NC State head coach Dave Doeren met with the media after the loss to Virginia Tech.
NOTE: Click the video above to watch the interview.
Opening Statement...
To start out, I'd just like to thank our fans for showing up. You guys are amazing, and I know how much you wanted that win. We wanted it, trust me, more than you did, and really wanted to bring Coach Eliot's family some joy tonight, and we didn't deliver on that, and you got to give Virginia Tech credit.
They won the line of scrimmage on both sides of the football in that game, and that's not indicative of our football team. It hasn't been this year, but that was the tale of the game, and CJ didn't have time to throw in the first half. Obviously, we didn't rush the football efficiently, or you would have seen Hollywood having the same numbers he's been having, and when those kinds of things happen on offense, it gets you behind the chains.
On defense, I thought Coach Warren did a hell of a job putting together a plan with all the things that happened this week with Coach and his family, and at the end of the day, we got to make more plays. We got to execute, and as coaches and players, the film is our resume, and it wasn't very good tonight. We gave ourselves a chance, obviously, to be in that game.
I mean, out of the half with the opening drive score and had the lead, and we got to stop the run, and their tailback, give him credit, ran through our guys, and a 91-yard touchdown run, had multiple guys there to tackle him and didn't get it done, and that play, and a play down in the red zone on third and nine. We knew what play they were running. We had a great blitz called, and one of our guys didn't execute on the play, and it comes down to execution.
It's an execution game, and, you know, as coaches, you do everything you can to help the players, and as players, they got to do everything they can to execute. There's a lot of football left, and so we're going to do everything we can to rally around these guys. We're a beat up group right now, emotionally and physically, unfortunately, and so we'll get these guys in here tomorrow and go back to work.
Hey, Coach, you talked about Coach Eliot and everything that happened this week. What was it like for you to kind of see the defense go out there and try to put on a performance that he and his family would like to see?
Yeah, there was a lot of want to, man. I mean, the kids practiced well. They were attentive. Their mindset was great, and then there's just a few plays, and that's football, where we didn't execute the way that we wanted to execute on those plays, and then their back ran through us, and there isn't a scheme for that. When you got two guys right there and we don't get them down on the ground, that comes down to getting it done.
And the kids did want to play well. They care a lot about Coach. Everybody's heart hurts for him and his family, and we wanted to bring them some levity to the situation that they're dealing with. It's tragic. I've been coaching a long time. I've never had a staff member's child pass away my entire career. I can't even tell you how hard this week's been. And the kids, emotionally, physically, mentally, were there, and they wanted to play really well. And to be honest, I thought we'd score a lot more than that in this game.
You would've asked me going into it if we'd win. If we held them to 23, I would've said yes, but we didn't get that done, and it's not on the offense. It's on the team, like all of us. We've got to perform at a level that allows us to be in a position to win every game, and we just didn't get that done.
CJ had only been sacked four times for the first four games, and was sacked five times today. What did you see that led to that?
I mean, they didn't do anything crazy. I mean, they were moving a lot as far as stunts and things, but they just beat us. I mean, our offensive tackles have been really good this year against some good defensive ends, and we got beat. Their ends powered us into the quarterback multiple times, collapsed the pocket on CJ, and he didn't have time to throw in the first half. And obviously, that hurt us. I mean, we only scored one time in the first half.
Dave, you mentioned the emotional aspects of it. How are you going to navigate all your kids that have come up and seem really upset? How are you going to navigate these next few days to sort of, obviously, there's life beyond football, and then there's football to try to get on track?
Yeah. I mean, first, we all look in the mirror and on what we can do better, our coaches and players. When you go back to work, I mean, there's seven more games that we get to play, and I say that we get to play. And we get to live our lives one day at a time. We have an opportunity to stand up and fight, and that's what this program has always done.
That's what we'll do. Put our best foot forward. My job is to help them get back, and I'll do my best to do that. And we care a lot about these young men, and they care a lot about this program. And so we're not going to sit around and feel sorry for ourselves tomorrow when we get back to work.
I do want to ask about Caden Noonkester and just the impact that he's had flipping the field for you all this season.
Are you talking about Caden Noonkester? Is that what you said?
Yes.
Yeah. He's a weapon when he kicks the ball like that. Hang time, distance, and he got some good rolling tonight to flip the field. And that's what you expect out of a guy that's punted as long as he has for us.
And operation times were great. Snaps were great. The coverage was really good. So, Caden helped us a lot throughout his career. All right, two more questions. Charlie, go ahead.
Does this game kind of hurt more knowing where Virginia Tech came in as a program tonight, just being one and three with an interim head coach?
Yeah. Sure it does. Sure it does. It's a game that we execute and do the things that we should do. In my opinion, it's a game we should win, and we didn't get that done. Virginia Tech played really well in the first two games and didn't get it done. It was a tight game with South Carolina.
It was a tight game with Vanderbiltt... and so it's not a bad football team, and they played really bad against Old Dominion. They did not play bad in the first two games that they didn't win. They played really good. And so, we didn't know which Virginia Tech team we were going to face. We just don't know.
They showed up, and they played with pride. They played hard, and they beat us on the line of scrimmage, and we didn't get it done. So you got to give them credit, man. You got to give them credit.
The safeties and the nickels have been getting beaten up physically. Obviously, you guys are missing guys, but how important is it for the ones that are playing to just make sure that they're the last line of defense and not give up the long play?
Yeah. I mean, they call them safeties for a reason. They're a safety valve, and we're not playing like that right now. We're not getting people down. I call them knockdown players. The ball breaks the second level, which is the linebackers. They got to be able to erase it and let you line up and play again.
And it's a banged-up unit, to say the least, to say the least. We got more injured safeties and nickels than we got healthy right now, and so it's not a good situation in there, and we got to do a really good job of getting these guys back.
