NC State defensive coordinator DJ Eliot recently spoke on the Wolfpack Weekly Radio Show, where he discussed the Virginia game, how the defense can improve, and much more!
What were your thoughts after the Charlottesville game? What jumped out to you when you were looking at film busting back down?
Well, obviously, we didn't play as well as we could. I think our guys realize that we, as coaches, could have played better and coached better. And there are corrections that we're making right now that we've got to get right.
And the good thing is that sometimes a game like that is an eye-opener. Sometimes a game like that is something that can help you set the way that you're going to play for the rest of the season. And that's the approach that we've taken so far: listen, this is not who we are.
We know what we did wrong, and we're going to fix it. And we're going to get better. And we recognize that we don't play our best at all times, and that this can happen. And so we've got to be on edge every day at practice.
We have to be on edge every day in meetings. And we have to make sure we're the best versions of ourselves every single day so we can be our best on Saturdays.
It's one thing to show practice film. It's another thing to show game film. How eye-opening has that game film been for your group?
It's been a great learning experience. It's been a motivator. It's been one that our guys really feel like they weren't who they could be. And it's on film. And the whole world saw that. So it's been a great opportunity for us to get better.
Was Beau Pribula a little like Haynes King? When we were calling the game? The Georgia Tech QB last year, Pribula, seemed like a fairly comparable guy. Haynes King was the fifth- or sixth-leading rusher in the league last year. It felt somewhat similar to that.
Yeah, he's a really good athlete. And we had our chances to tackle him when we didn't at times. So we have to get better at that. And they have a good team. They're talented, and they have good coaches, and their quarterbacks are good athletes. And so, hats off to them. They did some good things, but we weren't our best. And we recognize that.
I know you guys knew that Beau could run the football. I mean, that's just one of the things that he did last year. So a little more designed run in this game for him than possibly a year ago. What did you do after the first quarter and a half where you were able to contain him a little bit better?
Well, really didn't know what they were going to do. I think that's part of the course now in college football every year. Everybody has a new roster. So you really don't know exactly what you're going to get from an offense because they're making the pieces that they have now work with what they want to do.
And so I think that after the first couple of drives, we were able to adjust and get a feel for how they were attacking us, and then our players were able to just kind of hone in more than schematically, just kind of hone in on the way they're attacking us and then play better.
How much did the turnovers, the short fields? They're just — it feels like a killer. The ball gets tipped up, and Hillman dives and makes a great play. The safety for Virginia picks it off. And then you've got to ask your guys to get right back out there and do it again. They're a little bit tired. But in addition, they're basically right near the red zone.
So, as a DC, what do you try to do to make it a field goal, to do the bend but not break it? It just feels like what Coach Doeren said pregame: If there was one thing you really want to avoid, it's before the game started. He said, “Early-season turnovers are just a killer.” And then that ball got tipped up, and Jeff was on the sideline. And Johnny and I were talking like, that's a really tough spot to be in.
I think it's part of the game. So you got to be ready for it. And the flip side is that if we didn't give our offense those situations. That's true. So, we should have found a way to create turnovers in those parts of the field so they could keep going and score.
And we practice sudden change — things that you're not expecting — turnovers that happen. We call that a sudden change scenario. We practice that in practice, and players have to go out there, execute, and hold people to field goals when they're already in scoring range. And that's part of it.
How much of the defensive troubles were missed fits in gaps, overpursuit, and missed tackles, or were some of that all three of those things involved in?
I think all three were involved in it. And, at times, we did it well, and guys were doing some good things. But I think all three would be part of the equation there.
Popo had 18 tackles in the ballgame. Part of that is maybe 57 run plays by Virginia. And yeah, but also I would imagine he graded well or, you know, he did a nice job, right? What do you think of Popo Aguirre in his first action here with the Pack?
I was pleased with Popo's effort. He really played hard. He takes the game very seriously. He's very excited to be here. He gives it all that he has every down. He’s working really hard to be a leader. And any mistake he makes, he owns it, takes accountability for it, and wants to get better. I've been very pleased with Popo.
Did Ronnie Royal jump out to you with a couple of really big hits?
Yeah, Ronnie always has some big hits. He's a physical player. And you need that in a safety because a lot of times they're the last line of defense, and they're stuck there having to make a tackle, or they're the on-block player. A lot of times in your run schemes, they're designed to make the play anyway. And so if you have a safety, it's physical and can tackle it. It's really beneficial. And Ronnie does that.
How were your impressions of King Mack? Another safety.
Yeah. King Mack, same way as Ronnie. Those guys are both physical guys. Both guys can tackle and play fast. And you like half of that. You don't want to be in a situation where you got to have a safety that's got a tackle and he can't. And those guys are sure tacklers. So I'm glad they're in our system.
How good was Virginia's offensive line?
They seem to be very smart. They seem to get themselves into the right place with the right blocking schemes and combinations. They did a really good job of blocking the right people. So it was, again, we could have played better. But hats off to them.
It was symptomatic, maybe also being seventh year, seventh year, sixth year, fifth year, fifth year, like all graduate students plus doctoral students on the right side of the line. By my chronology, it's a really experienced group.
