VIDEO + QUOTES: Dave Doeren's Weekly Quotebook

NC State head coach Dave Doeren met with the media via Zoom Monday afternoon to discuss the Wolfpack's loss to No. 17 Clemson and its upcoming matchup versus Northern Illinois.

NOTE: Click on the video in the player above to watch Doeren’s press conference.

Opening statement

Recapping the game with Clemson, it was a frustrating performance, to say the least, and there’s not much you can say when you're outplayed and out-coached the way that we were. As I said after the game, I take everything that happens on that football field personally. I feel the same frustration that I know a lot of our fans do and our players do. When you watch the film, there are several guys that are playing really hard, and there are several guys that aren't. A lot of positions are being evaluated. A lot of people are being challenged. It's going to be a competitive week. There are going to be positions that are going to change, and that's what competitive depth does. Guys have to understand the value and honor that it is to be out there in the red and white, and it's going to be a fun week of practice. I'm excited about going out, challenging guys, challenging each other, not throwing anyone away. Our job is to get players better and get them to play at a high level, and so far, we haven't done that as well as we'd like, obviously, with the 2-2 record. I do believe in the grit of this university. I believe in the grit of our staff, the discipline, and the toughness that it takes to go through a humiliating loss. It is what it is; you get up and you fight. That’s what you have: a coach that's going to fight, and as long as I'm breathing, I'm going to fight my ass off, and I'm going to get these kids to do the same.

When you lose the turnover margin in a football game, bad things happen. We were minus-three, two turnovers in the first quarter which is the opposite of how you play well at Clemson or at any good team's stadium. We needed to stop the run; we did not. We did not set edges. We did not turn the ball back the way that we need to, which puts other players in bad positions. We didn't tackle well. We didn't make plays on the ball, period, on that side of the football, and that's not what we're used to doing on defense. That's been a calling card for us, and nobody's more frustrated and upset about it than Coach [Tony] Gibson and his staff, and I know they'll get it fixed, and the players on that side of the ball need to do what it takes to get it fixed as well. It's an us thing. It's not a them; it's us. When you win, the team wins, and when you lose, your team loses. It always will be with me, we, us, and ours, but it is something you can fix, and you can fix it two ways. You go out on the field, and you work really hard at the fundamentals of what it's supposed to look like on both sides of the football and special teams.

Defensively, it's setting edges. It's executing calls. It's communicating at a high level. It's destroying blocks, tackling, executing with technique, playing with confidence, playing competitive coverage [with] coverage and pass rush working together. Defensive players' responsibility and value to the team is always how close they are to the football at the end of the play. It's playing with maximum effort and urgency to get there like you're the only guy on the field that could make that play. For years, I've seen that, and we didn't see it Saturday, and so we got to get back to playing that kind of ball on that side.

Offensively, we can't put our defense at risk. When you give them a short field to play on, it's tough to play good defense. We did that twice in the first quarter [on] two fumbles, once on a pass-rush fumble and once on a play where K.C. [Concepcion] was straining to get extra yards and needed to protect the ball. I am encouraged by our run game. It’s the fourth game in a row that our offensive line, tight ends, and backs have gotten better in the run game. We created rushing lanes. Our guys blocked hard on the perimeter. We averaged 4.8 yards a carry, 4.1 in the first half when they were playing their starters, but 4.8 on the game. Up front, we did a good job picking up blitzes and stunts in the run game and creating lanes. I thought our perimeter blocking was exceptional at times. C.J. [Bailey] couldn't ask for a tougher start for a freshman quarterback on the road with the crowd noise against a good football team that traditionally blitzes, stunts, and changes coverage like Clemson does. I thought CJ handled himself very well in his first start. It was a tough assignment. He managed the crowd noise. We didn't have any penalties. I've been down there with veteran quarterbacks that had delay of games, false starts, and with the line that couldn't hear the quarterback, and none of that happened. He did a great job. From that standpoint, he managed the clock. He had poise, and when things didn't go well, he responded and came right back in with confidence and made some good throws. The throw he made on the deep out, on the sprint out over the top of coverage was a beautiful pass. He gave us some chances on some deep balls where we end up getting three DPIs, and he'll get a lot better from that game, and so I'm proud of C.J. Also, he's got areas he's got to clean up, and there's things that he can do better, and those are the things we'll work on with him.

