Dave Doeren: "They Are All Big Games"

NC State head coach Dave Doeren met with the media to discuss Wake Forest, his offense, and much more.

NOTE: Click the video above to watch the interview.

Dave, I feel like I've asked you this several years in a row now, but so much of Wake Forest is keeping them from, your kids from taking the cheese and things like that.  How well are they doing in terms of assignments and gap integrity and such? 
Yeah, it's really hard to duplicate what that looks like in practice with the scouts. And we've tried really hard, giving it a good shot, and the game day is gonna be the tell. It's a unique offense, as we all know, and they've got good receivers, quarterbacks playing with confidence, and their running backs run hard. They're doing a good job on offense. I mean, that's not been their problem, and they've had some tight losses, one possession losses, and they are moving the football, they are possessing the football, they've got explosive plays.

So it's always a challenge, and you gotta pressure the mesh point, and you gotta mix it up, and you gotta make plays on the ball. And then you're gonna have to tackle in space. The timing of defending their blocking schemes is unique, because as a linebacker or DB, you get used to what it's like. When someone runs outside zone or inside zone, where the ball hits, how fast it hits there, and sometimes now you're hitting your fit, and the ball's not there, and so what do you do? You wanna chase and pursue, but the ball's still coming. And so you gotta be really disciplined in your fits when you play these guys. Our guys are gonna have to be disciplined. 

Has the message on offense changed at all just in the last few weeks? 
In what way? 

Just in how it's handling stuff with CJ in the backfield.
Yeah, I mean, there's a lot of things when you're breaking in a new quarterback that are unique, but the message is always the same. We want to end every drive with a kick, not turn the ball over, which we did a great job of last week. We want to  win the line of scrimmage, which means minimal tackles for loss and no sacks, and we want to make explosive plays. And we did not make explosive plays a week ago, and that is why we are off the field so many times. So the message doesn't change, the execution of what we're doing has to improve. And obviously, looking at play selection and things like that, that's on the coaches. What can we do to help with that, with formations, with personnel, with motions, and so we're always evolving, always. And CJ's third game, he'll be more experienced, obviously, than he was in his first and his second. So you can grow on the things that he's experienced in those games. 

A lot of experience on the Wake D-line, you mentioned on Monday. But a lot of experience on y'all's O-line as well. What are some of the keys to winning that battle? 
Yeah, they're good players, I have a lot of respect, not just for their players over there, their D-line coach. I've always held him in high esteem, I think he's a really good football coach. Their guys are sound, they play hard, they use their hands, they understand back sets, and tight ends, and locations, and splits of O-linemen, and you can't have tells, and we had some. Ourguys have had to do a better job of holding our O-linemen accountable and our backs on tendencies and things like that. You gotta be really, really good with your self-scout when you're playing a team like Wake, cuz they're good at understanding if the back's here, the tight ends here, if this O-lineman's in a three-point or a two-point, all those things matter. And so, it's gonna be a strain test inside. You've got to play with really good technique, and you've got guys playing against each other that have played against each other. They know each other, they've gone up, they've got film against each other. And so, it's fun, it's fun seeing those guys compete against each other. Same thing with me and Coach Clawson, we've had a lot of games against each other. So I enjoy the back and forth, the competition, just like our players will. 

You mentioned CJ, going to his third start. Have you seen him grow on and off the field each week? 
Yeah, I think just his confidence in practice. He understands he's in charge of things. He's got a certain mentality about himself. He's always carried himself with, not a free spirit, but he loves football. Like when he shows up, he's smiling, he's happy, he likes playing the game, and that hasn't changed. But I think just his demeanor and his approach, and how important practice is. And now, not just taking care of yourself, you gotta start looking around you and seeing, hey, I need you to practice harder. I need you to be here instead of here on this route, and taking command of the other ten that are in there with you. 

