Dave Doeren: "You Can Tell They're Ready to Play"
NC State head coach Dave Doeren met with the media Thursday afternoon ahead of the Wolfpack's upcoming matchup versus Virginia Tech.
NOTE: Click on the video in the player above to watch Doeren’s press conference.
On this week’s practices…
It’s been a great week, a really good week of practice, especially today. It’s a beautiful day, for one, but the guys had really good energy, executed well, and you can tell they’re ready to play.
On the opening drive versus Wake Forest setting the tone for the rest of the game…
It helps when you can get a lead and, particularly, build confidence early. It helps. For our defense to be able to play with a lead is nice for them. They haven’t had that a ton. When we got up two scores and then three scores, it changes what you're defending at that point. I don't expect that in this game; it's going to be a hard-fought, four-quarter game. In that game, that was huge to be able to do that, and that was the key to winning that game: to be able to have three-and-outs on defense and long drives on offense because of the way they run their system at Wake. This is a different opponent, so obviously, it’s two teams that are really, really tough on a lot of scrimmage. It's evenly matched. We have 30 sacks; they have 31. They've given up 22; we’ve given up 21. [You look at] yards per carry and our defensive rushing stats against theirs. It’s going to be an old-fashioned football game. I’m excited about it.
On both teams coming into the game hot…
They've played well. They played really well last week against Boston College, and it’s senior day, and their crowd is going to be awesome. It’s going to be a great environment, and our whole team is excited about it.
On what makes NC State’s defense special…
Well, it’s our defense. Tony [Gibson] does a great job with the guys. His position coaches do a great job for him. They play 11-man football. Those guys play hard for each other. They execute. They understand. He does a great job of building off of looks, disguising things, showing things from one side and coming from another, and then bailing out and changing calls when he needs to. We've been in this system now for three years, and I think there's a lot of reps banked, too, which helps. They are playing really well. There are two more weeks here in the regular season, and we’d love to see them finish it.
On Gibson growing as a coach…
You become a coordinator, and then the guys start to get to know your personality. He’s recruited some of these guys here now. He inherited what was here and then groomed those guys like Payton [Wilson] and then added guys like Bishop [Fitzgerald] and Red [Hibbler]. You put your brand on it the longer you're at a school, and he's done a great job. There's really good continuity on the defensive staff, too. Those guys have been together this entire time. They can finish each other's sentences in that room, and that's very helpful as a play caller. Those guys know kind of what's going on in your head, what you're going to be doing next, and thinking ahead for you sometimes: “Last time, he did this, and he's probably going here." They can help him in their position rooms differently maybe than if you're a first year coach and assistant.
On Wilson named as a Nagurski Award finalist…
Everything that he's listed on, he has earned. As you can see, the stats don't lie. Thankfully, Annabelle [Myers] and our marketing team have done a great job telling his story and getting all that out there. Definitely, people know who he is now, and what he's done isn't just the best that you've seen in NC State; his numbers are better than anyone else in the country. This is a national player that's played against really good talent this season. We've played against a bunch of top ranked teams, and he's played really well against Notre Dame, played really well against Louisville and these teams that are ranked high, played really well against Clemson, played really well against Miami. Not only has he done it, but he's done it against teams that are top 20 teams. He deserves where he's at, and I hope that voters put him in first place on some of these things. It's been a great story, too: the things he's had to endure and overcome injury-wise. Nobody's more deserving than him.
If there’s anything about Wilson that’s surprised him…
You guys have heard a lot of him. Probably the biggest thing that I've seen change is just how he leads. I don't know if he's talked about this or not, but his biggest fear was public speaking. It scared him to death, and now he's very good at it. He's grown a lot in that area of his life as well, and that comes through confidence and repetition.
On Joe Shimko’s giving back to the community through his work with Gigi’s Playhouse…
They fundraised a lot of a lot of money for Gigi’s, and for a college-age person, we’re talking $30,000, $35,000... What a difference maker. His legacy as a long snapper, people don't notice him, and that's great because that means he’s really good, but he's noticed in the community, and he's changed lives in our community for two years. That will be felt in Raleigh for a long, long time. I’m super proud of Joe.
On making defense cool in an era where rule changes tend to benefit the offense…
It's challenging now with RPOs, linemen downfield, the way that sometimes officiating goes with touching guys in coverage. It is hard. The strike zone's gotten smaller and smaller. I saw a really cool graphic about Terry Bradshaw yesterday about his career, how many plays he played, how many snaps, and wins. "By the way, there was no roughing the passer. By the way, there was no strike zone. There was no targeting." Things are harder on defense right now. Savion [Jackson] got called for roughing the passer which would have been probably all the wimpy hit back in the day. Back then, guys would clothesline quarterbacks. It's changed a lot. This is a place you want to come and play defense. This system is aggressive. It's multiple. It's productive. The stats don’t lie, and the kids have fun. The kids are flying around, having a good time.