I was really disappointed in Anthony Belton's response. Things happen on the piles — all kinds of things happen in piles — and we all know as players, and Anthony knows is a player: the guy that responds and retaliates is always the one that gets penalized, and it’s a tough lesson for him. He put strain on our team and got ejected from the game for it, and he's learning a tough lesson. He won't start in this football game, and that's just not what we do. He'll learn from that, and he'll grow from that, and choices have consequences. That's something that he'll have to learn from, prove himself, come back from it, and be better for it, but that's not a representation of him. He's a great young man that made a bad mistake, and he'll pay for it, and our hope is he'll grow from it and get better. When things get heated, you've got to respond, not react, take that second, and take a breath.

On special teams, I felt like we're better in some areas. I thought our return game. Jalen Coit averaged 13 yards per return. He did some great things catching the football. Their punters sprayed it around, and none of those punts hit the ground. That saved us a lot of field position. Kanoah [Vinesett] missed a field goal that we had a high snap on. Our long snapper has to put it on the money every time so that our operation is smooth. I thought our punts were inconsistent. We can be better there. Our coverage units did a nice job. The one punt return they had, we had 3.2 second hang time, and we're trying to have four-plus second hang time. That puts your coverage at risk. All these things tie together.

Now, we’re on to Northern Illinois, obviously, a team I have history with and great respect for. I had two great seasons there. I have a lot of fond memories of Dekalb and the folks there, and some of them still work there. It's a great place. I think Thomas Hammock, their head coach, has done a really good job building a tough football team, and they're going to come in here and run the football. That's what they do. They have a lot of long-edge runs, multiple tight end sets, motions. They've got a really good running back. Obviously, they went to Notre Dame and won two games ago. They had a bye week after that, but it was an impressive win on the road. It’s a program that takes a lot of pride and beating Power Four football teams, and I was a part of that experience while I was there, and obviously we'll spend time educating our team on that.

This game is a lot about us. We have to respond the right way. We have eight games in this season remaining. There’s a lot of football on the table, a lot of things that we can do better, and I look forward to the opportunity to do that. It's time, in NC State fashion, to come together and fight. We understand what we need to do and how we need to do it, and that's where our focus will go. Our team leaders have to do a great job, and the players under them have to support them, play hard with them, and take strain off of them. It's an opportunity to face adversity and fight harder as a team, and it's a challenge I'm excited to face. I told the team this: I'm built for stuff like this, man. I love adversity. I love obstacles, and I'm going to battle and fight. Your team's going to fight.

I would ask our fans, as frustrated as they are, to fight with us. There's a lot of fair-weather people and bandwagon people out there in the world these days, and the Wolfpack needs to be the version that's not that way. I watched it last year with our team, and then it came back the right way. I watched it with our basketball team. This needs to be a group of people that supports these kids because they're going to fight, and having people behind you cheering for you helps. Trust me: all that enthusiasm, passion and spirit makes our stadium a hard place to play, and we share your frustration in a big way when we don't play well. Know that nobody's more disappointed than I am when that happens. You’re going to get our best, and it's going to be a dog fight, and that's a good football team coming here to play us this week.

Challenge laid, challenge accepted. I look forward to the challenge and the opportunity to help these young men become better, and our staff needs to do a great job making that happen.

On Grayson McCall and D.J. Jackson...

Grayson's getting better. I don't have an answer for you on that, but Grayson is getting better. I’m excited to see C.J. progress. We'll see where we end up. I don't have any medical information for you to change where we're at yet. As far as D.J. goes, D.J.'s probably going to be out this week. It's not a long term thing. He was definitely was sore after the game. I can't imagine it's going to be a two- or three-day deal. I bet he's back in two weeks. That could change. Coming out of our meeting yesterday, they felt like it might be a week or two.

On the position groups that are failing to play up to the team’s standard...

