NC State head coach Dave Doeren fielded questions from the media on Monday and he discussed a variety of topics, ranging from the Campbell win to the upcoming challenge at Notre Dame.
NOTE: Click the video above to watch the press conference.
Opening Statement
Recapping the win over Campbell, I thought our guys did what we wanted them to do and played the way that we should have played. I love how they responded. The guys had fun playing football. We got to play a lot of guys, and we came out of the game healthy. Offensively, we had no turnovers with our starters and scored 100 percent of the time in the red zone; we had five red zone touchdowns. We scored a touchdown on our first eight drives. We were explosive in the run game and the pass game. We played very well up front. C.J. [Bailey] was super accurate, had really good protection. The receivers did a nice job executing routes, and we spread the ball around. The running backs, tight ends, and wide outs all played well with and without the ball, and we had some really good down the field blocking by our receivers. It's great to see just so many explosive plays with different guys and seeing Cody Hardy have an explosive play. You love rewarding big guys that do what they do in the trenches so much. Hollywood [Smothers] and Duke [Scott] both played well. The negatives, our backups, when they came in, turned the football over. Obviously, it’s a play Will [Wilson] will learn from, but it was good to get those guys those reps. On defense, we tackled much better. We stopped the run: less than two yards per carry. There were only two missed tackles the entire game. A lot of guys played. I was proud of the guys that played in different spots, too. You saw Asaad Brown playing strong safety, Jivon Baly playing at nickel, Caden Fordham was playing at the Mike, Kenny Soares at the Will. Guys were playing that had played for us but playing in different positions and executed well; they did a nice job throughout the game with corrections. They were doing a lot of stuff with two quarterbacks in the game, so there was a lot more going on there on the sideline than people probably know. [We had] two fourth-down stops and forced to turnovers Guys did a good job. Big negative, there's a penalty with our starters: second-and-26, we had them behind the chains, and Ronnie [Royal] throws a guy when he's out of bounds and let him off the hook. A lot of our mistakes right now are [from] young players. That's part of playing young guys, and it showed up big time on special teams. A true freshman muffed the punt, fumbled another punt that he recovered, Teddy [Hoffmann], and obviously Terrell [Anderson] came in and did a great job as our punt returner, so that was a positive. The penalty on LaCorian [Hodge], true freshman, on a touchdown punt return [was also a negative]. Our young guys have got to quit playing like they're young and play more mature when they're in the game and take coaching. It's like I told them in the meeting room: “You came here to play. You're getting the opportunity to play. You need to play like an older player from a maturity standpoint.” That goes down to how they practice and the older players staying on those guys as well. Caden Noonkester had another great game, punting the football. We didn't punt much in the game, but he had a 40 yard net with no returns. We improved in some areas, obviously offensively and defensively. I thought our fans were awesome coming out, and the ones that stayed the whole game, like I said after, it's just awesome to have guys do that, [especially those in the] upper deck. It's just amazing. You're in the sun the whole game, and you're there cheering the guys on. It means a lot. You don't get to see us for a while. We're gone for a month: at Notre Dame this week, then a bye, and then at Pitt. We'll miss being in Carter-Finley here for a little bit.
Now, [we’re] on to Notre Dame, a great opponent, a very physical football team [with] big offensive and defensive lines. Their tight ends are 6’6”. The two running backs are super impressive on film and what you'd expect when you play them. Both run hard with different running styles, but they’re hard to tackle. They’re elusive. The receivers are playing well, [Jordan Faison] and [Malachi Fields], and we played against Fields when he was at UVa; he was really good player then. [Eli Raridon], like I mentioned earlier, is a big, tall kid. He's their fourth leading receiver. Their tailback, [Jeremiyah] Love, is their third leading receiver. There's matchup issues when you're covering [Fields], as big as he is. Defensively, they play really hard. They're physical. Their front linebackers and safeties are good tacklers. They play square. They use their hands. They do a good job mixing up coverages, zone and man, line stunts and pressures, and they've improved as the year's gone on which happens when you have a new defensive coordinator, and I know Chris [Ash] well. He’s a good friend, and he's a really good football coach. When you take over a system, it takes a while for the guys to adapt and adjust, and they've gotten better and better the last two games. Arkansas and Boise [State], they held them both to less than 10 points. Special teams is probably one of the better special teams groups in the country. They'll take risks. They're going to run field goal fakes and punt fakes, so you have to be really sound with how you prepare against those units. They’re aggressive with their blocks., so our protection in our punt units and our protection in our field goal units have got to be dialed in. I'm excited for the challenge. I love playing against physical, aggressive teams like this, and it’s a great place to play with the tradition and history of South Bend and playing at Notre Dame. It’s been a while since we played them, so I’m excited to have that opportunity, and our guys are excited.
