VIDEO + QUOTES: Dave Doeren's Weekly Quotebook
NC State head coach Dave Doeren met with the media via Zoom for his weekly press conference to discuss the Wolfpack's 26-6 win over Wake Forest and its upcoming matchup versus Virginia Tech.
NOTE: Click on the video in the player above to watch Doeren’s press conference.
Opening Statement
Starting with the game against Wake Forest, it was a great win for the guys, and I’m proud of the team. It's definitely a team win. A lot of things that we emphasized in this game came to life. It was fun to watch, during the game and after. We talked about going in there, bringing our own energy, starting fast, and setting the tone from the beginning. Our guys did that, starting with the three-and-out on defense, the sack by Savion [Jackson], a partially blocked punt on that first punt by Anthony Smith, then an explosive play offensively with K.C. [Concepcion], and then a touchdown to Julian Gray from Brennan [Amrstrong] on a three-play drive. I loved the aggressive play calling in all three phases. You saw that with Tony [Gibson] blitzing. You saw that with Coach [Todd] Goebbel going after a punt. You saw that with Coach [Robert] Anae with the reverse to open the game. I really liked the way that the coaches put this plan together. The players executed it. In general, we were plus-two in turnover margin which, on the road, is a great recipe.
We were efficient offensively. We held the ball for 41 minutes in time of possession, 12 minutes in the third quarter. Even though we didn't score, we kept Wake's offense on the sideline and allowed our defense to rest. We ran the ball for over five yards a carry. We were really physical. We had 29 pancakes which was a high for us this season. We protected the quarterback well. Brennan was on his feet with the exception of the runs that were designed in the game. Guys played hard up front.
We denied points on defense. We were very dominant giving up only seven yards rushing. Pressured and harassed their quarterback. I thought our two corners, Shy Battle and Aydan White played collectively the best game I've seen them play at the same time. I thought they both really played well. They didn't allow [Jahmal Banks] to catch the football. He's a really good player for Wake. I was really impressed the way they played competitive coverage. They contested throws. They broke up passes without pass interference. There was great poise and no panic. It was really good football game by those two guys. I thought, defensively, we tackled well. We had three missed tackles in the entire game. It was fun watching them, and they were having fun playing. I’m so proud of the guys for the progress in the last three weeks.
On offense, I think we continue to grow the chemistry of our offensive line. Those five guys played the entire game together. We can build on that. There are always areas we need to get better, but I'm seeing more and more things that I like. I thought we caught the ball well. We had some good yards after the catch. Julian had a really nice touchdown catch. Keyon Lesane did some good things catching the ball and running after the catch. K.C. continues to be an explosive guy in the run game and the pass game. I thought Delbert Mimms had some tough yards in there and took care of the football. He grinded some some tough yards for us. Kendrick [Raphael], other than the fumble which I know he'll learn from it — It was a weird play. The guy said there was a whistle. We actually see the official standing over him like he's going to pick up the ball, and then they recovered it. It's a weird play, but either way, we’ve got to hand the ball to the official. I thought Kendrick played hard. K.C. had an explosive run. Brennan was an impact player in our run game. It was great to get Trent Pennix back out there the second week in a row. He helped us in the run game. I thought he played really well.
Negatives, we had two procedure penalties on offense that we can't have and the one turnover. Third quarter, I thought we got a little conservative with the lead that we had. I would’ve liked to stay on the field a little bit more there and get some points with some of the drives we were putting together. We didn't finish.
Defensively, we had three takeaways: Sean Brown's pick, great play, Jaylon Scott's two-point conversion for the defense, and the recovered fumble by Shy that was forced by Robert Kennedy. We had five straight three-and-outs to open the game. We only gave up six points and held Wake to their lowest output on offense, I think, in 10 years is what I was told. Savion played extremely good up front for us. He was really physical and strained. He's playing fast. Good performance and great job coaching by those guys on defense.
On special teams, there was some good and some bad. Brayden [Narveson] had two misses. One was a long one. I like how he responded, though. He hit that third one right down the middle. He’s a mentally tough guy. It was good to get that make. Caden Noonkester had a 41-yard net. I thought we did a good job pressuring Wake's punter throughout the game and created some field position.
Now, we’re on to Virginia Tech. We’re excited to go play in Blacksburg, great environment for college football, one of the best. Their fans and their game day atmosphere are always really impressive. They're a team on the rise. They've won three of their last four games. Brent [Pry] has done a good job with his team. They're playing hard. You can tell they're gaining confidence each week. Played really well against Boston College on Saturday.
