Dave Doeren: "It's Going to Take Every Minute and Every Second"
NC State head coach Dave Doeren met with the media to discuss his team leading up to the big matchup against Tennessee.
NOTE: Click the video above to watch the interview.
“The guys have been really intentional about correcting things from first week’s film. That’s the best thing about having game film. You know what you did well. What you didn’t do well, you know. If you had some tendencies, [you know] what they are, whether it’s stances, splits, formations, or alignments on defense. You can work on how to fix those things. It’s a lot of information, and the guys have been intentional and focused about getting better, and that was the goal. We have to be a fundamentally better football team than we were last year to play better. I’m excited about what I’ve seen on the field so far, and we’ve got 48 hours of good mental stuff coming up with the guys to polish the mental piece of the game plan.”
“It helps. There’s no doubt. An offense like theirs can score a lot of points. The complementary football of uptempo opponents is important: the conversion downs on both sides and creating attainable conversion downs. When you talk about the importance of third down — and it is important — but creating third-and-shorts on offense, third-and-longs on defense, and then winning those because the odds are stacked in your favor when you’re on defense for a third-and-long versus a third-and-short and vice versa... It’s the offense setting up the defense with long drives that end with kicks, the defense getting off the field creating good third downs, and special teams creating good field position. To win a game against an opponent who can score like Tennessee, you have to play really good complementary football, and if you can do it from the jump, it really helps. As you know, it’s going to take every minute and every second of this football game.”
“Being in Charlotte’s great. We have 20 players on our roster from there. It’s always been a critical area in the state for all the teams that recruit here, in particular for us. Playing there — a couple things — you get to be in a pro stadium, and all of these guys grow up wanting to be NFL players, so they get exposure of a pro stadium. You get to be in a different city in your own state; that really matters in recruiting. You get to play a really good opponent from a great conference that touches our state. There’s a great rivalry there between the fan bases. It’s going to be a lot of fun.”
“Fundamentals. Guys maybe were stepping underneath themselves on a play, not gaining six inches on their first step, so that’s been talked about with that player. Another guy’s hand was too far here, and we want it more on that side. Details of blocking, not just the front, but what happens when the front moves, what happens when this linebacker adds in, the end doesn’t squeeze; he goes upfield, and they replace him with a linebacker… The more reps you get in football, the more muscle memory you get. It’s really good to have game film because going against the scout team is great, but when you understand how important it is to do it right, do it right, do it right, then it applies in a game, or do it wrong, do it wrong in practice, what happens on game day is that you do it wrong. We build habits in football every day, winning habits and losing habits. That’s why game film is so critical. For some of these guys, 20-plus guys are in their first game. It’s their first opportunity to be coached by this staff after a football game, so there are a lot of things that are new for them, and I’m glad we’re getting them into that routine so they understand how we do our work.”
“[Grayson McCall] is hard on himself. He’s super competitive. At the same time, he goes to the next play. That’s rare. Some guys are just flatlined the whole time; nothing fazes them. He gets excited. He has charisma. When he makes a play, when a guy makes a play for him, when there’s physicality, he celebrates that with those guys. When he makes a mistake, he gets mad at himself, but he gets to the next play really fast. I really respect that about him.”
“No, I think it’s good. Being tested is a good thing. Showing that you can come back from adversity is a good thing. Western Carolina was the No. 1 offense in FCS in seven categories a year ago, so I wouldn’t discredit what they did last year on offense. I agree; Tennessee is a really good offense, too, and it’s going to be the receiving corps, the number of receivers that roll into the game, the backs that they have, and the number of backs. They have a lot of good players. Their depth is different than the team we played last week, and their quarterback played really well last week. The defense has a great opportunity to play against a really good offense, and we think our defense is pretty good, too, so I look forward to the matchup.”
“We’ll find out Saturday, right? Of course we do. That’s why we practice. That’s why we scheme. It’s why these kids work. We’re out there practicing. I thought we had a really good day yesterday; I haven’t seen that film yet. The guys made a bunch of interceptions running around. We had a bunch of high speed on the field. Their energy was exceptional. I like what we’re seeing on the practice field.”
