NC State head coach Dave Doeren met with the media one final time before Saturday's matchup against Virginia Tech.
NOTE: Click the video above to watch the interview.
Dave, it looks like the weather's gonna be kind of bad. Do you guys play with some wet footballs during the week, and do you have a game plan for bad conditions?
I coached in the hurricane game, and so I've been around bad conditions a time or two. Our first scrimmage in fall camp this year was in the rain. And we do wet ball drills on Thursdays, so that's part of what we always do. But it depends on how bad the rain is.
I mean, if it's just a normal rain, then you play ball. But if it's torrential, then you've got to be able to adjust. And obviously, the game plans on both sides can change, right? So you just got to be ready for that. We'll definitely be ready.
You mentioned the scrimmage, and you said that nobody fumbled or anything that first one. How much confidence does that give you, kind of having this dude that's been doing it?
Well, it's more about them. Like, they've played in it. And they played well, and we tackled well that day, too. So, the guys need confidence when conditions change. Like today, it was super hot. So, it makes you feel good because they had a good practice. We scrimmaged well in the rain. And so, these things, my job is to remind them of those things and get them to focus in. And then the coordinators and position coaches, you know, we're tweaking things based on what happens. And even if there's a weather delay, you know, there's possibilities of that as well. So, we'll have to have our rain plan dialed in and make sure the guys are all ready for it if it happens.
Have you seen CJ take a step up in terms of his leadership specifically this week after everything happened against Duke?
Yeah, I think leadership's most important after a setback. Adversity brings out the true leaders of the team. It also brings out the doubters and all the boo-birds and all those things. And so inside the walls of the Murphy Center, those that are deemed leaders have to be at their best, during those types of situations. And CJ definitely stepped up. All our guys that are on the leadership council were called upon to make sure their position groups understand how important discipline is in a football game.
And so, obviously, it's been a huge point of emphasis all year, and now it fits us in a bad way coming out of the game. And so, you can tell where these guys' focus is. And it's execution. It's doing things right. It's being where you're supposed to be. It's staying focused. And the leadership has to lead that. They have to be the guys that are driving their teammates in that direction, and it's been that way all week.
Curious if you've ever coached against a team where they, this early in the season, got rid of their head coach, and you played them so soon after. Have you noticed if that team kind of responds a little bit differently after that reality sets in after a couple weeks, if you've been in that position?
I've been in this position many times. I can't remember points of the season for you, but definitely transitions on teams that we're playing. And it can go two ways for those teams.
Well, it can, and the thing that they have in their favor is they've got a proven head coach in Philip Montgomery. He was a good football coach at Tulsa as the head man. He's always been a good offensive coordinator, and he's been around a lot of good coaches.
And so sometimes that happens, and they put a guy in that chair that's never done it, and that's pretty tough. So they do have that in their favor, obviously, in this level of football. There's a lot of good players on Virginia, and Virginia Tech's team, that it's not just about winning and losing.
It's about getting themselves on film and playing well, right? Like, they have ambitions of playing past college. Some of them do. So we've got to play our best.
I mean, whatever they show up, however many players they have or don't have, we've got our own issues we've got to worry about. We've got to go out there and not have stupid penalties and play well and execute plays and play together and take advantage of momentum when we have it to finish. And so our focus is much more on us than it is on what they're dealing with over there.
Well, those penalties are just kind of a one-shot deal. It's not indicative of what this team is or has been.
Yeah, it hasn't been. We've had games where we've had less than three penalties this year, and so it is a frustrating part of what happened in that game is a lot of the things that you witnessed were things that we really put emphasis on.
Coach Goebble stood in front of the punt return team and told them they're going to double clap. They're going to hard count you. The first time we went out there, we jumped. And it's funny, like the South Carolina-Virginia Tech game, South Carolina, same thing. They were out there against Virginia Tech, their first punt of the game, and they got South Carolina to jump.
So we know they're going to do it. It's not a matter of if. And it's being disciplined enough to look at the football and not care how many hard counts or claps or whatever they do are. Do your job. Your job is to play with technique after the ball is snapped. And so, yeah, it's frustrating.
It's also young guys making mistakes. And so you know that they're not intentional. They're not out there trying to sabotage the team.
It's guys that are excited to play that weren't focused enough. And we've got to get them there. That's our job as coaches.
What's been the response from the special teams this week after what happened?
Yeah, it's been really good. Disappointed, embarrassed, want to play better. From me to Coach Goebble to the players, it's linear. We all have to be better in those areas. And the guys on the field have to get better for it.
