NC State head coach Dave Doeren met with the media to discuss the 38-14 loss to Wake Forest.
NOTE: Click the video above to watch the full press conference!
Opening statement...
Credit to Wake Forest. They deserved to win that football game and outplayed us in the second half.
We did a lot of good things in the first half. We were shorthanded with five starters out on offense, and I thought our guys battled and gave us chances to move the football and score.
Defensively, we had enough stops in the first half. We came out in the second half, and it was the opposite.
We couldn't stop them. Their quarterback was hot, and we gave up multiple poor coverage assignments. It just wasn't good enough.
Offensively, you could feel their six-year interior players and their two fourth-year edge players wearing us down on the offensive line and in pass protection.
The run game was not good, with too much knockback and penetration.
Those guys beat us today, and that happens sometimes. It's unfortunate.
We'd love to have played that football game with a healthy offensive line, but we don't have one right now.
Our kids are going to learn from that film. We're going to regroup during our bye week and get ready for our next six.
Outside of Richmond, NC State has now been outscored 115-53 in the second half of games this year. What do you think has led to some of those struggles in the second half? Is it an inability to adjust, or an inability to adjust to other teams' adjustments?
I think it's more execution, and that's the sad part.
Teams aren't doing things that they didn't do in the first half. A lot of times, they're running the same plays that we defended, and then we're not defending them with discipline.
I'm speaking about our defense because that's what you asked.
For example, they ran a sprint-out with a hitch and a corner route. We're in quarters, and the corner is supposed to sink. That's day-one install. You do it all the time.
He doesn't. He sits on the hitch, and now the corner is open. It's a principle of the coverage.
You play high-to-low, and we're not executing.
As coaches, we've got to get that done. We've got to do a better job on defense of getting our kids to execute in the second half.
I wish I could tell you that we're getting out-adjusted because that's not what's happening.
It's like the week before. Louisville runs split zone, the most basic run play known to man, and we've probably run 1,000 reps of defense against that run because we have it on offense. It pops for a touchdown.
It's basic things. It's fundamentals. It's not pressing and doing your job.
It's really frustrating.
A lot of teams this year have found success scoring at the end of the first half and then coming back out and using that momentum in the second half. Why do you think the defense is allowing teams to build that momentum?
I just answered that question. Next question.
Jake Dickert is becoming one of the hottest coaching candidates in the country, and with Wake Forest being an in-state rival, there are naturally comparisons between the schools. What do you think he's tapped into that's working so well at Wake Forest?
It's hard for me to say they don't have a ton of resources because I don't get to see their budget, so it's really not a fair question.
As far as Jake, he's a really good football coach.
Give him credit for doing a great job. His kids play hard, and they're good schematically.
He retained many players last year. The defensive front was all on that team last year.
They must have some resources to retain players like they are.
You changed practices to help the defense as the games went on. What other things do you think you can do immediately to try to flip the switch?
It's a good question.
We did play better on defense last week, I thought, and finished with a big stop at the end of that game.
Some of this is personnel.
It's not the defense. It's one player not doing his job.
Today, a corner got picked on quite a bit.
We've got to get better at that spot, whether it's through improvement by that player, competition in practice, or replacing him.
Sometimes personnel wins, and today it did.
There was that sequence in the third quarter where you guys had Wake Forest backed up at second-and-22, and they climbed out of it. How much did that change the momentum and spirit of the defense?
There were a lot of things.
That's one, but then we had a ton of penalties we haven't seen all season — a lot of discipline issues.
When you're shorthanded, your margin for error is smaller. You've got to play a cleaner football game, execute at a higher level, and certainly can't shoot yourself in the foot.
We did all those things in the second half and made it easier for Wake to move the football.
That's disappointing because that's all we talked about all week.
We actually had a smaller call sheet this week on defense, so we could rep fewer calls against their plays more often and execute at a higher level.
It worked for a half.
You guys have a bye week this week. What do the next few days look like as you regroup and get ready for the back half of the season?
I think there's a lot of reflection.
There's self-scouting, not just on scheme, but on players — going through their goods and bads of the season and helping them improve.
I think the bye week is really important for what we call "one more," which is finding the things in your game you can work on diligently as an individual.
It's aggregate. If you get 80 players to do a little bit more in their game, you improve quite a bit.
As a staff, it's looking at, "Here are the plays that are successful. Here are the efficient plays. Here are the blitzes that are working. Here are the things that aren't. Here are our problems. How do we solve them?
It's digging in on that.
It won't be a week where we focus on our opponent. It'll be all about us.
Then health — trying to get these guys as mended as we can physically and mentally, preparing for the last half of the season.
