NC State head coach Dave Doeren met with the media to recap the App State game, preview the Louisville game, and much more!
NOTE: Click the video above to watch the full press conference!
Opening statement...
I’m proud of the resiliency, grit, and response of our team and staff. It was a long week. To me, grit is a visible measure of how a human being responds to adversity, and I’m really proud of our guys. It was a tough seven days. I’m grateful to have a team and staff with grit in their veins. We found a way to win, and we were the most physical team in that stadium.
You can measure that by yards per carry and by what you see on film: 4.5 yards per carry and over 200 rushing yards. Duke had a hell of a night running the football behind a physical offensive line. The tight end group played every snap of the game. I thought Preston Douglas played a complete football game. He’s done some good things for us this year, and that was the best I’ve seen him without the ball. He’s been a factor in the passing game.
CJ was accurate, made quick decisions, and gave his guys opportunities to make plays with their feet. We had over 200 yards after first contact in that game, which helped us be explosive. When you add up the yards after first contact in the running and passing games, the total is over 200. A lot of that, when you’re throwing the ball, is putting it on a receiver’s body so he doesn’t have to slow down or turn. He can catch and run. You saw that on Victor Snow’s completion.
We were efficient on third down and scored on every red-zone possession. Defensively, it was two different halves. I thought we played a good first half, except for the final drive, when we allowed them into scoring range. We came out in the second half and didn’t have the same focus. That has to get fixed, and our guys understand that.
At times, it was an issue of eye discipline. Anytime you give up an explosive pass or run, there’s usually a communication issue or a breakdown in technique. We had both. On a couple of plays involving backs out of the backfield, our linebackers’ eyes were in the wrong place. Mental focus is something we can improve. That’s what I like about our football team: They are getting better.
I liked what Da’Kaari Nelson did with his opportunity at Will linebacker. He made some mistakes, but he made a lot of plays. He played fast and was physical. Popo Aguirre had a productive game. He tackles well in the box, but he also made tackles in open space, including one where he ran down their quarterback. That was a hell of an effort play.
Jackson Vick probably had his best game. He does a lot for us at nickel, whether he’s blitzing, fitting the run, playing man-to-man on the slot, or dropping into zone coverage. He was productive in that game.
We’re getting a lot of pressure on quarterbacks, but we’re not finishing those plays. We’ve had eight missed sacks. Sacks obviously help your stats, but finishing those plays in the backfield is an area where we have to be better. We also had three defensive penalties that extended drives, which is unlike us this year. One was a poor play on the sideline. Jaren Sensabaugh is a smart kid, but he hit a guy three yards out of bounds and helped the offense. We can’t do that. We’ve had three roughing-the-passer penalties where a player reached for the quarterback and hit his helmet. You can’t be near a quarterback’s headgear.
Those are areas we need to clean up and be more disciplined about. I thought Kanoah Vinesett was tremendous for us. He was perfect on extra points and field goals and had touchbacks on seven of eight kickoffs. We didn’t expect him to have to fill that job, and he has exceeded our expectations. I’m proud of him. Jackson Waller had a couple of nice punts to flip the field.
I have so much respect for App State. Their coaching staff is doing a great job. They’re a good football team. I knew they would fight and that we would have to play four quarters to beat them. That’s who they are and who they’ve always been.
The most disappointing part was letting somebody back into the game. That’s an area where we have to improve as a program. When you build a lead and get a fighter on the ropes, you want to keep him there and finish him off. With that said, I was proud of how we finished in that adverse situation. The offense had back-to-back scoring drives late in the fourth quarter, and the defense got fourth-down stops. There’s a lot to improve, but it’s nicer to address those issues after a win than a loss.
I look forward to practicing this week and getting ready for Louisville, which has the most explosive plays offensively in the country. It’s probably the most talented roster we’ll see this year. They’re 2-2, with two three-point losses in one-possession games against Ole Miss and Wake Forest. They could easily be 4-0, and they’ve already played a challenging schedule against Ole Miss, SMU, and Wake Forest. They’re talented, and Jeff Brohm is a hell of a football coach. I look forward to competing against them.
Offensively, they’re rolling. They’re averaging 41 points and 486 yards per game, and they’re balanced. Their quarterback is playing at a high level: a 68% completion rate, seven touchdowns, and one interception. He leads the country in rushing touchdowns by a quarterback with six. They have elite skill players.
They have two good tailbacks, No. 1 and No. 5. They’re very different from each other, but both are productive. Their slot receiver, No. 0, is a transfer from Vanderbilt. They get him the ball in many ways. He’s electric as a runner and receiver. He’s a problem, and we have to know where he is. Their outside receivers are talented, and their tight end is a big target who averages 20 yards per catch and can make plays after the catch. They have a veteran offensive line with three fifth-year seniors and two fourth-year players. It’s a great challenge.
