NC State football head coach Dave Doeren met with the media to discuss the home win over Richmond, the upcoming matchup against Vanderbilt, and much more!
NOTE: Click the video above to watch the press conference.
Opening statement...
Just going backward first, I'm really proud of the way our guys played. We were able to play 85 players, which is the most I've ever had in a game. And the cool part was that they just kept executing.
A lot of times you get up, you're able to play a lot of your young players, and you have a lot of young mistakes. And in that football game, we obviously ran the ball well and played well on defense and scored a lot of points, but we had no turnovers, very few penalties, played a very clean game, no pre-snap penalties, no post-snap penalties. I had the one turnover on a muffed punt.
But to play 85 guys, to score the most points in 126 years, I guess it is a long time. You got to do a lot of things well for that to happen, and we ran the football extremely well. I love the way we started the game with a completion and an explosive run.
Very effective on third down on both sides of the football. We had eight three-and-outs on defense and two takeaways, playing much tighter, contested coverage, maintaining rush-lane integrity, and maintaining our leverage on the football, our rushing defense. So we did everything we wanted to do in that football game.
And so with that, you see a lot of improvement. And we know we still have a lot of improving to do. Each week of the season, you want to get better as a football team.
And we get ready to go on the road and play a really good Vandy team, coming off their 10-win season, program best last year. They're off to a 2-0 start and had to come back and win last week. And I know they've been rotating quarterbacks, and it feels like they've settled in on a starter in Curtis, a very talented quarterback with a lot of accolades coming out of high school.
And you can see he's got a big arm. He's a tough kid, runs hard. And they're committed to running the football.
You can see that in the first three plays of their season. They're getting 22 personnel and run what we call G-lead, three straight plays. And so, a lot of respect for Clark and what he's done there, the way he runs his program, the way his coaches coach and his players play, their physical group in the offensive line, big tight ends, a lot of personnel groups, a four-year starter at tailback, and a variety of different types of receivers.
A lot of misdirection, a lot of eye candy, a lot of stuff that you got to deal with on defense. And then their defense has just gotten better and better each year he's been there.
They're very sound. They play hard. They're diverse with their pressure and disguise packages in certain situations.
But they're really sound, and the two linebackers, 11 and 24, are fun to watch. They're good football players, and so is Heard, their boundary safety, number eight. That guy flies around, hits people, and so it's a good football team.
It's going to be a great opportunity to go on the road and play against a really good team. But for us, it's building on what we just did, learning from what happened in the first game, seeing the improvement in the second, and then, obviously, continuing with better competition to go out and play well and put ourselves in a position to win this next football game. With that, any questions?
Coach, you guys played two linebackers pretty evenly in AJ's spot this past weekend. What did you evaluate about how Da'Kaari and Bailey played?
I thought Bailey played well. He had good energy. He wasn't nervous.
He came out and made plays. He fit the run well. He tackled well.
He got his hands on a ball on an RPO. He was in the right place. Da'Kaari's a guy that really knows the defense.
You can see when he goes in there. He's a good communicator. They're different-sized guys.
He's got more length. But I think they both did some good things. I thought Ziggy Moore came into the game and did some good things.
Jordan Moreta came into the game and did some good things. As I said, we're going to play a bunch of them, and we're going to continue to do that. And these young guys we have are talented, and the more they play, the better they're going to get.
And so that rotation, I think, is healthy, and we see that at several positions in our front. And breeds competition is what it does. And when you've got guys that are getting reps in games, they understand that, hey, practice is where I'm going to get more reps.
And so it does build competition throughout the room, unlike some years where you have a guy like Popo, who's very established in the middle. Years past, with Drake Thomas and Payton Wilson, things like that, you're not going to rotate those guys a whole lot. But when you have a position with an injury, and you have depth, it creates a competitive battle.
And to follow up quickly, how much easier does it make it to rotate a linebacker when you have a guy like Popo playing next to them throughout the game?
Yeah, he's a great communicator. And so I think playing next to a guy that has his command presence builds confidence for the player that's in the game with him. And he's a good teammate, man.
I mean, he's super positive with the guys around him. And he wants them, obviously, to do their job and do it well. But he's a guy that, playing next to him, I think, definitely would bring confidence to that player.
