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NC State Football

Doeren: "It's About Getting Back To Basics"

November 12, 2018
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NC State head coach Dave Doeren met with the media to discuss the upcoming game against Louisville.

NOTE: Click the video above to watch Dave Doeren's press conference. 


Opening Statement...
I'd like to start by thanking our crowd, game ops, and administration and for the game atmosphere Thursday night... there's a lot of really, really great things about that atmosphere. So I want to say thank you to all involved in that.

Obviously a game that we didn't make enough critical plays in and they did to have the outcome, what it was. Our five drops, and couple of them would have been really good catches, compared to their four explosive plays that they made, which two were really good catches, were difference makers. On top of that I didn't feel like we played with the fundamentals on the line of scrimmage that were required to play well.

It hurt us, rhythm wise offensively because 11 of our 29 runs were tackled in the backfield, which we can't have that. We have to get that fixed and we will.

In general our basic fundamentals, fundamentals of football... you're blocking, catching, tackling, running, breaking tackles, beating blocks, all those little things that you drill and drill and drill throughout the week, which looked good for us the week before, the Florida State game, didn't look good for us in that football game.

I told the players yesterday it's about getting back to basics and fundamentals and things that we have been improving on throughout the year.  Taking things off of film and getting better in certain areas. We did not do that.

We've had a lot of injuries over the last five weeks and had to take the pads off the guys the last two to try to have a practice to be honest. There are some days where we barely had enough guys to practice on the line of scrimmage and just so that we could get guys back to being able to play on Saturdays.

I didn't think it hurt us in the Florida State game, but I do think it hurt us in that game on the line of scrimmage.  Having the extra two days coming out of that game has allowed some of our guys to heal up and we need to get back to our fundamental improvement on a Tuesday.  Tuesday's generally the day that you really spend your time on that in the run game and defending the run.

It's the fourth quarter of our season and it's a focus on plan as well as we can and finishing down the stretch one week at a time. Our team knows how to handle adversity, and our team knows how to finish.  That's where our focus is as a staff and as a group of players and adversity creates opportunities as a leader. And I'm looking forward to my opportunity to lead this football team and help these guys jump into this week against Louisville.

That's what I'm going to do. That's what our staff is going to do. It's what our leaders will do. That's where we're at.

Obviously there's a lot going on down there and have no idea how that's gonna impact their football team. All I can do is watch the film and look at their players and know their schemes and we'll have to do some adjusting on game day. You just don't know what that's going to do without Bobby calling the plays and how that impacts their play calling and different things like that.

When you watch him on film, there's very good athletes on the field. They are playing hard, particularly at receiver. I think the receivers are really good players... long guys and they've been playing for them.

For us it's more about us and being able to get back to running the ball and catching the ball and making those plays. Defending on defense, being able to break some tackles and tackle well in space.

Just all the little things that make you a good football team and that made us win some, some good games this year so we'll see where they're at when they get out there on the field and defensively they have a very experienced defensive coordinator and they do a lot of different things with their front and coverage packages. 

It will be a good challenge and we're in there watching it right now.

Going on the road and winning, we got to take care of the football. We got to do a good job getting the ball back and they have had issues turning the football over. If we can keep them doing that, obviously it'd be in our favor. 

I told our players, whatever your record is at the end of the year, as coaches and his players, we earned that record and we have right now to go try to earn a better one. That's what the focus will be this week with Louisville.

Coach you talked about your redzone struggles.  You've kicked seven field goals in the last two games. What has to improve in that area and what have you seen following the Wake game?
Coming out of the game prior we felt like we needed to throw the ball more down there, and we did.  

We threw 12 of 15 plays in the red zone, and we dropped three passes, two which were in the endzone.  Emeka's would have been a good catch, but one we need to make, and Cary's is a catch he would usually make.  Jakobi had one on the goalline that may or may not have been a touchdown. 

So three of those field goals, if you catch the football, maybe they are touchdowns.   So that part of it just comes down to execution and finishing plays. Right? Because if we ended up with two of those three being touchdowns, it's a win.

You feel like you called plays that were good plays, you just have to execute those plays.

We do look at it every week, and I felt like we were pounding the run too much a couple of weeks ago.  We're trying to get the ball to playmakers down there and they have to get open and when they do, they have to catch the football and we have to protect Ryan and he's got to put it on them where they can catch it.

With your experience, can you take a half-step back and see how amazing and quickly things change in college football? They were one of the best teams I've seen in person in 2016, and now their coach is gone.
That's what I said last week. Everybody was asking us what bowl game you're going to and I was saying we have to beat Wake.  Last week everyone's patting us on the back and this week they're burying us. 

That's the game we coach and play and as a coach you realize that because we're in it. As fans, they are saying incredible things about you after one week and the next they are telling you to sell your house.  It's the world we're in now and I don't think it's just football to be honest with you. You look across the country and it's overreaction to everything. 

I get it, I understand it, and it's what I signed up for.

Playing Louisville the last three years with Lamar Jackson there, they were a great football team and when Grantham was there, they were one of the best defenses in the ACC at that time too.

Every week you gotta show up. Every single game, it's anybody's game. You got to make the plays, you have to coach your butt off, and for us, unlike the NFL, we've got to recruit.

Then there's the health factor because it's impacted our football team this year. At times the injuries have hurt us at times and that's part of the game. Sometimes you are able to get away with it more than other times.

Where are you guys at health wise?
I'm not going to tell you,

Is it kind of a balancing act as far as being physical in practice and guarding against the injuries?
I think it was after the Clemson game, we had a lot of injuries in that game and so in order to have our guys practice that were going to play in the next game, we had to take the pads off and I'd never done that. But that was the best thing for the team.

I thought our guys did a good job learning the game plan and obviously it didn't end up being a win with Syracuse, but we played a heck of a game.  I don't think that was the reason we didn't win, and we came back and had a really good win against Florida State.

But three weeks of it, really two and a half because we didn't get many practices for Wake, you could see it on the line of scrimmage in that game. It's blocking and tackling and beating blocks, playing with your hands and your feet, your pads and your base. It's just hard to be in what we call pro-pads, which is no shoulder pads and helmets, a little girdle on to protect your shoulders, it's not the same as striking shoulder pads.

You can't go the other way either. We can't go out there and scrimmage tomorrow, but we need to get back to basics with our fundamentals and it's not just in the run game. I just think it's football players in general. It's striking with your hands inside and playing with a bass and learning how to play with good pad level. Those are things when you're not in pads, you get away with bad habits. That's not going to be our football team. We're going to play with technique. And

That's the biggest thing I talked to the guys about.  All we need to do is the fundamentals of the game and own that from the film and as coaches own the issues that are ours. Let's get back on winning games and have a great finish.

Do you look at their interim coach and try and look for trends that he has done in the past.
It's kind of hard when you haven't seen him call game. I know what his track record is as an assistant coach and where he's coached and there's guys on our staff that know him, but it's going to be a fill-it-out game.

Even with their offense, I don't know if Summers or Galloway are going to co-coordinate the game like they're titled or is one of them going to call it.  I don't know and they're not going to tell me,.

We'll get out there and we'll see where it's going. If they're going to share the play calling, is it going to be like it was or is it going to be more run or more pass? 

That's part of the game, and you're going to have to adjust.

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Doeren: "It's About Getting Back To Basics"

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