NC State OC Kurt Roper met with the media to discuss how the offense can improve, the Richmond game, and much more!
NOTE: Click the video above to watch the full press conference!
On how the offense can be better...
There are always things to work on, try to get better at, right? It's whether it's a play that I called that could be better at a different time in the game, or that maybe wasn't set up well at that time, or guys executing. I always go back after a game, and there are things to correct and improve as the season goes on.
Coach Doeren yesterday said sometimes when the quarterback's out of it, it really makes it hard on the play caller to get in rhythm, too. How did you kind of experience that this early in the game?
I didn't really think of it that way. I don't think of it that way. You're just trying to—what's interesting, like you do a lot of practicing, right?
And then when it comes to a game, you have—it's such a different mindset than practice, in the sense that you have three downs to get three more downs. In practice, you get to script and work through all the situations and scenarios, and every play is going to get run. Well, in reality, when they turn the scoreboard on, you got three plays to get three more plays.
And I was just trying to find a way to stay on the field after a certain point, but I don't go into that mindset of, "Okay, what's going to give us a chance to put a drive together and stay on the field?"
What did you and CJ talk about after the game?
That we got to make the corrections and then you go to the next. Football is like any other sport. It's a long season, and I learned this analogy a long time ago. Once you play Saturday, you go to Sunday, make your corrections — they're technical, not emotional — then you rip the rearview mirror off and go on to the next game. That's what you do.
And that's what a quarterback has to do. This game is challenging mentally. If you sit on the bad too long, it can affect you.
And so, once you make the corrections you need to make, whether it's a coach or a player, you move on and get ready for the next opponent.
Is part of moving on to establish a running game and setting up third and fourth?
I think anytime in football, if you can run the football, it helps a quarterback in any game.
So, yeah, I think when you look at that, critiquing yourself is that the running back didn't get the football enough, plain and simple. And so, yes, but that never changes in any game. You got to be able to run the football.
Is that more of the Virginia defense being good or...?
I think it's always some of both, right? It's always some of both.
Like you saw CJ run the ball more. Well, those are reads, right? And when you're in gun, some of those reads—
And so, instead of the running back getting the ball in those situations, the quarterback ended up with it. But, yeah, it's good defense. It's play-calling. It's everything in that.
How do you maybe evaluate how the offensive line did and where they need to improve?
I thought they played the game fine. Well, I don't think we ran the ball enough. And that was more on me than them.
But pass protection was outstanding. We threw the ball a bunch. And when the game changed, and you're three scores down, you're going to throw the ball a lot more.
So their pass protection was good.
What people were looking at after the game was the receivers and whether they got separation. What do you see from them in their first game?
It's a start. It's a new group in many ways. But that's part of it.
You go in, and you watch the tape, and you make the corrections, and you go from there. But I thought guys at times got themselves open. At times they got covered.
And that's football.
Are there things you're able to learn about your own personnel that maybe doesn't always get you in practice, but because it's a real game?
I think there's always growth between the first game and the second game, right?
There are a lot of people that say they're a coach out there, and a coach has a scoreboard. And the scoreboard is the best teacher for all of us, right? And so there's a lot of lessons that come out of that, and you do learn about your personnel and the system that you have going, and you try to improve on it each and every week.
How do you feel like the team as a whole has kind of responded in the last week and a half?
I mean, they're young people, right? Young people are resilient. That's what they are.
They move on pretty quickly. And I think life, if you're not that way, life can get really challenging, right? But, man, they're tough guys, and they just want to go on to the next game.