If he’s surprised at how well Smothers has played this season…
No, not at all. I knew last year, as the season wore on, how explosive he was and that, if he would have the offseason that we needed him to have, where he could sustain his health, that he would be what he is and what you're watching. It's more than just him as a player. It’s how he is on the sideline. It’s how he's cheering on his teammates. He is a very, very integral part of the success of our team when he's in the game and when he's not in the game. I’m really proud of him, and I love his desire. I love his heart, how tough he is. This game's got some good backs in it, man. You take Hollywood — he's as good as there is — and their two backs are really good. There's going to be some physical football in this game and some backs that like being physical, too. If you watch our game Saturday, Hollywood's protection is outstanding. He’s standing in there taking on linebackers, and so it's how he's playing without the ball, too, which I love. You see the same thing with Justin Joly right now and how he's playing. The one touchdown catch that Hollywood had down the sideline, Joly's running a wheel route, sees him get the ball, turns it up, blocks, and takes his guy out of bounds so that Hollywood can score. That unselfish play is just really awesome to watch.
On his relationship with Ash…
We're not going to talk this week, but yeah, we talked during the season and offseason. Chris and I went to college together, played football together, coached together at Drake and at Wisconsin. He's a great guy and a really good football coach. It's exciting to play against anybody that you respect, and I have the utmost respect for Chris as a person and a coach.
On Josiah Victor…
First of all, we’re impressed with how he played in the game. I think he's got a ton of upside for us, and he is our backup nose guard now. His role just depends on the game we're in. We’re rotating him and [Brandon Cleveland] to keep Cleve healthy and rested, making sure that those two guys can be fresh in the game. If we're in a game where we're playing a lot more of our third-down packages, because they're a spread team, then the nose guard sometimes will get fewer reps, but if we're going to play 50 snaps with the nose guard in the game, then you're going to see him in there 10 to 15 to 20 snaps so that Brandon can play 30 to 35. That way, you have a fresh big guy in the game. He’s just gotten better and better as the year's gone on, and he's worked really hard and changed his body in a good way. He's excited about playing this week. I can tell you that.
On memories with Ash…
None that I'm going to share with you. (laughs) I'm just kidding. We've had a lot of good times together, as coaches. Back to when we were GA’s — Charlie Partridge, myself, Chris and Brendan Daly who is the linebacker coach for the Kansas City Chiefs — we were all working together at Drake and taking care of the locker room. We remodeled the locker room. We used to go out, mow the grass, paint the fields. It was a one-stop shop. You had to drive the bus. You had to cut up the film. You had to coach your guys. You had to recruit an area. You did everything, and so we learned from the bottom up how it is to coach football together. We used to go on road trips and study football at other places. Our spring break, we'd drive to Oklahoma and see Oklahoma and Oklahoma State, and we'd drive down to Dallas, see TCU or somebody else, and have a good time. We were in our 20s. Then we were at Wisconsin together which was different. Now, we're married with kids and trying to make a name for ourselves in the profession. We had one of the better defenses that I've been around, that year we went to the Rose Bowl with J.J. Watt, Chris was our secondary coach, and we didn't have one team rush for 100 yards in 12 games on us, and to do something like that, it's got to be really coordinated. He, Charlie Partridge and I were on that staff together, not that we deserve the credit. We had J.J. Watt wrecking shop up front. He was always just so dialed in, Chris was. You’d go in and present all the formations and all the things they could do, the route concepts, the splits, the tendencies, and protections, and it's a great right hand to have because we'd sit in there and argue about things, too, and come out with the best solution. I came up in the business with Chris and Charlie, two guys that I've really, really fond friendships with, but [also] the utmost respect for as football coaches.
