Dave Doeren: "This Will Be a Game With a Lot of Adjusting"
NC State head coach Dave Doeren met with the media Thursday afternoon ahead of the Wolfpack's upcoming matchup versus Louisiana Tech.
NOTE: Click on the video in the player above to watch Doeren’s press conference.
On how the team bounced back from the loss to Tennessee…
They were upset and resilient coming back from the loss. There's been a lot of good things said by the players, and we definitely had really good speed in practice on Tuesday and Wednesday. That's one thing you can chart to see where our top ends have been compared to other weeks. Guys were flying around. It’s first real game week where we’ve had a normal Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday to get ready. We had the elongated period for the first game, obviously, and an extra couple days of coming out of the second, so to get back into the normal game routine was a little bit on Tuesday for them, and I'm glad we now it's good to be in a routine with these guys, and I like the resiliency of the team. Now it's time to prove it.
On Louisiana Tech’s 3-3-5 defensive scheme…
There's similarities, obviously, with the personnel being 3-3-5, but the cover scheme, the alignments, and the pressures are all different than our defense. Their D-coordinator has been doing it a long time, so you can go back, watch his film at other schools, and kind of see the DNA. He does a good job. It's very sound. These guys know where to line up. They play hard. It's one thing going from four-down fronts to three-man fronts, and you never see it. We see it every day, so there is carryover in how we block certain looks and things like that.
On facing two quarterbacks…
These two guys aren't that different, as far as what they play like. Obviously, they started a backup for reason, but it's not like one of them's a drop back guy and one of them's Lamar Jackson, right? Like, you have two guys that run a similar style of offense, so it's not as different as it would be if they were completely different athletically. What makes this more unique, which I said earlier in the week, is that it's game three with one game of theirs on film. Usually by game three, you've got a little bit more information, and in today's age with so many new players — they have eight new transfer starters on defense — you just don't have the film that you normally would. This will be a game, with them having a bye and us not, with a lot of adjusting.
On players meeting of their own volition…
I'm real happy. One of the things I get to do with captains and with guys that want to lead better is have these one-on-one talks, and a lot of the time, it’s, “Coach, what do you think I should do? What's a good way for me to help this player? What do you think I need to say?” For me, it’s, “Well, what do you think needs to be said?” Sometimes, it's something that needs to be said with just those guys in the room so that they can go into certain things that they don't want to say, maybe, in front of the staff about themselves, and call each other up, challenge each other, and get on the same page. That's healthy. It's really healthy. Davin [Vann] asked if he could do that. "Heck yeah!" That's something that's happened here for years, and I think it's a healthy thing on a football team. It's not always after a loss. Sometimes, you win a big game, and you can feel the guys are feeling themselves, and they need to remind them what it takes to win. That's a captain's responsibility: to know when it's time to step on this platform and talk.
On being vulnerable with the players…
It's talking about your life away from being a football player, more than anything: what your hardships are, what's your heroes, what's going on in your life, things that are going on with you as a person, bringing stories up from your past. It's something we do as coaches with them as well. I think that just creates a different relationship, and it's not just football. We're very intentional about not just doing that when it's scheduled, but allowing these guys when they need an opportunity to talk. You can read these guys, and they can read us. There's times where you want to vent and let things out, and so being at a space where you know you're going to be respected and loved for doing that is something that we cherish here.
On the growth of the on-field chemistry…
It's a work in progress. When you have 41, 42 new players, it's not something that you just snap your fingers and fix. You’ve got to have reps, and game reps are the most important when it comes to that because that's where you really see what's going on when the bullets are flying out there, per se. It's going to get better and better, and this is a team that has to improve each week, and that's what this week's about. It's about responding.
On Sean Hill…
Sean's a tremendous teammate, and he's a leader on campus outside of the football team with what he does between One Pack Empowered, what he does on our campus, what he does away from our campus, going to different things that he can go to learn and grow, and bringing ideas back to his teammates. He cares a lot about what's going on in that locker room. He cares about his brothers. He cares about his coaches. He's a tremendous young man, and it's great to see a guy that's not playing on game day, but his impact is felt throughout the locker room. You love seeing that in a player.
On team-building activities helping during adversity…
It’s time spent. You can invest money, obviously, but that's a short lived feeling. I think time and memories are long lasting when you invest time, and so being intentional about those things, where you have memories together, and you remember being in a bunkhouse in the middle of the woods, you remember things that you did. You laugh about those things. It just brings back locker room conversations, dining hall conversation: "Remember when we did this? Remember we did that?" Without those opportunities to grow and learn about each other, then what do you have? You have practice. You have meetings. I have to create life experiences for them outside where they get to know the ins and outs of who people are, and some of it's not good. Then you learn, “Hey, this guy needs to be more accountable. This guy is not doing what's asked of him." You learn about these guys. [The coaches] don't play the game. They play the game, and they have to be able to hold each other to a standard on that football field. The leadership, every year, changes, and last year we had a young man that did that really well for us in Payton [Wilson]. Now, these four captains are in that situation, and it's their opportunity, and I'm excited to see them take a hold of what they can, go out there, play well, and lead well.
On the coaching staff’s collective experience…
You can lean on what you've learned over time. We've all, in this business, failed. We've all, in this business, succeeded. You can go back to, “This happened this year, and this is what we did. It didn't work. This is what we did, and it did work.” We have a great room of coaches that has a lot of information when it comes to how to handle situations, and those talks are valuable for me. This is a program that has always responded, and so that's the challenge that we and the coaches have: a lot of these guys haven't been here. It's easy for me just to say that. Like, you have to show them what that means. You have to teach them what that means. The guys that have their blood in the bricks here, that have been here for a long period of time, have to help their teammates understand.
On the entertainment complex plans…
I haven't seen it. I've heard a lot about it. I’m excited about it. Obviously, having a space over here that not just helps the game day atmospheres for hockey, basketball, and football, but also when we bring recruits on campus, and then you have a lively outdoor center with different places you can take them. It’s great. I don't know when it's going to be finished, and to be honest with you, it's the last thing I'm thinking about right now.
On making in-game adjustments…
For us, it does [help]. You're able to diagnose [snap] like that what's going on, and so you can try to make real-time changes in what's going on. “We're fitting this wrong. We need to fit it like this.” You can immediately make those corrections, and you still have to execute. I do love the information that you have, but there is no “Oh my gosh, I wish I would have known that” which happens because this game goes fast. Your offense and defense, sometimes it's a turnover in one play, and the defense doesn't have a lot of time, or vice versa: we get the interception, and the offense is right back out there. Being able to immediately diagnose the problem is really nice for a coach. For the players, it's just slowing it down, getting rid of the emotions from the last series, and being able to look at that plan and say, “Okay, here's what I’ve got to do better."