One thing I noticed: you weren't on the sidelines this year. I believe you were last year. You're in the box this year. Any thought process on that?
In the second half of the season, I went to the box. Yeah, I just felt like I needed to be up there so I could see it and have my own thoughts. I felt like that was better for me with our team last year. And I just wanted to continue doing that this year. So, yeah, the whole second half of the season, I was up there.
The iPads help in that, too, don't they? The iPads you have, I mean, you've got the communication and the visuals right there.
That's right.
Do they still have the phones?
They do. Yeah, they still have phones. Well, nobody has a cell phone during the game.
So, the headsets the coaches wear. Right. And then if somebody in the box wants to talk to a player, he has to go to the player's phone. So you take a head coach's headset off and put it on him. But usually, go straight.
We are talking ball after Virginia before Richmond, the home opener, but with an idle week, what do you do with a bye week this early in the year? Usually you're doing, like, a self-scout, which you can do, right?
You don't have a ton of film on it. Do you have different goals now than you will the second time you're off in mid-October? When you're looking at a lot more data and film and a lot more games, pull out more snaps under your belt for this Team, what's the goal? What are the goals here this week?
Now? We're just concentrating on ourselves. We're just trying to get better by concentrating on our fundamentals and techniques and executing our base schemes. We only have one game to look at, and there was obviously a lot to learn from that game.
So, we're just working on what we can do to be better. Not necessarily what we need to do against a certain point we've played, and it's good because we need it when our players are fired up about it. We go out there, and we go against the offense, and they run the offense, and we run our defense, and we concentrate on the basics.
How does it work for you and this program as a defensive coordinator? How is it broken up? Who reports to you? What kind of information do you get? You're not just coaching your position; you're having to look at the entire defense.
So we assign different scouting responsibilities within the coaching staff, and each member presents his area to the whole staff. And then I hear all the different presentations and ideas from scouting the opponent, and then put together the game plan, and we collaboratively come up with ideas and do things.
But I'm the one who makes the final decision on what we're gonna do and how we're gonna do it. And then, during the game, we each have individual responsibilities, too, on how we're communicating, how we're substituting, how we're getting information to the players on the field. So, it's an elaborate system where everybody has a responsibility, and we come together to share information and make sure we're all on the same page.
Do you do the same thing with personnel? Like, they bring the personnel coach. I believe this guy should play this, but can you have the final say on who you believe should be playing on the defensive side of the ball?
Well, ultimately, Dave has final say. Yeah, ultimately, Dave has final say on who plays, but yes, we do the same thing with personnel, right? We discuss who we think is best for each spot, then make our decisions.
We talked about Popo Aguirre a little bit. The rotation of defensive linemen who played well. Who'd you like? What'd you see out of the defensive line that you want to learn from, but then also that you want to establish as good? And you say, yeah, let's do more of that.
I think as a unit as a whole, we—whether it was an edge player or there was a defensive tackle—I think at times we did some good things. I did, but I think as a whole, all four of us want to get better. I think that there's an emphasis on getting better at the whole front four.
And so, we praise the plays that guys made that were good, but we also are making the corrections on the ones that weren't good, and they feel that, and they recognize that, too. And that's what's really been great about this week. Like, yes, it's that you get, you play a game, and then you get a whole week to get better. And that's been the emphasis.
We've been fortunate to see some practices and see some personnel that — who's that guy? Who's that guy? I wonder if they're gonna play, and then all of a sudden you see him in the game on Saturday. And the one guy I'm referring to is Elijah Satchell, a true freshman from Camden, New Jersey, who got in.
I think he made a couple of tackles as well. You got to like the future of this young man in this program, because if you can come in and step in your first college season and play in your first college game against a Virginia, you got to feel pretty good about that.
Yeah, Elijah's done some good things. He's had a great camp. He was here in the spring, too. He had a good spring, then he was here all summer, then he had a great fall camp, and he has really proven that he can play. He can, he can play at this level, and especially, that's challenging for a freshman, but we're fired up about him. That brings me to another point.
You mentioned he was here for spring ball a year ago. This portal window, you guys got active after the spring. You went and got Key, and you went and got Sabastian. You got some defensive players this year. You pretty much knew what your roster would be going into spring ball.
I imagine that's a little more comforting, knowing what you have going into spring and having those reps with the new guys, as opposed to a year ago, when you didn't have those reps with them in the spring. It was only in the fall.
That's correct. We really didn't have our roster set until after spring last year. And this year, not only were we able to get reps with them in spring ball, but they were also able to see the corrections they needed to make from spring ball and use them throughout the summer and into training camp, too. I think the system's a lot better now. I do. Getting rid of the spring portal has made it more manageable for a football staff.
On Sabastian Harsh and Cian Slone...
Yeah, they're always fired up about their opportunities. Sabastian making the 53-man roster and Cian being on the practice squad. They both had great preseason camps and played well in the preseason games, and I'm happy for him.
I think Caden Fordham had, like, a 14-tackle game. It's just undeniable, like, this guy clearly can go. Is that not—are those two guys like undrafted guys, rookies now on 53-man rosters? Sabastian was great. He's a great football player, a no-doubt football player. Caden Fordham was incredibly productive. I mean, he's just undeniable production.
