Dave Doeren: "I Thought The Atmosphere Was Awesome"

NC State head coach Dave Doeren met with the media today to recap Syracuse, thank the fans for creating the atmosphere, discuss the upcoming road trip to California, and much more.

NOTE: Click the video above to watch the interview.

Opening Statement...
I'd like to start out by wishing (well) to UNC and the Craft family... a terrible loss over the weekend for Tylee. And he's been battling cancer, our thoughts and prayers go out to their family, their team. It's way bigger than football.

We talk about losing a student athlete to a battle like that. And that was the first thing I saw when I came off the field walking into the locker room, was that up on the monitor in our coach's locker room. It's just perspective. So thoughts and prayers go out to Coach Brown and staff and their team. 

With regard to our game, before I talk about it, we'd like to thank our fans, I thought the atmosphere was awesome. It was great to have a night game again, and appreciate you, you were into the game. Crowd noise, fanfare, students, our admin, our staff, our players, our student athletes, our recruiting efforts, all of it, all tied into one, I thought it was an awesome night. From a fan standpoint, I appreciate that, so thank you. 

Regarding the game, losing by a score after turning the ball over three times in the red zone and missing what I would consider a very makeable field goal early in the game, it's tough to swallow losing games like that. I'm proud of how we fought back. It was a valiant comeback effort in the fourth quarter. Cannot argue the competitive spirit of our football team, but you can't win games turning the ball over in the red zone, which I talked about after the game. And we're turning the ball over too much, we lead the ACC in turnovers. And so, it's the first thing that has to get fixed. If we wanna win games, we gotta stop beating ourselves in that manner.

I thought CJ [Bailey] threw the ball around, made some really good plays, had some plays that he can do better. He was more accurate, threw the deep ball better. I had a chance for a connection on the second play of the game with Dacari [Collins] that we should have caught. Thought we moved the ball well, we only punted one time in the football game. And we were explosive for the number of plays we had. Syracuse did a good job keeping the ball away. A lot of extended drives, which is another conversation for our defense. But it was good to see, offensively, us move the ball the way we did. Some explosive plays with Noah [Rogers], Hollywood [Smothers], KC [Concepcion], [Justin] Joly, Dacari [Collins]. Dante Daniels had a really nice play. So some positives, but it doesn't overcome three turnovers in the red zone and our third down success, so we're not good enough on third and long. 

Defense not having Caden Fordham does hurt. I did think we played really hard, and kept us in the game. We defended the run well on first and second down, the exception of two plays where we were in a light box against the passing formation, they caught us twice. We had 12 plays in their backfield, we had two fourth down stops. And on the negative side, we did not do well on third down. Our standard is 70% effective and we weren't, we were 50%. A lot of third and mediums that we just didn't make plays on the ball and their guys did. Their quarterback was very accurate and their receivers caught the ball well. Hot ends, we did not take the ball away. There were 40 plus passes by their quarterback, we had no interceptions. And that's an area we've been really good. And so to win games, we gotta be good where we're good and we weren't in that area. 

Special teams wise, our operation, I didn't think the snap was great. Caden [Noonkester] could have got the laces fun and didn't. And we missed that first field goal which would have been, they scored a field goal on their first possession. We would have matched that and it's disappointing when you drive down the ball and don't get a score on a drive that we should.

I think Kanoah [Vinesett] is kicking the ball well for us and we've gotta do a better job with that operation with our snapper hold and kick. That's twice now we've missed this year on that. 

Onto our next opponent, long road trip to California to play Cal Berkeley. Very competitive team, they've lost three one possession games in a row. Down to the wire, had Miami up 35-7, that was a hard one for them to swallow. I'm really impressed with their defense. Justin Wilcox is a very good football coach. And we didn't work together at Wisconsin, but worked with a lot of the same people there. And I know a lot of people think very highly of them. I really like watching their two linebackers, number 10 and number zero play. They're good football players, man. They're active, they can run, they can hit, make a lot of plays in the defense. They're playing hard and they do a nice job on defense. They lead the league in turnover margin and they don't turn the football over offensively and they've created a bunch of takeaways on defense. 

