Doeren: "I Love These Guys"

NC State head coach Dave Doeren met with the media after the Wolfpack's 34-28 overtime road win over rival North Carolina.

Opening Statement...
You know where I want to be right now.  I’m a little winded right now from singing.

I’m really proud of our players.  They have heart, have grit, they love each other. Our coaches... guys just hung together. 

Carolina played their asses off. They did. They played hard.

Our guys found a way to win. That’s really been the thing we talked about all week, that they were going to play for four quarters or more and we had to do the same and find a way to put it away. We did that.

It wasn’t always pretty, but when we needed to stop them in the second half we did.  The stop in overtime was huge.

I thought Reggie Gallaspy was a War Daddy.  The way he ran at the end of the game. I’m so proud of that kid.

The o-line came alive for him, the tight ends.  We got into a rhtym when Ryan was able to start throwing the football. The weather made it tough early.

Brock Miller played in his first game and made a bunch of plays for us. You talk about your first start is at Carolina, a rival game. I’m really proud of him.

ALl we talked about all week was being physical, winning the line of scrimmage, and tackling... finding a way to win. We did that.

We weren’t good on third down, but we were good in a lot of other ways, and the best thing we did was we were tough, we finished, we had grit, and a couple of our seniors played out of their minds.  Darian Roseboro played with a bad ankle, and it was gut-check for him.  A bunch of them were like that. 

I love these guys. I’m proud of them.

Can you talk about Reggie Gallaspy’s performance?
Reggie has heart.

I was talking to him in the locker room and my sons were next to me and I told him that I hope my boys have the same heart he has when they get older because that kid is 100% heart. He’s tough, he won’t be denied. He plays behind his pads.

He’s so mentally there.  He’s playing for his daughter.  He has it all together right now. You’re not going to stop that guy.  He’s going to square you up and fall forward.

It was fun having the bus rolling today.

Were you expecting a low-scoring game?
I didn’t know what the weather was going to do... you saw guys slipping and falling a lot and it was hard to throw the football early.

I think for both defenses you saw DBs falling down.

Our coverage units... blocking the punt was a big deal early in the game. It was a nasty day for a while, weather-wise.

What does it mean for you to have three in a row against Carolina?
I want to keep that streak going.  

It means something for our players. For our senior class that’s been here five years, they’ve won four of five. It means something to them and I want them to have that.

We have to fight for it every year.

Was there pride in being able to run the football today?
It’s unbelievable.

I’ve always said your attitude comes from your run game. We throw to score but you run to win and I believe that. It’s a DNA thing with your football team.  That’s how my teeth were cut in this game and that’s what I believe in. It’s what we’re going to be.

I just don’t believe in throwing it, not that it’s not a great way to win games.  We’ll throw when it’s there, we’ll take those chunk plays, and we’ll score touchdowns throwing the football, but our demeanor will be we’re going to win the line of scrimmage.

You have to believe in your run game to have that demeanor. I have an o-line coach that believes that with me and Drink dials it up to help them. It’s part of who we are.  

Reggie is right now the cog in it.

A guy with the high school career of Reggie... more on playing late in his career.
It wasn’t easy for him.

It’s never easy for those guys when they first get to any school and aren’t playing as much as they want to.

We talk to those guys a lot so he’s not going through it alone.  He’s not doing anything wrong. We had Nyheim, some other guys, Matt Dayes. He understood his role.

He knew his time was coming and he’s capitalizing on his moment.  That’s a great thing when a guy seizes his opportunity like he is now.

Did you realize he had scored all the touchdowns?
I didn’t realize he had five. We were in the huddle trying to figure out which way we wanted to go in overtime... Ryan said, “Reggie scores everytime we go down there.”  I said, “Let’s go down there then.”

We didn’t end up going down there but it still worked out.

Do you know what happened there at the end?
I didn’t see it. I just tried to get down there and break it up.  We’ll find out.  It’s unfortunate.

Do you think Germaine Pratt can play next week?
I hope so. 

Germaine has an injury he’s been fighting through and got to the point where he wasn’t able to function the way he needs to be able to.

We’re in a situation where we can’t travel guys who can’t play because we have so many guys banged up and we need to have reserves that can play in those spots.

We just felt like him resting it. He went home and saw his family, and I think he’s going to do everything he can to play next week.