“They were ninth in the country in rushing last year. What makes them different: they’re spacing their offense, so there are more people removed, so you have fewer guys in the box to stop the run. They don’t have a lot of schemes. Their guys are really good at blocking the things they do, so they get good at seeing every look up front. Their quarterback can run, so that adds another element. Some of the rushing yards aren’t run plays; they’re drop-back passes that he makes rushing yards out of. It’s a really good offense. I have a lot of respect for what he does and how he does it. For us, we’ve got to be really good on first and second down. Those offenses: first down, first down, first down… The tempo just goes, and so we’ve got to get them off-schedule. That’s easy to say, but that's really what you have to do in these games. You’ve seen us do it in the past, and in those games, we’ve had success.”
“I think we had 19 explosive plays in the game, and it would've been above 20 which I don’t think we’ve ever had. [McCall] was behind K.C. [Concepcion] on an over route, he missed Keenan [Jackson] on a post, and we had a touchdown called back that was explosive. It’s great to see, and that’s what I was hoping we’d see because we added skill to the offense at every position, so there are guys that can do things after the catch. It’s one thing to run the football or throw a completion; it’s another when the guy turns those into explosives because he doesn’t get tackled by the first player. It’s something we put a lot of effort into.”
“Just [Caden Fordham’s] experience. Jayland Parker stepped in and played really well, but Caden’s played more football. He has more knowledge and game experience to lean back on. You're going to be more confident when you’ve played more football. You can talk to the guys around you more because you understand what’s happening. You gain a leader on the field that has status in the room as that. Losing your mike is similar to losing your quarterback. It’s a big loss when your guys goes out on play five. We’re excited to have him back in the lineup.”
“There’s been a huge emphasis on it. It rips my heart out when you don’t get fourth-and-one. To me, that’s a down-and-distance that is a personal down-and-distance. As a guy that blocked for a living as a college player, when you call fourth-and-one, you’re like, ‘Hell yeah, coach. Let’s go.’ You owe it to the coaches that put the trust in you to get that down and distance. It wasn’t like we weren’t trying. We weren’t playing with good enough technique, and you can see it on film; guys are false-stepping, and we’re not getting off the ball with proper leverage. We put a ton of emphasis on short yardage in this game, not just for Tennessee but for the season. That’s a down-and-distance at midfield that you need to go for it. Every chart in the world is going to tell you to do that. When you can afford a yard-line, that’s what you do. If we get to fourth-and-one, we need to be successful.”
“We know they’re in the SEC. We're not going to spend time on that. We talked more about how we have to play to win the football game. It’s not about them. Everyone makes it about who we’re playing. We’re going to know these guys just like they’re going to know us, but for us to win the game, we have to do what we do. We have to execute. We have to play at a high level. We have to play 11-man football. We have to have a lot more emphasis on us when it comes to executing and winning. A lot of games are lost in all that talk about who you're playing. It’s more about our guys doing things the way the coaches do it at a high level, in sync, 11 guys, every play, stacking 11-man football every play. That’s the emphasis for this game.”
“Absolutely. We started playing together, getting off the field on third down on defense, staying on the field [on offense], scoring touchdowns, breaking tackles, and finishing drives. We stopped shooting ourselves in the foot with little things, and it wasn’t penalties; we played pretty clean in that way, with the exception of the lineman downfield. There were no pre-snap penalties on either side of the football. We caught the football well. It’s more about all these guys doing it together.”
“It was hard on [Fordham]. He worked really hard this offseason to be a leader and improved himself with stamina and his knowledge of the defense. These guys care a lot about winning, so when you take yourself out of the game, it’s hard. When you hit a quarterback anywhere in the head, there’s a yellow flag coming out. That’s how it’s called now, and you know the rules. We’ve got to play by them. The sliding play for the quarterback is a challenging play in football. It really is. As a player, you have to do everything you can to avoid when you see that guy going down.”
“It helps. Ja’Had [Carter] was an All-American two years ago. He’s a really good defensive back. He’s played a lot of good football. He’s covered a lot of good receivers in his time. He’s an experienced guy. He’s hungry. He didn’t play last year a lot, so he’s hungry to get on that field. We’re excited that he’s healthy, and we look forward to seeing him in the lineup."