On offense, they've had a lot of injuries, and we'll see who's back. Obviously, their tailback was an all conference player for them in the Pac-12 last year, he's one of the best career rushing players they've had in school history, and he was out last week. So I don't know what his status is, but he's a really good player. If he's back for them, they're tight ends, good player, he's got a bunch of receptions, two year starter, quarterback, more of a pocket passer, tight ends done a good job for him in their past game.

And it's more about us, we have to do a better job of finishing games, we have to do a better job taking care of the football, getting the turnover margin the way it needs to be. And continue to play really hard, which we've done at times and not consistently enough to win. And build off the fourth quarter we just had and keep swinging. We've had our share of adversity with injuries, obviously losing Caden [Fordham] for the year, losing our quarterback, and some tough calls on the field. So you have to overcome a lot of things, and it's just the next man up, keep battling, knowing that if you do that, you stay the course. If you work hard, you don't give in, you can keep fighting, which is part of what we do at NC State, good things happen. And I do like what our guys are saying, how they're responding. We are on fall break, so it's nice for the guys to have a couple days without classes to get some extra sleep and recover. Said this earlier in the year, this is the longest I've ever gone without a bye week. We're in our eighth straight game, and the soreness, the rigor of football, it does add up. And so it's good timing to have a couple days here where they can sleep a little bit and not have to get in the building so early. 

But for us, playing well and learning how to win, it starts with learning how not to lose.

And beating yourself is the fastest way to lose a football game. And I think we've learned the hard way just how precious winning is and how hard it is to win football games. And when you're used to it, and you start taking that stuff for granted, sometimes the football gods come back and remind you how hard it really is to win a game. And so our guys have learned that, our staff, our players, we've learned that the hard way. And so we can't take winning for granted, can't take how to win for granted. The precious details, the value of field position and turnover margin, and there's four to five plays in the course of over 150 in a game that really dictate the outcome. And you never know when those four or five plays are gonna happen. And so, yeah, it's been a tough season so far. I look forward to the finish, and this is a big one. Get on the road, try to get a win here before our bye week and a needed bye week, and then two games, bye week, two games. So an important venture out to California, glad we're playing an early game. That part I am excited about, I'll have a chance to get home probably at two or three in the morning on Sunday.

Looking at this upcoming week, how different is this week of prep compared to what you would normally do if you had a shorter road trip than going over 2,000 miles away from home? 
Yeah, well, it's different in a couple ways. It's fall break, like I said. And so tomorrow, normally, our guys would be in the building earlier. We're gonna be able to give them a couple hours slide on that for sleep. But outside of that, it'll be a normal practice Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. We will leave town Thursday after practice. Normally, we would travel on a Friday. So we're gonna get out there a day early, just to acclimate a little bit more to the time change. And then we'll have our Friday routine we would do here out there and go to a local school and practice on that Friday.

And as a follow up really quickly, you look at some of the younger guys that have stepped up so far this season to [Tamarcus Cooley], [Isaiah Shirley], guys along those lines. What have you seen from them over the past few weeks that gives you optimism that there are younger players pushing some of the veteran players as well? 
Yeah, there's some really good young players on the roster, for sure. Excited about that and Shirley for sure, Tamarcus Cooley has been playing really well. It's unfortunate, there's a tough call on the targeting on him and so we won't have him in the first half because of that rule. Isaiah Crowell came in the game and played really well towards the end there. So another young guy that took advantage of an opportunity and you saw if you really pay attention to our special teams. Ronnie Royal III played in this game, Sam Williams played in this game. So some of our true freshmen were getting reps. As you get into that four games where you can use them up, we'll continue to do that as we go. But Noah [Rogers] is a young player, Noah's a freshman, redshirt freshman. Made some big plays in the game. That was great to see him get his first touchdown and spark us Hollywood [Smothers]. Same thing, redshirt freshman and see his speed and explosiveness came in, made some plays. So it's good for two reasons. It's good for the future of the program and it's good for the competition and road.

