NC State head coach Dave Doeren met with the media to discuss the Virginia game, injury updates, and much more!
NOTE: Click the video above to watch the full press conference!
Have you seen the players really respond to that going into Saturday's game?
I think they understand. Week zero, obviously playing a week earlier, starting camp earlier. It's really a measure of how quickly you can get things done, since we are nearing the end of preparation and the guys have been great. Like I've said many times, it's a fun group of guys to not only coach, but watch and see how they hold each other accountable and what level of play they want to have up there.
I was talking to Coach Goebbel earlier this week about how he doesn't have to worry about red-shirted players. He can just play the best special teams players. How difficult are those conversations then over the years?
It's hard because you're making decisions in real time, but you don't know what's going to happen four weeks later. So you play a guy for four games thinking you're going to shut him down, and then all of a sudden you have three injuries in that position group, and you've got to activate him. Now you have to play him. It was really challenging. You always made the best decisions you could in the time that you had, but as you know, football is a game of attrition. You'd like to have guys available when you need them. I think now with the rosters being smaller, which they are, it's more important to have more access to the guys that are on your team.
Does it change their mindset in some ways knowing that if they're on this team, they can go at any time?
Yeah, that's how I've told them. It's literally like the NFL when their practice squad guys can be activated; so can ours. So it's no different. We're watching every rep, and those guys are giving us the opponent's look. I know, just because over the years there have been guys that were a certain way in training camp as freshmen and by mid-season they were different because of the training and the weight room, but also because they've acclimated and they understand how to play and practice and they know the defense or the offense or the special teams units better.
Now they can have an impact in the last five or six games. So we're actively looking at everybody every day in the films we get.
On players having 5 years of eligibility now...
Yeah, I've said it a million times. Experience is the only thing. Coaches can't get players. They've got to be actively in the game to gain experience. So the longer they play the sport, the slower it appears to them. You can recall the many reps that you've taken, which helps you play the next rep better.
How do injury reports impact how you prepare?
If you think they're being honest on them, that's the part you don't know. I saw the one today, and then I looked at the two deep, and they were different. It's going to be game day. We'll figure out who's playing for them. Particularly in the first game, there's going to be adjustments because even if we know 18's playing a receiver or whatever and you get out there, we've got to see how good that guy is. He was at whatever college or playing at G5 or whatever level he was at. Can this guy do what he did there or here? So it's a game of adjustment in the first game, big time, for both teams.
When you look at high school quarterbacks now in the portal era, when you can always get an experienced guy out of the portal, how has that maybe changed how you evaluate or what you're looking for with a high school quarterback?
I don't think it has. We still want to have really good high school signees that we can develop and grow. On the roster, we've got a portal. We're still actively looking to sign a really good senior class coming out of high school. We're not going to take two or three and quarterback at the same age. Some teams have probably changed a lot more than we have. I still believe in growing a kid from the high school level.
Coach, what do you feel like Victor Snow can bring to special teams?
He's a burner. He can run. He's fast. He's an experienced punt returner. He's really good back there. He understands the feeling of guys running at you when you're like this. That's a unique thing to be able to do as a ball catcher. He's really strong, and I think that's the other part of him that's unique. A lot of these scat guys are not hard to get down. He can run through you as much as he can run around you. He's an electric guy with the ball in his hands and obviously not a big target. You're not going to see him all the time. In past games as a quarterback, but when you get the ball to him, he can make things happen.
How have you seen guys' bodies change with Jaelyn Shipman stepping into the role in nutrition?
Jaelyn's done a great job. She's really hands-on. Takes it very personally. She's engaging. She has a great dominant presence. Players respect her. She doesn't take any nonsense from anybody. She does it in a motherly way. Tough love comes out of her quite a bit. We're thankful she's here. She's doing a great job.
How does opening with an ACC game change your preparation? Maybe then open with a team from a different conference?
It doesn't. There's recall because we played them last year. No matter who we play, we've got a game plan to win. Look at who that team is. Look at who we are. Look at the matchups. Try to learn the rules of their systems. The outcome of the game is different because it counts toward the conference standings, but the preparation has not changed.
On Jonathan Paylor’s health status...
We're excited. He's probably still not 100% yet. I'm hoping that by the time we hit week 2, week 3, or week 4, he'll have only practiced for two weeks. Once we get him back to full speed, it'll be fun to have him on the field again. He's close. He got a lot of reps early on this week in the prep. As the week went on, he gave more to the guys that are going to be playing more in the game. He was the fastest guy on our roster last year. We didn't have him. Getting him back, not just in the return game, but things he can do when he's running the football, will be nice for the depth chart.
Do you like that conferences like the SEC and the Big Ten have stepped up to say that a former NFL player can’t play for us?
Yeah. I think that when you become a pro athlete, you surrender amateurism. That's been forever. To me, that's kind of the cutoff. When a guy goes pro, we say goodbye, good luck, and we move on. There shouldn't be the ability to come back. I don't know if it's the Big Ten or SEC. It doesn't matter to me. It's an amateurism rule. I just think some of these rules are getting thrown out or are crazy. That one, to me, doesn't make any sense.
As a coach, when a kid says, "Coach, I'm going pro," you know you can no longer have him on your team. I understand how the five-for-five thing, timing-wise, wasn't great for a bunch of guys. We had guys like that who became free agents, and I would have loved to have had them come back. That's just not reality. In the real world, decisions are made when they're made. Once they're made, everything after that decision is where it counts. It's no different than anything else we do. I'm glad that's the way it is now, and we can focus on who's here. I guess some of the guys are still in their own suits for other reasons.
How big are in-game adjustments going to be in this situation?
Massive. That's going to be part of winning the game: which side of the ball, which sideline, can do that the best. There's a lot of new players. They have 31 transfers. That's a lot of guys we didn't play against last year that are going to be in this game. The coaches are all the same, but the way they use the pieces differs. We've got to figure out how they're going to use them. Who are the guys? Are there match-up problems? They've got to do the same thing for us. We don't have as many transfers as them, but there are new pieces on the field.
Last week you mentioned there's still ongoing competition. What has that been like this week?
I tell the guys: you earn the right to play when you earn our trust in practice and in meetings. The more plays you're making, the fewer mistakes you're making, you're elevating your playing time. We have a lot of rotational battles going on. They've continued, and they were doing it today. Guys were straining; they're running around making plays. It's fun to watch. It's nice to have some competitive depth because it always makes you practice better if you're in one of those situations.
Do you have a sense of how many freshmen might get on the field?
No.