Defensively, they have a long, talented front and rotate quite a bit. They’re giving up 28 points a game. They’ve had stretches where they shut people down, then give up explosive plays. They’ve gone several halves without giving up much. We have to execute and take advantage of our opportunities.
There are multiple, and they offer a lot of different looks, so we have to identify their fronts and handle their length and size up front. They have an active, deep defensive line, two linebackers who make a lot of plays, and experience in the secondary. They have some injuries back there, but older players are stepping in. They’re replacing starters with third- and fourth-year players, not freshmen. I know it’s going to be a battle, and I’m excited about it.
Our players will continue to work hard this week. We’ve gotten better every week this season. It’s critical to use each week as a learning opportunity and be a better version of yourself the following week.
I look forward to another great environment at Carter-Finley. Our players and I thank everybody for their support. We need the crowd noise to be epic this week against a really good offense. That 12th man and that intensity help us play better and make it harder for the other team to communicate. The noise can lead to pre-snap issues for them. We appreciate everything you do and look forward to another packed house at Carter-Finley. I’ll open it up for questions.
You mentioned letting teams back into games. Looking at the film from the past two games, what has allowed opponents to erase three-score leads?
It’s missed opportunities and bad eyes. I’m not going to talk about the other game anymore; we’ve already done that. In this one, they ran plays in the second half that we had defended well in the first half. It wasn’t anything App State did differently in those situations. At different times, different players had their eyes in the wrong place.
If you’re supposed to key No. 2, No. 3, the tight end, or the back, and your eyes are elsewhere, you’re going to be exposed on misdirection plays. That offense relied heavily on misdirection and eye candy, so it required great discipline. We didn’t have enough of it in the second half. When we did, we played well. When we didn’t, we gave up explosive plays. Mental endurance and focus are things we have to emphasize with our guys this week.
What can you do on the practice field to help them stay mentally focused for all four quarters?
It’s challenging because, against the scout team, you’re not always getting a great look. Sometimes those guys don’t give you exactly the same look, and the speed differs from what you’ll see in a game, particularly in this one. We’re trying to emulate players who aren’t on our scout team.
We do have good-on-good work, and we’ve changed the order so we get it throughout practice instead of doing it in one block followed by a lot of scout-team work. That requires their intensity to stay up through the end of practice. As coaches, we have to keep emphasizing those things. Ultimately, the players have to take ownership and hold themselves accountable.
Each of these guys has an opportunity to help us get better. It’s going to be a major point in our team meeting tomorrow. Whenever we’ve identified an area that needs improvement, the guys have worked at it. I’ll keep beating the drum. Your points of emphasis must align with your weaknesses.
For us, execution means stacking plays with all 11 guys, one play at a time. It’s one thing to get beaten physically; there are good players on the other side of the line. We can’t allow a play to happen because of a lack of focus.
You mentioned getting to the quarterback but not finishing those plays. What needs to change for the defense to turn that pressure into sacks or otherwise disrupt the passer?
Sacks are great, and I want a bunch of them. But the bottom line is that if you can’t sack him, you need to pressure him and force incompletions. You need to finish plays. Some of that comes down to the player and the quarterback. The guy at Vanderbilt made us miss several times, and this quarterback did the same at times.
On two plays when we got to him and hit him, we were penalized for hitting his helmet. You can’t turn a good play into a penalty. It’s about finishing. That’s the hard part on defense: You never tackle the quarterback in practice. You don’t put your team at risk in training camp. When you get into games, you see whether guys can finish those plays.
A defender has to be under control. The quarterback we’re about to play is like Houdini. He gets out of a lot and does a lot with his feet. We need the discipline not to jump on a ball fake or leave our feet. If you’re on the outside, you have to keep the cage wide. If you’re spying, you have to be in the right lane and position yourself to make the tackle. It’s not about a big hit on a guy like this. It’s about getting him down.
We’ve faced our share of quarterbacks like that over the years. Some days you have success, and some days you don’t. It will come down to work in practice, awareness, and executing your technique: grabbing onto him and not letting him out.
Louisville has said Lincoln is dealing with an injury and might be a game-time decision. How much does that change your approach?
It doesn’t. On the last play, he took a tough shot to his lower body. The first thing he did was point at the referee because it was a low hit that could have drawn a roughing penalty. I wouldn’t expect that reaction if it were a serious injury. Having watched him compete, I fully expect him to play. If he doesn’t, we’ll adjust. There isn’t much film on the other two guys. We’re planning for their quarterback to be out there and preparing as well as we can for him.