Dave, both of Vanderbilt's quarterbacks over the last few weeks have shown they're mobile and can roll out of the pocket. How much more prepared do you feel the guys are, based on what you saw in week zero, to face this upcoming week?
Well, I thought we fixed it. The thing that's nice now, to answer your question, is we have film on their offense with these quarterbacks playing in it. You have a better feeling for how they're going to use them.
When you go into week zero, and you're playing a team with a transfer, and we defended everything we thought he was going to do, and he did a lot of different things. Like I said, after that game, we didn't do a great job lining up some of those formations. And so, as coaches, we've got to prepare our kids for every possible formation, even the ones they don't show you, and be sound, and have leverage and have edges.
And we did that. We didn't lose leverage once in the run game on Saturday. And there were some copycat plays that they ran that hurt us the week before.
But these are different athletes in this game. And so, some of defending a running quarterback isn't the designed runs that hurt you. Sometimes it's what they can do on a drop-back pass and scrambling around and hurting you.
And so, we've got to be ready for both. And we've got to do a good job tackling those guys. Both of them are strong runners.
They're not guys that slide. They seek contact, and they run through people. They're tough kids.
And so, they run as Will does. They run to gain yards after contact, not just to get what they can get and get down.
Yeah, Dave, I feel like last year you talked at times about needing to be better on third down defensively. And I know it's just been two games, but you guys have been really strong on third down this year. Have you noticed anything specifically there?
Yeah. Well, one, I think the defensive kids know the system better, for one. They're executing it.
I think the experience in our secondary helps quite a bit. There's a lot of guys in there on third down that have played a lot of football, really, with the exception of Sensabaugh. You look out there, and Brian Nelson's played a lot.
Vick's played a lot. Ronnie's played a lot. Teasdell's played a lot last year.
King Mack's played a lot of football. And so, when your secondary is experienced and understands what kind of routes come and what those down-and-distances are, they have more confidence; it helps. And then mixing different types of pass rush packages together, I think D.J.'s done a good job with that group on third down, having some different looks and bringing different things.
And then it comes down to winning one-on-ones. And we've had several guys, I thought, in the first two games, Harvey Dyson, have won one-on-ones two games in a row. It was good to see Colby Cronk do that in this game.
He's a guy who, obviously, everyone knows how strong he is, but he's very athletic. And to see him play faster was good. So, one-on-one pass rush, you've got to win on defense.
And it's one thing when they slide to you, and the guy has help. But when you get those singles, you've got to win. And I felt like this year so far, we've been better that way.
Dave, I guess it's been almost 14 years. December 12th, you were in the press box at the Music City Bowl. If you could go back in time, remember what you remember about that day, how excited you were to take control of the program, and just that day in general, sir.
Yeah, I don't remember a lot about it. I mean, I know I was coming in from the Orange Bowl or going to the Orange Bowl. I can't remember.
I mean, there was a lot going on at that time. I remember it rained. I remember there were a lot of turnovers in that game for NC State.
I was shaking a lot of hands, meeting a lot of people, and trying to watch the players I knew were coming back from that team. As there were a lot of seniors on that team, there were a lot of guys leaving the program in that game. But that feels like a million years ago.
Can you tell us how Spike's doing?
He's doing great. Yeah. No, he's doing really well. I totally expect him to be ready.
I'm going to assume that Vanderbilt will continue to send six or seven people at the quarterback. What are some things you guys can do to combat that?
Yeah, well, they do a good job. I mean, they get everybody on the line of scrimmage that they can at times, and sometimes they're coming, sometimes they're dropping. So they mix the pressure with the disguise, and we've seen that quite a bit.
Last year, Duke ran that quite a bit against us, and it seems to be a new thing this year. Defensively, there's more and more teams doing it. You have to have a plan.
Your quarterback has to understand his protections, and if he's hot, who he's hot off of. Your route concept has to address pressure, and then you've got to schematically give yourself some opportunities to do things, and I'm not going to get into what those are. But they make you sit there and really look at how they attack you, and that's part of the chess game.
If they're going to do this, then we're going to do that, and if they do this, then we're going to do this, and you've got to have a really good plan, and it's got to be a plan your players can execute.
