Dave Doeren: "It Was A Team Win"

NC State head coach Dave Doeren met with the media via Zoom following the Wolfpack's 24-17 home win over Clemson.

NOTE: Click the video above to watch the interview.

Opening Statement...

Yeah, super proud of our players and coaches. The faith that they showed, in each other and what we just did against a good football team, coming off, in my opinion, the worst we have played in my tenure as a head coach to rebound like that says a lot about our perseverance and our toughness and our willingness to change and get better. It happened in all phases out there. There's a lot of things that people don't understand that we are doing differently but we are and it was a team win.

A lot of things went into it, did not turn the ball over on offense, and had some explosive plays. K.C. (Concepcion) obviously explosive. Payton Wilson's pick-six touchdown is a huge play in the game, obviously won by seven and that was the difference. Brayden (Narveson) continues to knock kicks through and our punter is a weapon for us -- really took their return game out. 

A lot of negativity people say out there. I get a lot of text messages, you know, ignore the noise, and I don't look at it, because the true people that care about this program have been believing and for those people, I hope you enjoyed that win because that took a lot to get these guys back up and for them to fight the way they did. I couldn't be more proud of them. I couldn't be more proud of them, and appreciative of the support of these players and coaches, Boo Corrigan, Ruffin, aw man. Really just how these folks have put their arms around each other and fought, and where our families dig in, it is pretty awesome. 

On Gameday commennts by Steve Smith... 

Yeah, for a guy that lives in Charlotte, he has clearly got his head to Utah all the time, which, you know, I understand. No disrespect to him but he disrespected our program, and I am not going to let people do that. These kids have worked their butt off. We have won a lot of football games here. In my tenure, we are second or third in ACC in wins in football, so he can take that and put it where it belongs, but this is not a basketball school. This is a great, great school. It has great sports and football is one of them. 

So if he wants to come see me we can talk about that but do your homework before you start talking shit. 

Do you feel positives from all three phases of the game?

Yeah. Absolutely. There was growth. That is a good defense. You guys know that. Statistically, one of the better ones we play year in, year out. So, not satisfied by any means, happy though in some ways with some of the things we did. There was growth in some areas. The biggest thing I saw is we weren't beating ourselves. We didn't have a drop until the end there, on that last drive. Didn't have any pre-snap penalties, so our efficiency that way was better but didn't just do a good enough job in other areas to help the defense in the second half. I thought in the first half we did enough good things offensively to build the lead, so they responded in the second half a little bit better defensively than we did offensively. 

There is growth there and a lot of things we can improve on, but definitely positives. 

On Confidence In Winning...

You just have to believe. You have to believe and I believe in God, and His strength, and the faith I get from Him. And you have to talk things into existence. And you have to block the stuff out that leads to the negativity. There is a lot of it, and it is disapointing that our fans are a piece of that.

To me, it is a piece of you want to be great then you have to believe you are going to be great. If you want to succeed, you have to beieve you can succeed. If you are planting seeds of nagativity that doesn't help, so I am constantly doing the opposite. For every negative, you have to give 10 positives. That is part of leadership, so if I am not belieivng this will happen, nobody will. I have got to walk around all day long like that, with my staff, with my players, everywhere I go, just trying to breathe that into them and explain how it is going to happen. 

What does this win do for the program? 

We talked about it being a five-game season, and to wash away the thoughts of what has gone on prior to these games and I thought that was really important for these guys because it does give you hope in what you can do in these five games. There is a lot. You guys can do math. If we win out what that can equal, and so you just take them one at a time. 

Tomorrow at some point, we are going to turn the page and it will be about how can we beat Miami? We are just going to keep doing that. 

On complementary football...

Complementary football is critical. We were plus-two in turnover margin, and that is why you win games. I know I am close to 90 percent when we win the turnover margin and maybe 99 if it is plus-two or more. That is a critical factor in winning. 

On tying the all-time wins record at NC State...

It means a lot. It is my 100th (overall) win as a head coach. You go through a lot in this chair, and it is a benchmark for any head coach. To do it here, and to be here 11 years, go through all the ups and downs. As a father, I think, being able to keep my sons in their schools for this amount of time, it has been a win. 

I said this to my staff, maybe seven years ago, when Drinkwitz was here, we were in a staff meeting, and said "I am going to be the winningest head coach here. I am going to get that done and I need you guys to help me let's talk through what that looks like."

There is a lot of people that are a part of winning this thing. The head coach gets the credit but I am going to tell you there is a lot of people... There is a lot of great players and great coaches that deserve a piece of that. 

I am proud of it. I would like to own it singular and not tie, so look forward to the next opportunity, but it is nice to get to 100.