On defense, [it’s] every position group. It's a team game. They've all got to play better. It always starts up front [with] the defensive line getting knockback, when they're on the edge, being on the edge where they're supposed to be. Linebackers need to communicate better to the front. We tackled really poorly at different positions throughout the game. We can definitely play better at strong safety and nickel. There's a lot of competition that's going to be on that defensive field this week. It's not one guy. There's multiple guys on different plays. That's what defense is, especially when you're talking about fitting the run. The way a lot of teams run the football, if it's not an RPO, they're going to get everybody blocked. You're going to have a free hat somewhere. They've got to show up and make plays. It's a collective effort. When you have seven of eight drives score points, it's not one position group. It's multiple position groups. It's more about the identity of playing “Hard, Tough, Together.” It needs to show up. I'm excited to see that happen this week. There's going to be a lot of enthusiasm on that side of the football to get it right."

On Val Erickson...

He's gotten better. We've played him at right and left guard. We’re trying to have opportunities for him to get in the game and get better and better. He's a physical guy. One thing about Val is he moves people. He displaces bodies. He's still working on the ins and outs, the nuances of how we do things, but I do think it creates depth there. It does create competition. It gives us some flexibility, as you saw in the game. We had to move Tim [McKay] to tackle to be able to get him in there. The more he plays, the better he's going to get. He didn't play at all last season. He's really getting his first game reps in his life right now outside of scrimmages. We're excited about his future. He's got a lot to work on, but he is a tough kid. He brings a demeanor onto that field. He's tough. We need that.

If he expects Erickson to start vs NIU...

Possibly, yes.

On the lack of explosive plays by Concepcion...

We're trying hard to get him open on some things. We had him on a deep play last week. We got sacked on it. The quarterback got rushed. We had a double move on for him that he got DPI on which was a shot to him down the field. We've had some things in for him that way. We had two reverses in there for him. We pitched it to him. We're finding different ways to get him the ball. He caught a screen and got eight yards. None of them have exploded. There's pretty high expectations for him. He's on the radar. A lot of people are game-planning for him. There's a lot of people pointing out where he's at. It's going to be harder and harder. That's why you're seeing the ball getting spread around a little bit. Coach [Robert] Anae is very intentional about trying to find -- we targeted him 15 times in the game. He had five catches. It's not because we're not trying.

On emphasizing more deep passes...

We need to be able to push the ball down the field. There's no doubt. It's a part of what helps loosen the coverage. If guys can sit on short things all day, that's something we've got to do a better job of.

On how time with the Huskies impacted him...

You learn a lot the first time you get a position change, whatever that is. I'm sure everybody in here can relate. There's a lot more responsibility on a head coach's plate. You think you know what you're getting into when you're a coordinator. “I'm going to be a great head coach. I know how I'd do this or do this.” Then, you get there. My first week on the job, I had a player shot and was in intensive care. I had to drive to the hospital every couple days, which is not in DeKalb. It's about 40 minutes away. Quickly I was like, “Holy cow.” It was crazy to deal with something like that. There's a million things that go on in the head coach's seat. You really don't understand it until you get into it. I learned a lot about delegating and the importance of your staff. I learned a lot about time management and balance. I didn't have great balance as a coach at that time. I wasn’t the best father and husband at that time. I was working like crazy. It’s not that I don't work hard now, but I do understand the difference between what I was and what I am with work-life balance. There has to be a ratio there. I learned a lot about doing things with less. The motto at that school is, “The hard way.” It's real. They have very few amenities there. You have to do a lot with a little. I've always been good at that because of that experience and my experiences at Montana and Drake where you're just at schools that have fewer amenities and fewer resources. It doesn't give you excuses. You've got to find a way to get things done, roll up your sleeves, get to work, and outwork people up and be creative. Having that opportunity there, the MAC and really that level of football conference- wise, is great training ground for head coaches. A lot of the head coaches that have come out of those conferences and moved up have done very well. It's because they're not entitled. They're guys that really understand how to work hard and how to do all the little things. No job is too big. You see a table that needs to be moved, you go move the table. You see trash on the ground, you pick it up. You do what you have to do. Those kind of places are great training ground for that. I have so much respect for the MAC and for Northern Illinois and for the folks there. It was a great experience for me, a great learning experience as a coach.