On reuniting on opposite sidelines…
It's been a while since we coached against each other, and I'm trying to remember when it was. When I was at Northern Illinois, he was the D-coordinator — he replaced me when I left — when we played Wisconsin, and it didn't go well, Russell Wilson was actually the quarterback for Wisconsin that year. That was the year they won the Rose Bowl, and Chris was the defensive coordinator. We played him in Soldier Field, but that's the last time I've coached against him. That was 15, 16 years ago. It’s been a while.
On facing two-back offenses such as Arkansas’ Felix Jones and Darren McFadden…
Well, not that I want to injure anybody, but we tackled Darren McFadden back before the horse collar tackle was illegal on the first or second play of the game, and he twisted his ankle and was out for the rest of the day. That helped us win that game for sure, that we didn't have to play against him because he was crazy good. It comes down to tackling. I just was with D.J. [Eliot] upstairs. We were watching all the explosive runs and how many missed tackles there are. These backs are really good — as is our back — at making people miss and running through contact. You aren't going to just go in there and shoulder somebody, and they're going down. You're going to have to wrap them, get them on the ground, and swarm tackle them. It's a fundamental game. That's what football is. It's a test of will and skill, two guys imposing their will on each other, getting off of blocks, and being sound with your edges. They do a great job of cracking safeties and making corners fit in the box and tackle as well. Everybody's involved in this to stop the run. It’s going to take all of our guys, and we got to do a great job like when we played Wake Forest this year. We did a great job of hemming [Demond Claiborne] up. That guy's a great back, too, and we were able to stop him. Then we've been in other games where we didn't do it, didn't get it done, didn't tackle well, didn't set edge as well, and so the best version of us has to show up on defense and offense: to control the line of scrimmage more than they do and to make the tackles when you're there to make them. You’ve got to get guys on the ground.
If he’d like to face Notre Dame more often…
If they were in our league, I would. They're not in our league [in football], and so to me, that doesn't make sense. Like I said, I'm all in favor of playing more league games. That'd be great to play as many league games as we can, but it's great to get to play them every now and then, and it's a special place to play. There's no doubt about the history and tradition of college football itself. It'll be a great experience for our guys. As far as anything unique, it's just a crowd noise thing. When you have over 77,000-plus, crowd noise comes down to how you play, and you've got to do a great job offensively of staying on the field, winning your third-down opportunities, and not letting their fan base be the 12th man, and that's hard to do. You have to really play well to make the noise not a factor in a game like this. It's our first road game with noise this year, so that's what makes it different more than anything.
On evaluating Bailey’s play…
Well, when you have a quarterback playing like ours, you've got a chance to win every game. He's playing at a high level, and if you ask him, he's got a lot of improvement he can still make. He’s really hard. He's very competitive on himself, and he wants to play as well as he humanly can to help his team win. He's always trying to get better, trying to find an edge. The guys around him are playing well for him, and that's the other thing. He's completed over 80 percent of his balls, but there's a lot of guys making good catches, too. They weren't all thrown right in their face; those guys are having to catch some balls behind them or adjust their body. I was proud of the way we caught the football, not just how he threw it, but guys making plays for their quarterback. That’s a big deal, man, because it's not going to always be easy. Sometimes, he's going to have to put a ball in a certain place because of where coverage is, and that's been something we've done well this year: relate to the football. He throws a catchable ball most of the time. The velocity is not an issue for guys, and they can adjust their body and make plays for him.
On Baly playing at nickel…
Pretty banged up [at the position] is an understatement. We’re very proud of Jivon Baly. He made some mistakes: one touchdown down in the red zones on a play that should have been a dead play for us. Again, he’s a young guy; they changed the formation with motion, and he didn't see it, but he played hard. He was physical. He was productive. He tackled well. He had a lot of energy. He was not nervous at all, and we’re excited for him and proud of him, like I said. The guys that had to step up stepped up, and he was one of them.