You mentioned Jaren earlier, but what's it been like just seeing him bounce back from the shorter injury he had last year and be able to play as well as he has these first two weeks?
Yeah, I'm proud of Jaren. He's worked really hard, which isn't a surprise. We knew that he was that type of person.
He got here, dealt with two injuries, put his head down, went to work, and came back. It was at nickel last year, and we needed him to play there depth-wise. We moved him back to the position he was recruited to play, corner, and it's obviously a much more natural position for him. I think the more he plays, the better he's going to get.
He's long. He's athletic. He's smart.
He's a tough kid, and experience builds confidence with these guys, so I thought he played really well in this past game. They didn't throw the ball a lot to his side of the field, so he's a guy who has really impressed our staff, and whatever you ask him to do, he does it with a smile. I know this is his home state he's coming back to for this game, so I'm sure this one means a lot to him.
I wonder, when you play a team from the SEC, how much of a measuring stick is that for your program, and do you look at these non-conference games as an opportunity to sort of see how you guys feel or match up against teams across the country?
Yeah, I mean, I think there's a lot of talk maybe externally about that more than there is internally. It's a really good team that won 10 games last year, and they're from a good conference just like we are, and so it's a great measuring stick that way. You're playing a 10-win team in their stadium, and arguably the best team in program history there last year, so you're getting them at their peak, and they had every coach on their staff, I believe, return, so their continuity is there.
So, it's a great test, and we look forward to the opportunity to compete against them.
Yeah, I know you got a road game this week, Dave, but at the first home game I noticed how gorgeous the field looked, and you guys have a turf management program there that seems to be rated among the top in the country. Carter-Finley Stadium isn't just for NC State.
They have concerts and things of that ilk, too. Your thoughts on how well they maintain the field, and is that how much of a help to your program they are?
Yeah, I mean, they count every blade every day, and that's a real thing. Our field is perfect, and those guys do an amazing job maintaining it. And my office looks out into the stadium, and there's not a day that goes by that somebody's not in there attending to it.
They do a great job, and as you mentioned, the fact that they had concerts in there and were able to get it flipped and ready the way they did in a short period of time into the field that it is right now, it's fantastic, and I can't say enough great things about them. Every team I know that's played in our stadium says the same thing about just how good a track it is and how well-maintained it is.
Dave, your team was hungry to prove themselves, especially after Richmond spent two weeks sitting at a loss to UVA. Now that you have a win under your belt and another chance to play a powerful opponent, how would you rate the team's hunger?
Well, that was the challenge that I gave them. You can't let success change what happened there. All of us had to feel that stench that was over us for 14 days of losing, and you've got to remember that.
And it's my job to remind them of that. Their coaches' jobs, and our leadership, need to understand the kind of urgency and edge you have to have in this sport to play well; it's really the price of admission. As a competitor, to be able to perform at the level you want to perform at, there's just a certain sacrifice you have to make, and there's an edge you've got to compete with, and you've got to understand it's not going to happen because you want it to.
It's going to happen because you prepared yourself to make it happen throughout the week. And everything that you do, and I do think, as I said, the way that we played in the opener could be a gift, as long as we use it as a lesson. And I have one opportunity to say that we have, and now we have another.
And so that'll be what this week's about. It's about taking advantage of our preparation hours, our recovery hours, our practice time, our meeting time, our nutrition, our rest, all of it. It all adds up, and what it adds up to is the scoreboard.
It's a reflection of how you prepared. It's a reflection of all the things that go into a play: 11 guys in a play doing all the things they're supposed to do, a lot of details in one football play. And the details that aren't there, you can see those, too.
That's a reflection on the scoreboard. So that's why we stay up late at night as coaches. That's why we have no hair or gray hair, because that's what you're thinking about: all the little things that go into being good.
And what are we missing? What do we need to cover again? What haven't I said enough times?
You've had to play freshman quarterbacks over the years. When you see Curtis on film through two games, do you see things that maybe he's a little more advanced than most freshmen, or do you see what he does well at this point, even after two games?
Well, you can see the ball come out. I mean, he's got a huge arm. I mean, he flips that thing, and it's flying across the field.