On his emotions leaving Northern Illinois for NC State...

It was hard. I was excited. We won our second conference championship in a row. I was really excited for an opportunity to come to NC State. I felt like I had done what I could do at NIU. They hadn't won the league in a long time. The MAC had never been in an FCS bowl of that magnitude with the Orange Bowl. I felt like it was time to move forward with my opportunities. It was sad and exciting all at the same time. We finished the game in Detroit and bussed home. On the bus ride home one of the busses caught fire. It was a long ride home. We didn't get home until 6 a.m. Then that next day, everything changed. A day later, I was on a plane to come here. It's pretty crazy all the stuff that happened in a short period of time in that transition. I have so much love and respect for those kids and the program itself. Leaving there was hard. At the same time, when you inherit something, which I did from Jerry Kill. He did a great job there building that program up. Then, taking it where it wasn't to a championship back to back, I felt like I definitely put that place on solid footing. They promoted Rod Carey, who was my offensive coordinator, to head coach. They got to continue with the same type of culture. He did a great job for the number of years that he was there.

On watching NIU in the Orange Bowl from the stands...

That's a long story. Jerry Kill, my family, and I watched the Orange Bowl which was the hardest thing I've ever had doing as a coach: not coach that game. If there's any regret I have in football from a coaching standpoint, it was that, not being able to do that. It's how it worked out.

On the defense's falloff on pressuring the quarterback...

There's a couple factors. One, when you look at third downs against us, there's been a lot of screens and draws. There's not a lot of five-step, six-man, five-man pro yet. This year, it's been a lot of, “get the ball out of our hands.” That's part of it. Part of it too is we're not winning enough. When we do get opportunities for sacks, we've got to get home. Davin [Vann] has done that a couple times but the rest of the group's got to win more one on ones. It's not just the D-line. Our linebacking group, our nickels, our safeties when we blitz, you've got to come with a certain attitude and mentality to get there. If they get the ball out quick and they run a screen, that's different story. You're not going to get sacks on those plays. The other types of plays, it comes down to winning one-on-ones and straining and guys containing the proper way so that the inside rushers have a chance. If it's a blitz up the middle, the outside guys do their jobs. We call it a flush sack. The quarterback flushes out and get them down. It's execution, and it's opportunities, both things.

On players stepping up as leaders...

We talked yesterday with the players on the leadership council. I've talked to several guys one on one in my office about things they can do. At the end of the day, it comes down to them wanting it more. That's what it is. As players, you can only do so much in preparation. When you touch the grass as a player, you've got to play like it could be your last day out there all the time. Have that hunger, that desire, that will and that want-to. We're going to find out. That's what this week's about. NIU is going to come in here. They are not afraid anybody. They never have been. Coach [Jay] Novak created a culture back at that school a long time ago. It’s a tough place for tough people. They play hard. We're going to have to be who we are. Our identity has been hard, tough together. We need to get back to be in that every day. Tomorrow's practice is going to be a great indicator of the direction of our program and what we're going to be like. I'm excited to see the response. That's what I'm looking forward to, getting out there and competing and helping these guys move back in the right direction that way. We were down in two games, came back, and won. We showed fight. We showed resiliency. We haven't shown four quarters of complementary, tough football this season in four games. That's what needs to change.

On the younger players that stood out late in the Clemson game...

Isaiah Shirley did a really nice job. He did the same thing in the Tennessee game when we put him in the second half. He's a guy that has shown that he'll compete no matter what. He's a guy that's going to get more playing time because of that. It's obvious when you watch those two games. He was very competitive when he went in there. Going through in my head here. Kamal Bonner came in and made a couple tackles on defense. Devon Marshall went in the game and did some good things. That's about it. I'll be honest. When their starters were on the field, they scored seven out of eight possessions. It's hard to get excited about what happened after that. I'm proud of our guys for not giving up. That's one thing you saw. We scored 28 points and only gave up three in the second half, but it was too little, too late. We're not going to quit. That's good that that didn't happen. Guys did play hard and and compete until the end of the game. We've got to start fast. We've got to get out there and play our kind of football from start to finish.

