WATCH: Doeren Feels Better About Injury Situation

NC State head coach Dave Doeren met with the media for the last time prior to the Wolfpack's upcoming game against Florida State.

Any wrinkles that are different with one quarterback versus the other? You've seen both.
We've seen both.

Blackman can run.  He definitely can scramble and he scrambles to throw. I don't think we'll see as many designed runs with him. I can be wrong, but you wouldn't think so with what he looks like.  But he can run, and he had some good scrambles in our game last year.

I think he has a great arm and I think Francois has a great arm... very similar in the pass game.

You've mentioned Brian Burns as a pass rusher.  Any extra emphasis on him this week?
Oh yeah, I mean the guy is the best in the country at pass rush and has beat a lot of good players this year.

It's an area of emphasis, it always is. We've given up three sacks this year so it's something we take a lot of pride in, protecting Ryan. Last week we didn't do as well as we had, in terms of getting him hit.

We have to keep Ryan up and get the ball out on time.

We have to know where Burns is.  He's a very good player.

How much have you challenged your defensive line to take it to another level this week given FSU's protection issues on the offensive line?
We challenge them every week.

They see the film and they know what their matchups are, week-in and week-out.  Our problem isn't them, it's us. We have to play with better technique and execute the calls. The coverage has to give the rush time and the rush has to help the coverage. 

If we do those things we'll have success, but we have to execute the defense the way it's supposed to be executed, particularly on third down.

You sounded optimistic Monday about getting injured guys back. Did that go as planned?
I feel better about it than I did last week at this time... a lot better about it.

But, we're still 48 hours out and haven't made decisions either way on guys just yet.