked about this: to win on the road, you've got to win your turnover margin — we were plus-one — and you've got to win in field position, and our punter was exceptional. We also had the big kickoff return at the end. Those two things really came true there.
If there was something on film that aided special teams...
Not really. Our return game has been good all year. That penalty helped us on that play, obviously. It gave us a lot more field to work with, and Julian [Gray] is pretty fast. The kicker [Will Bettridge] gave him a ball that he could do something with. Sometimes, that doesn't happen. All of the stuff came together for us right there on that return. You get the penalty which makes them kick from the 20, and then he puts some hang time on it, and Julian had an opportunity. It was a field return Coach [Todd] Goebbel called, and the guys did a nice job blocking it up,
On navigating questions and concerns with maintaining success in the ACC...
I mean, there's always questions and concerns. You know what I mean? A bunch of guys had to play; there were injuries. The second play the game, [Devan] Boykin goes down. All week in practice, Cecil Powell was our backup strong safety. Cecil went in the game and got hurt, so both strong safeties were hurt in the first quarter. Bishop Fitzgerald moves from free safety to strong safety. He didn’t take a rep in practice all week at that position. That's what we were dealing with. Those are the things going on that you guys don't understand, and so I thought we played really well under those circumstances with what we had. Devon Betty wasn't at practice all week because he and his fiancé had a baby, so he missed all the practices this week. They had a beautiful baby girl. That’s going on. There's real life stuff happening on this team. On offense, we lost a running back on the second-to-last day of the week. We get out there, and then all of a sudden, [Kendrick] Raphael gets hurt. Those things are real. People want to b***h at play calling and this, that, and the other. There’s other stuff going on, man. We found a way to win on the road in the rain against an inspired football team. S**t, be happy we won. It's a good win. I'm excited to go home, 3-1, and to get ready to play Louisville.
On Payton Wilson…
The guy's awesome every night. Is there even a game that he's played in the last three years that people aren't like, "We love watching No. 11 play football”? You know, the guy plays to exhaustion. He's the heartbeat of our football team. I can't say enough about him.