WATCH: Doeren Updates WR Injuries, Talks Defensive Schemes

NC State head coach Dave Doeren discussed the wide receiver injuries, Georgia State quarterback Dan Ellington, and much more with the media after Thursday's practice.

Can you define the quarterback cage for us?
If you're the quarterback, picture lines [from the quarterback] to where the defensive linemen are lined up. You want to keep him in that... if the quarterback moves, the cage moves with him.

Georgia State's quarterback led them in carries in the opener. Was it true run game or scrambling?
Yes, he did. Both... design zone read where he can read your edge and keep it and they have quarterback draw. He also has the ability to run on his own. He's very mobile.

There are sacks to be had against them because he doesn't get rid of it quickly.
Yes, you're always talking about launch point, where he is in the pocket on certain plays, and your angles to him.

You're not counting as a rusher, you're trying to get there, but part of it is your leverage on him. Certain plays... three-step where will he be, five-step where will he be... sprint-out is he leaving the pocket.

Just understanding there are things and some by formation you can get tendencies on and sometimes you can't, you just have to play.

What type of 3-4 is their defense?
They don't pressure a lot. They are going to bring their boundary player, bring their field nickel... sometimes they will bring their MIKE and WILL. It's more four or five-man stuff... they will bring more, but on average they will bring their fourth or fifth.

It's more zone than man. Some teams like West Virginia will have a ton of different coverages and these guys don't have as many. They are trying to eat up blocks with their three inside guys.

They play some soft coverage... keep guys in front and tackle well. It's not really a bend don't break, but they do enough by moving around.

How did Meyers and Louis make it through the week?
Steph is great. He's practicing and really looked good. We were careful with him on Tuesday and he practiced yesterday and today.

Jakobi will be a gameday deal. He's trying like heck to get back. He ran last night and he'll run again tonight. Everyday he has got better. We're hopeful and he's hopeful. We just have to see where he is on gameday.

You sound optimistic on Steph.
Oh yeah, he's going to play.

Is Stephen Griffin where you thought he was going to be?
He's getting there.

He didn't practice for maybe 20 of the 25 training camp practices so he got out of shape. Your physical fitness is like money, it's hard to earn and easy to spend and that's how it is. He was in great shape coming into camp and then he had 20 days of inactivity.

We just didn't want to give him everything at once and then all of a sudden you have a hamstring pull.

He's now on some special teams and his rep count will go up each week as long as he continues to get better.

Do you see more 3-4 now in college football?
I just think it's a preference of the head coach.

Our league you see both. You see a lot of 3-4 in the SEC and a lot of those 3-4 teams are playing 4-2-5 defenses in them... moving their fronts.

It's the philosophy. For me it's always been four downs. It's what I'm used to and what I know. It's kind of where I cut my teeth in football.

The 4-2-5 we feel allows us to match up with skill better and play with some of the route concepts and receiver skill we have in this league.

How much work or progress did you make this week in practice?
We'll find out on Saturday because we talked about the things we want to get better at.

We want to run the football for a better average, [and] we want to be better on first down to create better third down opportunities.

Defensively we want to do a better job on third downs with the scramble game that we saw and on special teams. Obviously we want to have zero penalties and make all our kicks.

The young players, we had 19 guys play in their first college games. They were nervous, and let's see them play with more confidence now that they've been out there.

You had guys like Jay Sam and Chubb last year with juice... do you see guys on this team who will get their teammates going?
Germaine Pratt does that with the defensive guys. I see Nick McCloud doing that... those two guys are very vocal on the defensive side.

Offensively Bradbury has been really good in that role. He has no problem calling guys out and trying to fire guys up. Ryan is more quiet in his approach with that.

You definitely see that in Garrett. He did it with the guys in practice on Tuesday.