He's got really talented arm strength. You can see how strong he is when he runs. And as I mentioned earlier, he's not just going down.
He's trying to get yards, competitive. I mean, they had a goal-line play the other day where it was a bad snap exchange, and he was able to pick the ball up, balance himself on one arm, go through contact, and dive into the end zone for a score. Pretty poised for a freshman to do that.
Says a lot about just that moment. You're in your first or second ever college football game, and to have a play like that, some guys would have just fallen on the ground to get the ball. So he's going to be a good football player, and this will be, I think, I mean, we haven't announced it yet, but, again, I'm just going off of what I've watched.
He took over the last game when they were down, and they ended up winning the football game with him in there the whole second half. So we anticipate seeing him the entire game.
Yeah, Dave, obviously you've got Duke and Davion at the running back position, but you were able to play some of your younger guys a lot in this game against Richmond. How would you evaluate their play? The younger guys?
Yeah, no, I thought all the guys that came in ran the ball well, as I mentioned. I mean, I think there were 10 different guys that ran the football. It was fun to see Jonathan Paylor get an explosive run.
Dylan McCoy gets an explosive run. Noah Moss gets an explosive run. DeAndre got in there and got some runs.
Isaiah got some runs. So it's awesome for those guys that worked their butts off. They're all getting better, and it gives them an opportunity to build confidence in a game and allows the coaches to see live tackling reps.
It lets you coach them on some things, and I'm excited about the depth in that room. I think Coach Goebbel's done a good job developing, mentoring, and growing that room. And then, obviously, you have two workhorses in there with Duke and Bullet that do a lot of good things with and without the ball that are great role models for those kids.
And just a quick follow-up, how important is Darius Johnson to that room and how much of an impact is he without the ball?
Yeah, he's an unsung hero, man. I mean, he's one of our best special teams players, physical as a lead blocker. He's got really good ball skills.
We can throw the football to him at any time. And, I mean, the guy doesn't talk. I mean, you give him instruction, he smiles at you, and he goes to work, and he doesn't make mistakes.
So, yeah, he's probably one of our definitely unsung heroes and a true Swiss Army knife when you look at all the things that we ask him to do on our team.
Yeah, Coach, I hadn't gotten a chance to ask you this today, but what's it been like for you having Germaine Pratt and Davin Vann with the program, helping out, and just being back in the game?
It's awesome. I mean, they're both such great guys, for one. So just seeing them, talking to them, catching up with them, and then seeing them pour back into the players.
I mean, they love this place, and they love the game. And I think that's the one thing. Some of us are addicted to the game, and you find ways to keep it in your life.
And for these two guys, this is where things stand right now. And they're taking advantage of the opportunity, and it's great for the program for younger players to be able to go up to guys who played here, had professional careers, spend time with them, talk to them about what it was like, and get advice. It's just another voice of wisdom and, in some cases, a leader to their age group.
So it's helpful. And they got great energy about them, too. So they're bringing that youth into the building every day, which is great.
Yeah, you talked about Drew coming in just about two weeks ago now with Nick dealing with that injury. Aside from the actual football side of things, what's it been like to get to know him in this unique situation that you all have him in?
Yeah, still getting to know him. Pretty quiet; he doesn't say a ton. He's got a pretty good dry sense of humor.
I went up to him at some point later in the game, and he had a little smile on his face. I said, "This is fun, isn't it?" He goes, "Yeah, I'm hoping I have to tackle somebody."
He looked at me, and I'm like, "I hope you don't." But I think it's just a unique part of what's going on, and he did a good job, man. He went in there and had a bunch of kickoffs, and obviously his first one was a touchback, which was huge for his psyche.
And so we're glad he's here and excited to see how our specialists have taken care of him. And it's true, like, he didn't even know how to put on a helmet. So you're talking about a guy who's played soccer his whole life.
He was in a national championship game a year ago. Fast forward, and he's learning how to put on a football helmet, and then he's kicking in our home opener, and he kicks a touchback, which was pretty amazing.
I was actually going to ask about Drew. It looked like he had soccer cleats on.
Do you know if he's going to keep those cleats or switch to some football boots, should we say?
Whatever makes him kick the ball better is what he's going to wear.