On Wilson aiding younger players like Caden Fordham…
That's something you want your players to do. Your legacy and handing the torch down, you go back to Isaiah Moore, Drake Thomas, Payton Wilson, now handing it down to Caden and the guys that have come underneath him: Kamal Bonner, Kelvon McBride, and some kids coming in I can't talk about. That's their responsibility: to set a standard in the room, and make sure that that standard doesn't drop when they leave. We had that for a long time in the receiver room, and that’s something I want to get back. We had Steph Louis handing it down to Jakobi Meyers, Kelvin Harmon, Emeka Emezie, and Devin Carter. [They held] that standard of what that room should be. In each year, you want that thing to go down to the next guy, and then that guy has to hold up his end of the bargain. It's something you take a lot of pride in as a player. It’s something that a coach can't make happen. The players have to really, really make that happen in the rooms. In the linebacker room, that's happening. I know our defensive line is doing a good job of that right now as well, and you can see that.
On the high school playoffs…
Playoffs are awesome. For your seniors, man, each game could be their last game, some of them their last game ever since they won’t play in college. It's super meaningful for those young men, and 12 months later, you don't know what your freshman year. You might be a redshirt if you're playing in college, you could have an unfortunate injury, or you could be a freshman All-American. You don’t know. The journey is different for every guy, and that's one thing I would say. Stars don't dictate the journey either. There are two-star kids that play really early, there's five-star kids that don’t, and vice versa. Sometimes, people get caught up in the rankings. The transition from high school to college, whether it's academics or athletics, is way different than people understand. Some guys can make that transition seamlessly like K.C. [Concepcion] is, and some guys can’t, and that's okay. Each guy has got to understand that comparison is the thief of all joy. You've got to take your journey as your journey and one day at a time. I hope that we get some more guys coming in here that want to play early like K.C. This is a place where you can make a difference, and our systems allow you to play that way.
On Dacari Collins’ growth over the last few weeks…
Dacari and Anthony Smith are two guys that I talked to the team about. They were in the bottom, and they worked, worked, worked, worked, worked, just kept grinding and letting us coach them. They didn’t pout. They didn't complain. Because of that, now they're playing a ton. Dacari's playing a lot, and I’m very proud of him. We’ve just got to stay on these guys: “Now that you've gotten the reps, you can't forget how you got them. You can't not relax." It's a great story of a guy who transferred in, expected things to be a certain way, and quickly found out, “No, I've got to earn it here." To his credit, he's dug in, and he's taken a bunch of criticism constructively from us, demanding, oriented a standard we felt like he could live up to, and he is now. He's benefiting, and so are we, from that partnership.
On going into Virginia Tech’s environment…
It's going to be a great challenge and a great opportunity. I have incredible respect for the program that Coach [Frank] Beamer built and respect for Brent [Pry] in how he's picked it back up. I know he's emulating a lot of things Coach Beamer instilled in that program. As a young coach watching what Coach Beamer did on special teams in college football — he was a groundbreaking coach when it came to how he attacked people in that area — I've always been somebody that loves attacking the punt team, rushing constant, attacking punters. He was a coach in my life that, even though he didn't know this, I was like, "Wow, look at what this guy's doing in football on special teams. He's changing the game." I studied a lot of Virginia Tech film as a young coach. I had great respect for them, and then watching their offense, it’s pretty old school, and Michael Vick changes college football on offense in a way with what he did. That's a program that I have great respect for. Their fan base, the way that they support their team, the way that they make that stadium feel on game day, it's going to be fun. Our players are really excited to be a part of that.
On Rakeim Ashford and Devon Betty growing after having newborns…
This was Rak’s second, and so I really haven't seen a change in him that way. He's been dealing with the injuries on top of that. Man, what a tough year for him, and I feel so empathetic for what Rak's going through, not because of the birth of his second child, but because of the injuries in his last year of college football. For Betty, it’s been a complete change in lifestyle. Fatherhood has been a big deal for him. He’s never a guy that was out social and all that. He’s always been mature, but the gratitude he has for life is different now. His perspective is different. I tell this to all my players that are about to have children: The first time you hold your child for the first time, your first child in particular, the whole world stops spinning in that split second. As you look at your child for that minute or second, it feels like a long time, but everything about the world changes when you hold your child for the first time. I always tell them that: “Make sure, in that minute, to just stop and really reflect," and I know he did. We had a cool conversation after that. It's cool being a part of their journey and helping them, and they both handled it the way you would hope they would.