Caden was named the Ray Guy Punter of the Week. How nice is it to have a weapon like that on special teams? 
Yeah, he had a great performance. I mean, one of the best I've seen out of a putter. Now we just want consistency, and not that we expect a 48-yard net every week. I mean, that was exceptional. But our goal is to be over 40 in net yards every week. When we have opportunities to down teams inside the 20 and 10, we wanna be successful in those areas, and that's the standard. And I'm proud of him for responding, cuz he's one of the guys I challenged two weeks ago. I didn't feel like he was playing up to his ability level, and he did. He had great practice today.

Dante Daniels has been playing more and more snaps. What have you seen from that?
Yeah, coming from Canada to the junior college level, and then to power four football, it's been a learning curve for him. And so he's getting better. He's a big guy that can run, he can catch the football, a lot better than people know, and he's physical. He's starting to play lower. When you're 6'7", it's hard sometimes to play with leverage. And so he's understanding now how important that is, and he's earning trust is what's happening, and that's why he's getting more and more reps. I'm excited for Dante. He's making the right progress as the season goes on.

Dave, when Davin wanted to do the donation drive, you heard about that and getting this up and running. What were your thoughts of him sort of taking that on with his family and wanting to do that? 
Yeah, it's really, his mom texted me about the whole thing. And I was really thankful to them. It's an uplifting deal that they're doing, obviously, and now it's just multiplied into a lot of people being involved in it. And so a lot of our players have been helping, a lot of our staff, our recruiting staff, our ops staff, a lot of hands on deck loading trucks. And people in the community coming in, dropping off things for all the folks that need it. And so that's the one thing you see really statewide. There's a lot of people pitching in to help all the folks in the mountains. And man, it's disheartening when you see the photos and videos. And here's some of the videos. One of our really good supporters, Ev Hatley's helicopter. I mean, he's flying around with people rescuing folks and dropping off things and pulling people out of wreckage. And it's just amazing to see some of our people in the state just stop work, go help people right now, and that's awesome. It's a tragedy, and it's for all of us that have been there. It's such a beautiful place. I mean, I have no idea what it's gonna look like when we go back. My first trip to the state of North Carolina was to Lake Lure. And I went there on vacation with my family and Sarah and I. And we went back another time, and what a beautiful place. And now to see the videos of that and how bad it looks, I mean, it's sad. Chimney Rock State Park's like one of the most beautiful places in the world. And I've been told it's completely wiped out. I haven't seen images of that yet, but that's sad. And so I'm thankful for Davin, and it's a long answer. Says a lot, and a lot of our players have chipped in. We've raised a lot of money out of their pockets just to help out in any way they can. 

I was gonna ask too, I mean, we've seen like the Hurricanes had stuff last night, and donation drives. You see people contributing to their teams. I mean, kind of what are your thoughts about how maybe sports can sort of, I don't know if it's like channeling the passion your fans have to harvest that into something more, I mean, the value of sports in that regard. 
Yeah, sports definitely, over the years, through all the tragedies, even remember COVID, like it was the only thing that brought happiness for a while was people watching the games, cuz they couldn't go. And it's always been that glue of our country, I think, in different sports. And especially locally, when your team's playing well, you see that pride in your city. And sometimes it takes tragedy maybe to get everybody out of what they thought was important. They're pissed off about us not scoring enough, like that doesn't matter compared to this. Like let's get into the real world here for a minute. So it's good to see people helping other people in a time where you don't see that very often. 

Do you have an update on Ja’had or Hollywood going into this week? 
No, I'm not gonna talk about injuries. I don't have to do that, and I'm not gonna do that. 

Coach, Wake Forest, this is the sixth game, I believe. So you're getting to the halfway point, 3-3 versus 0-2 versus 4-2 and 1-1. This seems like a really big game. 
Yeah, I think they are all big games. I mean, I don't understand how people say that. You're only as good as your last performance. That's it. I mean, with you guys, too. I mean, I'm the worst coach in the country when we lose, and then when we win, I figured it out.

You know, like every game matters. This game matters. The last one mattered. So, yeah, they're all important right now. There's a lot of football. I mean, there's eight weeks of football left, and nothing's been decided in our conference right now.