NC State head coach Dave Doeren met with the media after the win over North Carolina.
Opening statement…
All right, well, really proud of our guys and thankful for our seniors. Excuse me, guys, I got a cold. But to win on senior night is really, really meaningful and super proud of those kids in that locker room for playing the way they did.
Asked them to be the most physical team in the stadium. And that was very clear that we were and that we needed to put our hands in the dirt and get after them up front on both sides of the football. And when you play well on the O-line and you play well on the D-line, good things happen.
And that's what happened. They couldn't run the football. They got really one-dimensional.
We were able to pressure their quarterback. Offensively, four touchdowns in the first half and one to close the first half, which was great because they were getting the ball first in the third quarter. It was a dominating performance.
And to win five straight against that school says a lot. It's been three times in school history, I was told. So I'm really proud of that and thankful to the coaching staff for the game planning that they did, getting us ready and the way they coached our players and for the players for executing the way they did.
And the fans were awesome tonight. Again, another great night game sellout. Appreciative. I know our players are too. It's awesome to come out of that tunnel and feel the energy that you bring in the student section. So enjoy it. Light the tower red. You guys go out and have a great night. Be safe. Get a little time off now before we get ready for the next game. So I'm going to enjoy this one.
Yeah, Dave, what do you think makes Will Wilson such a good quarterback and so good at what he does?
Well, I mean, he's gifted athletically. He's very strong. We've talked about his ability to squat over 600 pounds. So, I mean, he's not going to be pushed backwards. He runs behind his pads. He can see the running lanes. He's getting better and better at that. He's growing in confidence, which helps too. Success of these plays adds to his ability, more confidence you get.
The guys are blocking really well for him. It's not just Will, it's the guys. And the scheme that Coach Roper has does a really good job. And I think, our tight ends, man, tight ends get underrated in offenses a lot. And these guys block so well. And that's a short yardage offense.
I mean, the five linemen are going to block their butts off no matter what. But those tight ends, when you create long edges, it creates soft spots because a lot of times the wider edges are DBs and smaller guys. And Cody Hardy, Justin Joly, Dante Daniels, Preston Douglas, those four guys all blocked really well tonight.
And that helps Will. And so, you take talent, you take scheme, you take confidence and you get good results. And it's helped us. I mean, we're four for four on fourth down tonight. Kept the ball on the field and time of possession adds up. Their defense gets tired. So really proud of the guys for executing.
Coach, you've obviously talked about, you knew Will could run coming in. But at what point, you know, in camp or maybe it was when he first showed up, in January, did you realize that he could be as effective as a runner in the short yardage situation?
Well, that was our hope. I mean, he rushed for 400 yards in one game in high school. So, it's not like a secret that he could run. And we recruited a guy who can throw the ball and run the ball. And that's what we got. And we were hopeful that he'd be able to do what he's doing for us. But that's what we saw on film in high school.
And we got into spring ball and saw how competitive he was. And he's a real coachable kid. His father, Walt, is a head coach, high school coach. And he learns. He takes a lot of pride in executing things the right way. And when he makes mistakes, I mean, he's really diligent about correcting them.
Yeah, I have a two-parter today. First of all, you did mention the offense and defensive lines. Is this one of the better performances you've had from the fronts against the Tar Heels in your time here?
Yeah, I think so. It might have been our second time playing them. When we rushed for, I don't know, how many yards was that, Annabelle? When Jacoby Brissett had, like, 180 yards rushing. It might have been 400 yards that night or that day. And then, there was a day that Reggie had 200 yards on him. So it's in the, definitely one of the top three for us to be the most physical team. I would say those three games stick out.
And my second question, sir, the history of the NC State rivalry. You also mentioned the five-game winning streak. You've now won eight of ten, and that has never happened at NC State. Is that somewhat, do you consider that a standard? And is that important to you to sort of make it a standard?
Yeah, I mean, to me, losing to them is unacceptable. And, you know, I take a lot of pride in that rivalry game. And so it's,nine wins out of 13, eight of the last ten. That sounds pretty good. Feels good, sounds good. I'm going to enjoy. I'm glad you told me that because I didn't know. But it's very meaningful, man. And it goes back to my first day here on the job. I mean, I can't tell you how many people welcomed me and at the end said, whatever you do, beat them. And so that really resonated. And our kids understand what it means to this fan base.
Hey, Coach, kind of the piggyback off that. Is it any more special kind of knowing who the opposing head coach is on the other sideline?
I don't know if it's special, but it's definitely something that motivated me. I mean, I have a lot of respect for Bill. And I mean, how do you not? He's one of the greatest NFL coaches of all time. And so definitely as a coach, when you're competing, and that's what we do is we compete. Coaches want to beat each other. There was pep in my step this week for sure. I mean, I wanted that win. The competitive part of me against him. And it's very meaningful. It is to get a win against a coach of, you know, his status. I mean, that guy's one of the top five NFL coaches of all time. You could argue he's the best NFL coach of all time. So it means a lot.
You mentioned how your defense made them one dimensional on offense. What did you kind of see from the top six, seven guys in your front seven to be able to shut down their rushing attack and get the four sacks?
Well, there's a lot of penetration at the line of scrimmage, knockback. I thought we tackled well. Didn't see a lot of yards after contact, particularly in the run game. We lost our rush lanes a few times and their quarterback got out early. Gio's a good runner. But I thought we just executed, tackled well, leveraged the football, played more physically than they played.
Was there a specific moment in the game where you could kind of feel like, OK, we've got this and felt comfortable with the lead that you had?
Well, I mean, jumping out to a 14-0 start helps. They're not an offense that scores a lot of points. Their defense really, especially the last six weeks, kept them in games and got them in a lot of one possession games with their defense. And so jumping out 14 points in the way that I was watching the line of scrimmage was going to take a bunch of guys, just kind of letting them back in the game, which at times it felt like that was going to happen with all the penalties that were being called.
But after the first quarter, I felt really good about the way the game was going. That's a big D line, like they got a big, big D line and we were pushing them back, pushing them back. And so got to give our offensive line tight ends a lot of credit in this football game. They really did a great job against the front that's caused a lot of people problems.
Dave, you've mentioned how much you've enjoyed coaching this team this year. How much more special does it make the end of the season, these last two wins, get the seven regular season wins and everything you guys have dealt with over the last few months?
Yeah, I mean, we won three of the last four games. So it was a hell of a November and guys hung in there and stuck together. Kids got better and better on defense and proud of them for that because that's where most of our injuries have been.
This has a lot about the grit, the resiliency, their belief in their coaches and me. And so our culture is really strong. And it was tested this year and it stood up to the test. And, I don't know what else you want. You win three out of four in November, beat your rival five in a row.
You beat Florida State six out of seven. That's a pretty good November, man. And when you looked at our schedule at the beginning of the year, I mean, those last four games were pretty real. And beating Georgia Tech, the way we did, beating Florida State, winning this game. Pretty good finish by the boys, man. Really proud of them.
Thank you, guys. Have a good night.
