Dave Doeren: "It's Supposed to Be an Emotional Game"
No. 22 NC State head coach Dave Doeren met with the media via Zoom following the Wolfpack's 39-20 win over North Carolina Saturday evening.
NOTE: Click on the video in the player above to watch Doeren’s press conference.
Opening Statement
It's been one heck of a five-week window. I’m super proud of our players and our coaches. It was a great job by our fanbase tonight. They were phenomenal; thank you for that. It was special for our seniors. Thank you for being in there for their send off and cheering the way you did during the game. This is a statement win. Everything I asked these kids to do, they did: control the clock, win the turnover margin, be the most physical team in the stadium, and no matter what, just keep playing. The guys were banged up, Brennan [Armstrong] being one of them [as was] K.C. [Concepcion]. They played with heart. They played harder than the team across the field. That's three in a row [against North Carolina] right there. It's been over [1,100] days since they beat us. That's a pretty awesome thing to be able to do because that's a good football team with a good coaching staff. I'm proud of our guys and our coaches for that. It put us in a great position: 9-3, five straight [wins], momentum, rankings, and all that. I’m really excited and proud. It's been a crazy year. I need some time off. It's been a crazy year. I couldn't be more proud of what happened tonight. The efforts and the storylines behind some of the things that happened will come out as things go during the week. Brennan didn't throw a ball in practice all week. For him to come out and play like that says a lot about him and his toughness, [and so did] the way the kids played around him, the way we started the game on defense, the way our special teams played throughout the game.
On the team turning the corner after the Duke loss and if this was his best coaching season...
It was a pivotal moment in the season. We were right at a point where we needed to really commit. We weren't at that time. I think guys were doubting things and deservedly so. As a coach, I had to really, really think hard about what we needed to do and put a plan in place. Came up with some really firm things that I wanted to see happen in all three phases of the game. You've seen them. You've seen what happened. We started huddling. I felt like we were disconnected on offense and wanted to connect. Talked about being efficient. I asked the coaches to get rid all the plays that are inefficient and look at all the ones that are efficient. Look at who makes plays and get them the ball more. Focus on not turning the football over. On defense, get rid of explosive plays for touchdowns. Care about two things: scoring defense and takeaways. On special teams, keep flipping the field. Make plays. Play complimentary football. You saw that as time went on in the five weeks. We had a lot of other things going on, too. The brotherhood of this team is special. It's unique. I would love to win 10 with them. To be that team that does that because they deserve to have that legacy item. We'll get there when we get there. Tonight I want to have a good time. Relax with my family and my friends and go enjoy this one. As a leader, I was challenged. I was put in a tough spot. If you've learned anything about me in my time here, I like being challenged. I like biting when people are doubting me. There was a lot of doubt. It was one of those things where you had to fight for your players. You had to fight for yourself. We did that very well. As far as ranking it, I'm not going to do that. That's somebody else's job to decide how good my coaching was. I know that I did the best that I could. I thank the Lord for His strength in me during this time. I definitely leaned into him and felt his strength. These players and these coaches deserve a lot of that credit, too.
On how he’s seen the offense grow...
It starts with not beating ourselves. We were having penalties. We were dropping passes. We were turning the football over. That's how we lost three games. We stopped doing that. When you get out of your own way, it's a lot easier to play the game. As coaches we did a better job. Robert [Anae] was trying to find what we are as an offense. To his credit, he figured it out. The kids bought into the changes. I've said this a long time. I think publicly people make too big a deal out of one loss and the beginning of the season. It's a long year. A lot happens. November is a pretty important month. I'm now [12-4] in the month of November since 2020. That says a lot about how we finish around here. The type of job that we do throughout the year to continue to get better. Developing players. You saw Kamal Bonner on a kickoff tonight. That was his fourth game as a freshman. He had a huge tackle inside the 10. Isaiah Shirley moves from defense to offense. Jordan Poole moves from defense to offense. K.C.'s playing running back. Guys are doing whatever it takes to win. That's an unselfish sign in a program. That's what we're about. You try to preach what it is to be a part of a team of 125 players and 75 staff. Two hundred moving pieces. All these distractions out there, the negativity. The illegal crap going on in recruiting. People trying to poach our players. Trying to keep it all together through all of it. It's hard. It's really hard. I'm proud of how this thing turned out. Now we get into the worst week in college football coming up with the portal and all that other stuff. For all you folks that want us to keep winning, I would tell you to get on Savage Wolves. Find that link. I'd love to see 5,000 people donate $1,000 to our NIL. Get us to a point where we can recruit, retain and develop. Have a program in the NIL world where the guys on our roster are able to benefit from that. I think in this space right now, there's a lot of bad stuff happening. There needs to be a financial commitment from our fan base to Savage Wolves, Pack of Wolves and our NIL deals so that we can take care of these kids that play so hard for us."
On what this win means for the team and for him personally...
It means everything to me to win for the seniors. That game for Payton Wilson and all the other seniors that are out there with him. There's 13 guys that don't get to play in that stadium again. It means a lot. I'm thankful that we got to play a night game. I have not played Carolina night on a Saturday in our stadium. We've had Friday night games. That was special to have that. It means the world. Those rivalry games are huge. They're huge to our fans. They're huge to our alumni. We had a ton of former players back tonight. It was awesome to see some of those guys. Get hugs from them and see them and hang out with them. It's what college football really is. It's sad when you see some of these rivalries getting dissolved because of conference realignments. That game with us and Carolina is an important game. It's the oldest rivalry in the ACC. It goes back a long way. I have great respect for Mack Brown and his program. To be able to say that we've beaten them now three years ago is very meaningful to NC State and to Wolfpack Nation. I know Chancellor [Randy] Woodson is fired up. He texted me before the game; he had his hand on the red light: “I expect that thing will be burning.”
On the early aerial assault against the Tar Heel defense...
We've had a lot of different things involved in this offense. When you get in the game and you see who you're playing against, sometimes it changes. We had some matchups that were in our favor. We looked at who was playing in their secondary tonight compared to who we had at receiver. We thought we could take advantage of that. When we saw who was playing, especially on K.C. at times, “Let's go get him.” I asked the coaches to be aggressive in this game. To me, the players follow our lead. First play of the game was a blitz on defense, and we came after them... three-and-out. Offensively, I thought we really did a good job in the first half of controlling the time of possession and being physical, run and pass.
If that strategy took away the Tar Heels' running attack...
Yeah, it does. We call it, “the cycle of death.” When you play these fast tempo teams, if they go three-and-out, then you have a five-minute drive and score, then they come out and go three-and-out again, and then you go five minutes again and score, that wears out their defense. Over time, their offense is over there not doing anything. Our offense is wearing them down, wearing them down, wearing them down. Our defense is staying fresh. When you get into the second half, you can see that we were able to make plays when we needed to make them on defense.
On the players balancing emotion and composure...
I told the players I wanted them to be emotional in this game. I wanted them to use their emotions, not lose their emotions. There's a difference in that. I also told them to get UNC to the brink where they would get penalties. Get those guys in that state. Be physical. Within the rules, go after them. I call it a NASCAR mentality. You drive that racecar as fast as you can. You come around those turns, but you don't crash the car. You play hard and fast. You play with emotion. That's what this game is supposed to be. It's supposed to be an emotional game. You're out there trying to impose your will on another man, and you're being judged for it on national television. You can't do that without emotion. It's not about emotion; it's about how to use it. That's one thing I think we do a great job of here: training our players in chaos, teaching them how not to go to that state where they cross the line.