It's a talented roster. They've done a good job adding players to it through the portal. They've got some explosive guys. [Kyron Drones] has made a huge difference for them. On offense, they're running the ball well. You can tell that they're leaning in on the run game and their play actions. Their tailback who's a transfer from from right here in North Carolina, [Bhayshul Tuten], is a really good player: quick feet, tough, breaks tackles. [Kyron Drones], a transfer from Baylor, is an athlete: big kid, 240 pounds almost, he can run. Their receivers have made a lot of plays. [Jaylin Lane] and [Da'Quan Felton] are both guys that stand out. The tight end, [Dae'Quan Wright], is a really good athlete. They do a lot. It's a big adjustment game. Over half their plays on offense involve a motion or a shift. They make you use your rules. Defensively, we’ve got to have really good eye discipline and communicate at a high level. They test your back end with what they do. When you play a team that does all these things and can run their quarterback, your defense has to do a great job with their rules. They’ve got to tackle well, get off blocks, plus-one runs with the quarterback.
On defense, their front is impressive. They've got a good defensive line. They always have. Their boundary defensive end, [Antwaun Powell-Ryland], is a Florida transfer. He’s tied in the NCAA lead in sacks with nine sacks. He makes a lot of plays for them. Their inside guys are good football players. Two of them have been there a long time. Mario Kendricks, we recruited heavily here. [Norell] Pollard, he was one of Charley Wiles' guys. They're both really good players. [Pheldarius] Payne is a kid that we recruited hard out of junior college. He went to Nebraska, now transferred there. He's a good football player. He’s really twitchy and tough. I love their safety, [Nasir Peoples]. I think he's a really physical guy. He makes a lot of plays and has great range in the back end. Both of their corners are making plays. They're the number one pass defense right now in the league.
It's going to be a great game. I'm excited to get to go play against a team that's playing well in a great environment. I know they always have tremendous special teams there as well. Going back to Coach [Frank] Beamer. It's something that they take a great amount of pride in. It's no different now. You can see that they play hard, and they work hard at it. It’s a good challenge. I’m looking forward to continuing the journey on the road. It’s another senior day for another program. We know we're going to get their best.
If facing Marshall’s run-oriented offense will help prepare for the Hokies...
They're different offenses, but we have faced mobile quarterbacks here. Clemson’s [Cade Klubnik] was mobile as well. We've seen a lot of them over the years. This guy's big and athletic. A little different. Marshall's [Cam Fancher] was smaller and really quick. We've seen our share of them. The guys will be ready.
On what he attributes to Narveson’s misses versus Wake Forest...
I think it was an off day. The first one was a 54-yarder into the wind. That would have been a tough make regardless. That second one, he didn't get it right. It's just one of those deals. Like I said, he bounced back. He's a vet. It'll motivate him. It’s better to have misses in a game like that than one where you need them to win the game, so it was good timing for that.
On Scott stepping up in the last few games...
He's really playing well. Coming out of the bye week, there were some things he wanted to improve on. To his credit, he's done that. He's playing fast. We've talked about perspective and a guy that waited his turn. Now, he knows that the clock's running out, and he's playing like that. It's fun, as a coach, when your seniors play their best football as time runs out. You're seeing that with Savion, too. Those two guys are playing really good football for us right now.
On how defense has grown in last few weeks
They’re limiting explosive plays for scores. That was an area that hurt us up until the bye week. Duke had a couple of them. Notre Dame had a couple of them. When you give up a big play, it's one thing, but when it's points on the board, you can't recover from that. They've done a great job of that. That's contested coverage and tackling. That's what that's attributed to. The guys have done a really good job in those two areas. Our red-zone defense has gotten better. You saw the goal line stand. You’ve seen us deny a couple of drives into the red zone and hold people to field goals or less. That's the goal. We really put a premium on two things: scoring defense and takeaways. I think the guys have done a great job of zeroing in on that and how to do that.
On seeing Scott’s teammates block for him on the pick-two...
That was awesome. They were smart blocks, too. No things on the edge, and nothing cheap. The guys understand the game. They’re playing smart, hustling, playing for each other, pulling for a guy that they want to see play well. It's awesome.
On the similarities between the Hokies and the Wolfpack overcoming adversity this season...