Did it again for the Bucs, and now they said they are like the poster guys for the draft is not everything, right? If you don't get taken in the top seven rounds, boom. Sebastian Harsh and Caden Fordham. I, I think it's awesome. They're great stories, and they're great guys.
Yeah, you're right. Once they get there, it doesn't matter where they came from. The best players are gonna play. So the key is to get in the door, you know, and then prove yourself. And those guys did a great job for us, worked really hard, and did exactly what they were asked to do, asked of them to do at the next level. And I'm happy for him, Caden.
I talked to him midway through the year last year, three-quarters of the way through, and he said, “I really didn't get comfortable with my knee.” But he has just improved each time. With the year he had last year, he wasn't drafted, but it gave him an opportunity. Why do you think he has been able to make an impression in Tampa Bay? It's not just the 14 tackles. It's other stuff. He can play some special teams as well.
Okay, he said it, but I think he really came on in the second half of the season. And I think a lot of that was his knee and learning the system and all that. I think that Caden has a knack. He has a knack for getting to the football and understanding the game, which gets him into positions to make plays. And sometimes you can't see that until you have him live.
Is it too early to talk Richmond? Can we talk a little bit about Richmond? We may not be in Richmond yet. It's not Richmond week. It's a bye week. I did a little research—a very quick dive into Richmond. The running back was a preseason all-league selection, and last year their defense was basically number one in the FCS. Are there any Richmond preparations occurring already?
Or is that—is that premature? We're really focusing on—okay, yeah, we're really focusing on us and getting better. But I mean, we're really aware of who all our opponents are, and we did a thorough summer evaluation of them, and we're continuing to evaluate them as well.
How much time do you spend in the summer up? Scouting opponents and going over what they may have? Because I mean, a lot of times, particularly in the current climate, you don't really know what kind of team they're gonna have. You probably will know more about what a Richmond team's gonna have than a Virginia team's gonna have.
Yeah, that's fair. Actually, it's really fair. It's a good point. Yeah, it's a good point. We do spend a lot of time because you want to be prepared, and we try to figure out where they're gonna use the pieces of their puzzle. Because a lot of times it's different players, but maybe it'll be the same system.
And so, we evaluate not only their scheme but also the new players on their roster. We watch the video of where those guys were before, and it's a different game. And the fact that it's not as predictable as it once was — you don't, you don't know who's gonna be where, and with that, you don't really know what they're gonna do, too. So, it's, it's not as concrete as it used to be, but we still put a lot of effort into it.
Coach, one more thing before we let you go. September is Pediatric Cancer Awareness Month. Our hearts broke for you and your family last year, and then, frankly, once again when David Hale's great article came out. We read about it, and I'm a father. Jeff's a father, and we're all thinking about you.
While there's so much going on, last year you missed time because your daughter, Drue, was sick, and she passed. It's Pediatric Cancer Awareness Month, and there's an opportunity now for us to talk about things bigger than football that mean a lot more than football. You dealt with so much last year, right smack in the middle of the season, with your family. It's been dealing with things for years. So now that it's Pediatric Cancer Awareness Month, what does that mean now for you and your family?
So for us now, it's really personal. So this month we want to do as much as we can to raise awareness and raise money to help other families out there. They're battling pediatric cancer. And we've got some things in line that we've really made some headway with. And one of them. We have a foundation in her name with Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.
And so if you, if you go online and you type in Drue Eliot and Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, you'll see a foundation in her name where we're raising money to help fight Ewing sarcoma, which is the cancer that she battled.
And it also is money for families that don't have enough money to support the needs they have if they have a child that has cancer as well. The money is also there for pediatric cancer nurses, okay. So it covers multiple facets; it's for a great cause, and it really means a lot to us. So if anybody could get online and find that foundation.
We'd really appreciate it. In David Hale's article, a couple of quotes really stood out to me, and those were the ones that stayed on my phone the longest. And I think this is great advice Drue gave you then, and that we can apply now: move on to the next game.
That's right.
I think about that after what happened at Virginia. But I also think about how you changed the message on your phone. Now, every day you wake up, it says, "Make Drue proud.” Every day, I know this foundation is something she would be beaming about, knowing that what she went through will help somebody else.
That's right. Drue never wanted anybody to know that she had cancer. And so we never really were raising awareness at that time. She wanted to be a normal kid. She didn't want people to pity her for her own reasons. But now that she's passed, it's our mission to tell her story so we can not only inspire others but also raise awareness and funds to help others.
Even to the point where she would go to school, and people didn't know, and she was very happy about that.
That's right.
Not that she was trying to hide it, but she was trying to blend in. And I think there was another part in the article that talked about how she came home so excited, saying a guy called her a *beep*, which she thought was great.
That's right. No, if she—if he knew she had cancer, he never would have said that. That's exactly right. Yes, she wanted to be a normal kid so bad. She did, and she didn't want people—it wasn't that she was ashamed of it. She didn't want to be treated differently. She didn't want people to feel sorry for her or pity her. She wanted to be a normal teenage kid.