Speaking of redshirt freshmen, Kamal Bonner came in and started and finished with nine tackles. How would you assess his performance and then also Devon's job sliding inside to Mike? 
Yeah, I think [Kamal] Bonner's an active player, he's got good instincts. It's good to see him be able to play 76 plays. That's the most he's played in a long time since high school and to be able to sustain that. And he'll continue to get better. Obviously, there's gonna be things when you watch him that he can do better. But I thought for his first game, he went in there and battled. He made some really nice tackles. [Devon] Betty did some good things inside. Some coverage things he's got to improve on. Obviously, getting back in the middle. Particularly the way they were throwing the football. There were a lot of different spot routes where you're getting your linebacker isolated and they do a nice job getting the ball to number 19 that way. But a good game for him to get in there and he is a good leader and he takes charge. It's very important to him, he plays hard. And he's got reps in the middle of our defense. So at least we're not having to break in a guy that's never played in there. 

You talked about playing Cal, one of the top teams in the country in turnover margin. How do you kind of work on reducing turnovers on your own? And so you don't fall victim to it again week in and week out. 
Yeah, we've been one of the better teams in college football four years at this. And we haven't changed what we're doing. The players have to do a better job using the technique in a game. And how you secure the football and clamp the football, how you catch the football, how fast you tuck the football. As a quarterback, where you throw the football, when you throw the ball to certain guys and the timing of it and then protecting the quarterback. And it's not just on the line, but some of it is, we've got to keep him upright. We can't let guys hit him from his blind side. Everything on offense, special teams, I always say this. 

When you think about ball security, you think about the guy carrying the ball, and that's true. He has to carry it with technique and strain. But it's the other 10 guys' jobs to protect him from getting hit. And the fewer players that can hit him, the better your ball security is gonna be. And so everybody's involved in it. And so we got to do a better job as an offense, taking pride in it. And then we talk about the margin defense, getting the ball back. And we've had a few tip balls that became interceptions. And so some of those are, we had one on Kendrick in the game. He's got a secured ball, you can't catch it, you certainly can't tip it up. And so all of it ties together, and we will continue to emphasize it, drill it, and make it a part of our daily vernacular as coaches. But ultimately, it comes down to the players. They've got to really take pride in it. 

Dave, I know you mentioned the third down defense rate. In this game, one for six on offense, I think you had kind of a similar game, maybe against NIU. Have you seen a common theme with your third down issues, maybe on offense at times this year? 
Well, third and long is the problem. One of the third downs was a third and two during the two minute drive that we didn't get, we ended up kicking the field goal. The others were third and long, and that's a tough down the distance. We converted on one fourth and long, but we didn't convert on the fourth, third and longs. We were successful in our short yardage run game, and third and short conversions in the NIU game. I mean, the common theme is long yardage, and some of that's due to what we're getting right now, a freshman quarterback and all the things that he's having to deal with. So he's gonna keep getting better, but I think third down success largely depends on first and second down success, the more third and shorts and third and mediums you're gonna have, the better that rate's gonna be. 

Have you been able to speak with Mack Brown since Tylee's passing? 
I reached out to coach, but I have not talked to him. I know he's got a million things he's dealing with, but I did send him a text after the game when I saw the news. I have not had a conversation, but did reach out. 

Have you talked to other coaches about what it's like to play at Cal Berkeley, or what the weather is like, or winds? And is the Rose Bowl the last time you were actually allowed to play in California and not have the game canceled? 
I have talked to other coaches, and we have coaches on our staff that have played there as well, and I've played there. So that part of it's covered, and as far as myself playing a game there, is that the question? 

When's the last time you coached in California, the Rose Bowl? 
Against TCU, yeah, when I was at Wisconsin, right, so. 

DK [Kaufman] tied his career high for tackles on Saturday.Just when you went back and watched the tape, what was he doing particularly well? 
I think he's really playing fast. I mean, he's got his eye disciplines improved, and that was something he was struggling with earlier in the season. He plays really hard, and the more you play within our system, the better you're gonna get at all the different things. But he's been a spark for our team, not just as a defensive player, but as a leader, as a kickoff returner. He's now had two explosive kickoff returns as well. He's had a sack touchdown, he's had an interception touchdown. He's done a great job this year fitting right in, and he brings a really positive energy to the practice field every day, too. I like what DK's doing. 