Both have similarities. Both teams have had quarterback changes. I don't have it memorized; I know they were 2-3 at one time, maybe 2-4. They've really done a good job turning it around. You’ve got to give them a lot of credit. I don't know if you can compare us and them that way — both go through different things — but I think both these programs are blue-collar, tough, hard-nosed programs. I think the DNA of NC State, from a football program standpoint, and what they've built at Virginia Tech — all those years of Coach Beamer, the lunch pail, how they come to work — there's a lot of similarities in that. I wouldn't expect any less. It's a tough program with tough kids. I know Coach Pry comes from that background. He was a part of that. He'll do the same. You can see that that's showing. They're playing hard. He's got a good team.
On Michael Allen's status...
I saw him in the weight room a little bit ago. I don't have a report on where we're at for the game or any of that, but he was in there working out with the guys. That's a good sign. We'll get our injury report here at 2:30. We'll have a little more information then.
On increasing rarity of coaches making it several years at one school in NIL- and transfer-portal-centric era...
It's sad and interesting at the same time. [Texas A&M’s Jimbo Fisher] gets a $70 million-plus payout at one school, and [Mississippi State’s Zach Arnett] that wasn't even there a season [gets fired]. It's a different world. College football has changed a lot. Those two things are a part of it. I think the world, in general, expects things to happen really fast. There's not a lot of patience anymore. Coach [Dave] Clawson said this to me before the game. We were talking about how our team was playing, and he said, “You've built a program, not a team. That's why you're able to overcome what you guys went through.” That meant a lot to me that he said it. I thought a lot about that statement. It takes time to build a program. It's not something you can do overnight. You're going to join a new place wherever you go, if you're a new coach. Everybody there is not going to understand what you want to build right away. It takes time. You’ve got to be able to dig in and have an AD and a chancellor or president that's willing to dig in with you. You’ve got to get results. You got to show results somewhat quickly which we were able to do here in that second year. We went from three wins to eight wins from year one to year two. You’ve got to be consistent. One thing we've done here is that. We're going to our ninth bowl game here in 11 years. You have to be able to provide those kind of results. It’s a results business. You know that as a coach when you go somewhere. You’ve got to do your job. You’ve got to do it fast and do it well. You need to have alignment in leadership that wants it done the same way that you want to do it.
On three consecutive weeks with any drops from his wide receivers...
Knock on wood. The guys are doing a great job framing the football, watching the ball touch their fingertips, tucking it away. The quarterbacks are throwing catchable balls to guys. They're not all easy. Dacari [Collins] had a heck of a catch, jumping up, elevating, and twisting. That was a great play. You can see his eyes go up and watch the ball in his hands. A lot of drops happen when guys take their eyes off their hands to start the running process or brace themselves for contact. We really worked hard on that: framing the catch, getting that ball in our hands before we do anything else. It's back to the basics. We really made a big deal about that coming out of the bye week. The guys have bought into that.
On Concepcion’s first run giving the offense a jolt of energy...
We had a good time in the team room watching that play. [Pennix] definitely could have turned around and gotten [Chelen Garnes]. I think he was trying to do the best he could, running full speed. It helps. Explosive plays are momentum plays. K.C. is a guy that's been the explosive player for us this year. It doesn't matter who it is, though. If anyone has a big play, if you look at drives that score in college football, there's usually an explosive play involved in those drives. It happens a lot. For us, we’re no different than any other team. When we get one, there's momentum that comes with that. The defense, all of a sudden, is on their heels. You can take advantage of that in a lot of drives.
On the former VT coaches on his staff compare to the current Hokies’ assistants...
Coach Wiles was there 26 years there. Brian Mitchell was there. They're four-down, so that's the same, but it's not the same Bud Foster defense, design-wise. It's not all the invert quarters or invert halves that they did, and the amount of bear defense with the free safety really being an extra hat in the box. They're still playing tight, man-to-man coverage. You can see that. There's more quarters, zone, and cover three zone blitz. There's press and press bail in the secondary. There's some cover two. It's definitely Brent's defense and [Chris Marve’s]. The biggest thing you see is that they play really hard. That's something they've done a long time at Virginia Tech. Coach Foster started that a long time ago. That's their standard of play. You can see that the guys have continued that.
If they’ll be able to see what Blacksburg has to offer...
If there's something good to eat, Coach Wiles knows where it's at. I promise you that. He's definitely a guy that enjoys a good meal with good friends, but no, it'll be a business trip. We'll be there in our hotel. Hopefully, the hotel will have good food for us. We'll enjoy the brotherhood we have with the staff and the players, get up, and go play a 3:30 game.
On playing North Carolina during the last week of the season...
I love playing them in the last game of the year. I think it's awesome. That's where that game belongs. It's rivalry weekend. It's been great. I've been here 11 years. We didn't always do it that way. It's way better being the last game of the year, in my opinion.