Last year, you talked about Yousef Mugharbil’s journey back to college football. He’s continued to improve and may have had his best game with the program. What has it been like to watch his development?
What a story. I don’t know how much you guys know about what happened during his time at Florida, but the accident he was part of was terrible. He went a year and a half without being able to play football, then went to Colorado and dealt with everything that happened there. He came here as a walk-on, earned a scholarship,p and is now playing elite football. He’s physical and having fun.
It’s cool to see because I recruited him hard in high school. He was the top offensive lineman in North Carolina coming out of high school, and we lost that recruiting battle to Florida. Getting him back here and seeing him thrive is a great story, a comeback story, whatever you want to call it. I’m proud of him and happy for him. He’s an inspiration to the guys down there and takes full advantage of his reps.
Ashton Locklear scored what I believe was his first career touchdown and nearly had another early in the game. What has he done to earn consistent reps in the receiver rotation?
I’m happy for Ashton. He’s another guy who stuck it out. He came in as a walk-on and had a lot of hamstring issues his first couple of years. He couldn’t stay healthy, so you never really knew what he was as a player. He’d get out there and make a couple of plays—his ball skills are amazing—but then he’d be hurt, and you couldn’t count on him.
A couple of years ago, he figured out how to stay healthy. He found a routine that worked for him and learned how to manage those soft-tissue issues. He kept getting better, and you could see it toward the end of last year. He’s one of our better route runners. He can get open and understands how to turn a defender’s hips in man coverage. You’re right: He would have scored twice if they hadn’t tipped the first ball we threw to him down there.
He gives us a good one-two punch in the slot with him and Vic. He can do things to help us, and I’m happy for him. In this day and age, when people don’t get what they want, they often leave. He stuck it out, became a better version of himself, and is reaping the benefits.
The team was fired up for him when he made that catch. He was hard on himself after the play at Vanderbilt when he had a chance to make a big play,y and they broke it up. Making a play like that in a game will raise his confidence.
You leaned on Ronnie Royal III and Tristan Teasdell at safety this past week, with both playing almost the entire game. What do you like about that combination in the secondary?
We like all four of those guys. There was so much going on with App State’s offense—motions, shifts, unbalanced formations, empty sets, and a lot of adjustments. Ronnie and Tristan have the most game experience in our defense. Given the flow of the game, I think Charlton Warren felt it was best not to keep making substitutions.
It wasn’t because of how King Mack and Brody Barnhardt have played. In my opinion, those guys have earned the right to play more than they did. That’s on us to get them in there. I think it was a gut decision by Charlton on the sideline. There was a lot happening and a lot of checks to make, and that’s where he felt we were.
Every coach faces criticism, but when you feel the team is bought in and improving, does it ever weigh on you? Or are you able to brush it off?
Most of the time, I brush it off. At times, it gets old, but that’s part of the job. I try to focus on what I’m here to do: help these guys and this staff and give everything I have to this program. As human beings, all we can do is give our best. When it’s not enough, we learn from it.
Criticism is part of the world right now. There’s a lynch-mob mentality: How can we tear somebody down more and more? That’s part of the society we’re in, and it isn’t a happy one. For my mental health and to enjoy what I do, I have to block a lot of that out.
Can it get old? Sure. But you have to remember why you’re here. You’re here to mentor, coach, lead, and help a university. You’re here to win as many games as you can. When you don’t win, you learn and get better. That’s what I try to focus on.
Da’Kaari Nelson got what may have been his first extended opportunity at linebacker. How did you evaluate his play after watching the film?
As I mentioned earlier, I thought Da’Kaari played well. He had a few busts that hurt us, but he played hard and fast, communicated well,l and made an impact on some blitzes. I was proud of him. I don’t expect perfection when guys go out there. I know he’ll learn from those reps and be a better player for it. He stepped up when we needed him, and that’s all you can ask for.
Teague Andersen was named ACC Offensive Lineman of the Week for his play at center. What has it been like to watch him play that position over the last two weeks? Do you have an update on Spike Sowells Jr.?
I’m proud of Teague. He’s worked as a backup center since he got here, taking snaps in training camp and spring ball so he and the quarterback could get comfortable together. To step into that role during a game and play the way he has, with that confidence, makes me proud. I told him that in my office. We’re watching him grow in front of us. He’s a great kid who works his butt off and cares deeply about it. I love seeing him have success.
As for Spike, we’re continuing to rehab him and doing the best we can. He’s doing the best he can, too. It’s literally day-to-day. It’s not a season-ending injury, at least not yet, but he hasn’t been able to play.