Your thoughts on DJ Jackson's return and what he's meant to the middle of the defense and getting that sack in his first game back this past weekend. 
Yeah, I was happy for DJ. No, he was pretty sore a couple weeks ago, and we held him just to give him an extra week of recovery, and he came back and gave us what we needed. And I thought Brandon Cleveland and him back and forth did a nice job. Our nose tackle position was as productive as it's been this year in that game that we just played, and both of those guys. And so that's what we're hoping for. You got a big guy with Brandon and a really quick guy with DJ, and having that change up for their center is what we were hoping for with that combination, and we definitely got that. And I was really happy for him to get that sack. That's a big play for him coming off all the stuff he's dealt with. 

Over on the offensive side of the football, have you started kind of whittling down some of the playmaker rotations going into this week as well? 
Yeah, we'll find out. I mean, I don't have our game plan yet. I might have it by tonight, and our first practice is tomorrow. So, but the guys that are making the plays are gonna play the most, and that's what the rotation will be. 

You talked about Kamal Bonner and how he was able to step in this weekend, but has him playing in a rotation throughout the year kind of helped prepare him for this moment to kind of play an increased role now on the defense? 
It does, you know, anytime you can get guys reps, reps matter, you know? And for him, having to become a full-time starter, had he never played in a game, would have been a big, big challenge. And it's the same thing with Kelvon McBride. You're seeing Kelvon now get more playing time. The fact that we're able to get him in some games early in the season, get him valuable reps there, it's less stressful for them. There's less anxiety. It's more what they're used to on game day, and now the rep count just goes up, but yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think all these reps, we're giving these true freshmen right now too, that even if they're just running down on a kickoff, that helps them when it becomes time for them to actually be a part of the rotation. 

With Caden [Fordham] being out, what kind of role do you foresee him having on the sidelines the rest of the year? 
He'll be a leader wherever he is, in the building, on the sideline, in the meeting rooms, in the locker room. Part of it will depend on his recovery with how much he's on the sideline, because he is going to have to have surgery. But once he gets back to being healthy, he'll be as active as he's allowed to be. I mean, that guy cares deeply about his teammates, his coaches, his team, his university. So he'll do anything he can to help this place, I know that.

Dave, when you guys evaluated Hollywood [Smothers] out of high school, what stood out to you about his skill set? And how do you feel like you've seen him transition this first year? 
Really fast. You know, we knew he'd be a really good back on the run, on our stretch run game. He can put his foot in the ground and accelerate quickly. He's got loose hips. He's a good ball catcher, so getting the ball in space, you know, with the passing game as well. Didn't know how good he'd be in protection, and that's something he's impressed us with, is his toughness. He likes football, man. He really likes playing the game, and he was getting better. He was making plays, and then he had that injury, and he was out for two weeks. And so it's great to have him back in the rotation with those guys. And definitely gives us another player that can go in and create explosive plays. 

You mentioned it earlier, but you have a late bye week again this year. How does that kind of affect the way that you approach things, you know, especially playing eight straight weeks? I guess you kind of were able to learn a little bit last year playing seven in a row before you hit a bye week. How does that kind of affect it, and how do you kind of like to use, I guess, a late bye, you know, having two in the last, you know, between the last four games coming up? 
Yeah, I mean, I've never had two in the last four games in my career, so this is new. Each week, I mean, regardless of when you're bye is, you have to look at your practice pace and how many periods you're going to be out there, how much contact, what do our guys need to be successful? Is it more team? Is it more individual? You always look at it every week, every Tuesday, every Wednesday, every Thursday is your three practice days. And then with the bye, you know, like I said, fall break helps us this week. I mean, our guys are tired. I mean, it's eight straight weeks without a bye. Our coaches, too, and so, you know, you got to suck it up, and having some extra sleep is a nice thing to have this week for our guys, and we'll get into the practice planning. 

How the second one plays in, it's just going to depend on the health of the team. You know, I'm hopeful that after this game, we can come back and get some needed time to rest and recover and get fresh for the four games we have to finish. But I like using the bye weeks just in general for, you know, things you got to work on, you know, areas you want to improve, plays you want to put in that you hadn't been running, blitzes, coverages, whatever, disguises, looking at your tendencies, giving young guys reps and veteran guys rest. That's what we traditionally use the bye weeks for, get out on the road and improve a little bit, see some of the guys play that you're on, and give your guys a chance to, you know, hit reset and then come off of a bye, you know, hopefully refreshed not just physically but mentally.