If team is considering changing from the 3-3-5 defense...

No. We've led the ACC in defense three years in a row. My grandpa used to say this to me — He was Native American so I can say this — “It's not the arrows, it's the Indians.” You’ve got to get out there, and you’ve got to execute. It doesn't matter what defense or offense you run. If 11 guys aren't doing their jobs, it's a bad one. It's a bad one. We have a scheme that's proven. We have a coach that's good at coaching it. We have players that need to step up and do what they're coached to do.

On what he saw on Cade Klubnik's long TD run

They called a good play. I'll put that on us, to be honest with you. There's things that could have happened. When we crack replaced, our safety came outside of that block, which then blocked him into the corner. Had he fit inside, then our corner would have been sitting there to get it down. The defensive design of that, they caught us in a bad call against a good play. It shouldn't have been a touchdown. It was because of how we fit. If you watch the end of the play, you'll see the safety, [D.K. Kaufman], trying to get outside of an outside in block. If he fits underneath it, the corner's right there to replace it. That's leverage. It was a good play call by them against the defense that wasn't designed for that play. Sometimes, you call a good play against a scheme, and it hits. The same thing happens for us the other way around. It shouldn't have been a touchdown.

On the navigating transfer portal...

"I've said this before, we definitely changed our recruiting office two years ago. It's more of an NFL model. We have a guy, Tony Shields, that's what he does. He evaluates college talent. We have write ups on guys that we think fit our program. If they go in the portal, then we already know this is a yes. This is a no. You track guys regionally that leave in case they decide they want to come back home. We recruited a young man like Noah [Rogers] and he leaves. You pay attention to what's going on. When he goes in the portal, you know hey, we liked him in high school. If he comes back, he would be a yes. You're trying to do the background work prior to. It does help when you have previous relationships so that you don't have to figure out is he the right kind of guy for us or not? That's the hardest part. It's really challenging at the end of the season, when the portal opens, we only have two weeks before we start school in January from when the portal opens until classes begin. Within a two week period, if it's a guy that you don't know anything about -- you didn't recruit him in high school, he's from outside the region -- and he's interested in coming because it's a positional fit with a need. You've got a lot of information to try to uncover in a short period of time. It's really hard. The schools that start later in January have a big advantage in the portal. Not only because they can have longer time to recruit and get guys into school but because they have more time to get to know them. More phone calls, more visits, all the things that can happen from six weeks to two weeks. It's hard when you're a first week of January startup like we are for academics. It's a short window. That office has got to do a lot of homework. There's a lot of research that goes into recruiting behind the scenes. We used to not have that set up. We have a player personnel side that handles high school. We have a player personnel side that handles college transfers. We have a recruiting side that helps with recruiting. We have our graphics, design and creativity side that helps us with the imaging. Andy Vaughn is our general manager that oversees the entire thing. It is an NFL model. Most schools at this level are in that it's really hard not to do it that way. We tried a few years back. You feel like you're chasing your tail. A guy goes in the portal. You don't know anything about them. You didn't do any research. You don't have enough time to figure it out. You can make some really bad decisions.

On continuing to adapt in the transfer portal era...

You're always looking at ways to get better. Adding doesn't always make you better either. The people you have have to be really good. Sometimes you do need more hands on deck. Sometimes that's true. Sometimes it's not. Sometimes you have what you need. Sometimes you may need a different person. I'm always evaluating how we're operating. I'm not afraid to make changes. You've seen that over the years. That's part of being in charge. You have to evaluate yourself first and then your staff under you and then the parts that they're working with. I do look at this as a group that has to drink the same Kool-Aid. We've got to work together really well. Have to communicate really well. I'm fortunate. I have really good people around me. I have a great group to work with every day. They do a good job. They communicate well. They understand the vision and program. It's evolving. It's going to keep evolving. There's so many decisions that are still -- we're all waiting to see what judges are going to decide. How do those decisions impact staff? How do those decisions impact scholarship numbers? How do they impact our walk-on program? There's a million things that are on the table not decided that are going to have major consequences in college sports.