NC State head coach Dave Doeren met with the media as the Wolfpack prepares for its Friday night matchup versus Louisville.
NOTE: Click on the video in the player above to watch Doeren’s interview.
On emphasizing lane integrity on special teams...
It wasn't really hard. The guys know who [Jawhar Jordan] is for them, obviously, from last year's game. It’s been an emphasis. It always is an emphasis when you play a guy as dangerous as him. The guys are going to know that.
On using the 2017 Louisville game as motivation...
Obviously, that was a great win. It was a great football team that they had with Lamar Jackson, and Bradley Chubb had an epic night. Germaine Pratt had a great play. We'd love to have that kind of environment. For me to talk about it, the guys that were there for it probably remember it, but there's only been a handful of games — that won and the Clemson night game — there's certain games like that that have just been spectacular. Hopefully, we'll have that same kind of energy.
On players stepping up to have those Chubb- and Pratt-level performances…
I just told the team: you're playing a team that's undefeated in our league. We’re undefeated in our league. You're on national television. It’s a night game. You have a lot of reasons. Pick one to go out there and play as well as you can play. Within those games, there's going to be guys that have moments for whichever team. Obviously, we'd like it to be on our team. Whom that's going to be, time will tell. These are the kinds of games where legacy type performances emerge.
On getting K.C. Concepcion to replicate his success from the Virginia game…
Sure. It'd be great.
On the new, all-black uniforms…
Players love the uniforms, the swag, the “drip," as they call it. I'm excited for them, anytime we can do something that gets them excited about what we're wearing. The all-black has always been a good look in our in our stadium for our guys.
On improving in short-yardage situations...
We failed in the opener; since then, we've done great. I think it's just execution, understanding the game plan, what we're trying to do, showing them the looks that they might get, and then executing at a high level. The runners, sometimes, have to make some work on their own. Delbert [Mimms] has been great about getting extra yards for us [as has] Brennan [Armstrong]. Sometimes, you've got to be your own blocker. There's a lot of people at the line of scrimmage in those situations. We've done a good job for the last three games. Hopefully, that'll continue.
On who’s been impressive this week in practice…
Our secondary's been tested all week because of what we're about to see. It’s no one in particular, but that group has practiced well, and that was what we were hoping for. We’re playing against a really good passing attack.
On Bishop Fitzgerald’s growth…
He gets here late in the summer. We knew him through recruiting, but you really don't know him the way that you will when he's playing for you. Getting to know him as a person, seeing the kind of teammate that he is, he's a very fast learner, and he's been able to pick things up and then just react. Some guys on defense just see things, and he's one of those guys. He's got great ball skills, too. His ability to track a football, even when his body's out of control, and make a play, it's been really good.
On preparing for Louisville’s explosive offense…
You’ve got to know where their guys are. They're playmakers, first of all. It starts with [Jamari Thrash] He’s a very good player, playing at a high level. There's route concepts that you talked about with your guys and what they're trying to do with different concepts, whether it's a vertical concept or horizontal or a spacing concept. Sometimes, formations can tell you things, so you're getting into different things like that with the layers, your zone defenses with your linebackers and your DBs, how you want to play off of each other in those scenarios, and the pass rush that comes into play. There’s a ton of intricacies when you're talking about defending anybody. With these guys, your margin for error could be detrimental because their guys are really good. [Jack Plummer] last week was on fire. It's a great matchup. It's a very good offense.
On disrupting Louisville’s offensive rhythm…
Anytime you can get a quarterback off his spot, make him move, show him things after the snap instead of before the snap to make him have to adjust a little bit, just trying to buy yourself a little bit more time in coverage, a little bit more time in pass rush, those things matter. He's very rhythmic. Like I said, he played a tremendous game last week. He was very accurate against Boston College. His receivers have been really good.
On honing in on the fundamentals…
Well, they've bought into what I'm talking about. They all see, and it's not one player. It’s a different player every play. It's just being consistent with 11 men playing complementary football. "When you get beat, why'd you get beat there? What happened? It's same player you just blocked the play before, so what happened? All right, when you hopped, instead of using independent feet, where were your eyes where your head was down?" All the little things that happened within a four-to-six second window in a play, it's just getting the guys more consistent at that. That's what the focus has been all week: how can we improve as a team? We do it best by approving individually throughout the team.
On the turnover battle…
Yeah, that's critical. In my tenure as a head coach, it's over 85 percent when we do win it, from a win standpoint. The first key to victory every week is going to be that. Field position, explosive plays, and all the other things will come into play, but the number one thing is turnover margin. It’s a critical area for us, an area that we've done well most of the last few seasons. We'll be talking a lot about it.
On Kendrick Raphael and Cecil Powell…
Day to day.
On recruits playing the same time as NC State this week…
Like I said, my son's game is the same time as our game two weeks in a row now. We’ll finish the game, and I’ll get in there and look at my phone to see if my son won as well. It just is what it is. I’m just glad this is our last Friday game of the year, and I look forward to being back on Saturdays.
On complementary football...
It's all the phases that way. If Caden Noonkester booms a punt and sets the defense up, the defense wants to play off the field position they were given. They would get a punt return that sets up the offense; now [the offense] want to take advantage of that field position they got. That’s what we've done well in every game but one. In the Notre Dame game, we started that game with back-to-back three-and-outs with field position on the 50 twice and got no points. Those are the things that hit home to our players really after that game. “Dang, we had opportunities here to change this game that didn't capitalize.” You can give Notre Dame credit, or you can say we need to do a better job. It's both; we need to do a better job, and so I think that was a great learning moment in that game, and our guys, the next week, responded and played really well off of each other. In the last game, there were spurts of that. We understand what that is and what it isn't. We'll continue to brainwash and do our part to talk about the magnitude of that.
