Doeren: "That's A Good Football Team"

NC State head coach Dave Doeren met with the media to discuss Saturday's game against Florida State.

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Opening Statement...

We're excited to get into week four of the season. 

Going backwards first, having a plus-three turnover margin is something that we talked a lot about over the last two weeks with our football team.  The way that they've responded and protected the football but also getting it back... forcing five turnovers in the second half, continuing to protect the football, and we'll continue to make an emphasis of that.

I was pleased with holding them under three yards a carry and zero rushing touchdowns and us having over six yards a carry and five rushing touchdowns.
 
I thought Ryan got in a rhythm early, and did some good things, and I think the guys made some good catches for him. Jay Sam had a ricochet catch and a good contact-catch in the red zone, which helped him, and the quick game early on got him in a good rhythm.

It was nice having our starting five back out there on the offensive line and seeing those guys play together. I liked the way we ran the football with all three of our backs.

Defensively, outside the couple of return-motion, eye-violation plays that we had, I thought those kids really handled a difficult offense in a short period of time, well. I thought our special teams, our main four units... we had a great return that coach Faulkner schemed up and the guys executed.  Dylan [Parham] had a big block on it.  We were able to block a punt with Steph... and met all of our special teams goals with our main four units.

I thought we punted the ball well... Kyle was able to get us some touchbacks which is an improvement for him.

I think the biggest thing last week for us was to challenge our guys to compete and be better than they were individually and as a unit from week two to week three.  We saw that in a lot of places.

Now we get to move to playing our first ACC game of the year and playing on the road against an excellent team has a tremendous coaching staff and skill players.  Obviously, they've had a unique year with the weather down there, the cancellation of the game, the rescheduling of a game, and obviously losing their quarterback.

So there's, for us, some unknowns maybe you wouldn't have this time of the year with how that changes. But at the same time, Jimbo's been calling plays his entire time down there and does a great job of that. And the same thing with their defensive staff, so system-wise, you have an idea.

Looking at their offense, they returned all five of their offensive linemen and they're a very good group. They play hard. They do a lot of different things, protection-wise, they're helping them on the edges with backs and tight ends. They've always been great in the outside zone, and both their tailbacks, Patrick and Akers, are tremendous players.

They have big receivers, I think two 6-4 and a 6-5 guy. The quarterback, Blackman's first start,  just watching him in high school, he's got a big arm.  There's not a lot of film of him as a runner so just not sure what that brings with him, but he can throw the deep ball and he's got a very, very good arm.

Sixty-two career starts on the offensive line so it's going to be a great matchup in the trenches for sure with our defensive line against their offensive line.

Defensively, they've got nine returning starters and three senior linebackers. Nnadi, Christmas, and Sweat on the d-line, McFadden and James in the secondary, and they play a lot of different nickel and dime schemes... a lot of man to man coverage with a twitchy front.

That's a good football team. We get to play in a great environment, so excited about the opportunity to go down there with our team. I know they are too. It will be a great week of preparation here and look forward to it.

You mentioned the unusual situation of not knowing much about them.  Is it similar to starting going into a season? Is there anything comparable to what is already going?

It's a lot like that. It wouldn't be if the Francois was the quarterback because you can rely on and all of last season's film with them because they did run him quite a bit.  So you just don't know how much of that is still real.

Will it be more like it was a couple of years ago when they relied on the tailback for the run game but still all the past game that Jimbo has in the play action, quick game, and different ways to move the pocket.

So we've got to be like we have in the first couple of games,  be able to adjust. You can't just look at one game's film and expect it to be exactly like that. It won't be.  We know that, so you have to talk about all the what ifs which maybe in game four normally you wouldn't have to do that.

What is the status of Jakobi Meyers? He didn't play against Furman.

He didn't have a very good week last week preparation-wise and just didn't feel like he was prepared to play the way that we expect him to. I think it'll be a good experience for him, and I hope that he has a great week and gets back to the form he was in, in week one and week two.
 

Mike Stevens update...

He practiced last week. He took a lot of reps, and the trainers tell us that he's ready to go. He'll be out there in practice this week.

We expect him to play and whether he's starting or not, we need to see where he's at at the end of the week.

Dexter [Wright] is the same way. He's back in practice this week. So him and Tim Glass will both take a lot of reps and maybe a rotation thing where we're able to roll in some corners and roll some safeties.  Hopefully, that's where we're at. 

Who's the one and who's the two? I don't know yet because I want to see those guys play.
 I don't know that yet. As with Mike last week, it was each day we gave him more and more and more and by the end of the week he was doing everything... feeling pretty good.

Where are you at with Carson Wise?  He had another missed field goal? Do you need to re-evaluate that spot?

No.

I mean I'm disappointed he missed that kick obviously, but I have faith in him.  I think you stay the course right now, and he's done a good job from 45 and in practice. He's been very consistent. He missed the kick.  At that point, I don't know if he didn't think we'd kick that late in the game or not.  I thought it was a good opportunity to run him out there, and he missed.  So, stay the course right now.

I'm not going to panic.

This is a chance to beat a ranked opponent.  You want to instill confidence and motivate, how do you do that from diverting from the message of every game is the same?

I don't really have to say anything to them.  All offseason It was about doing everything you need to do where you can play fast, play free, and make plays.

That's how we finished the season last year, and I think the guys have put themselves in that position through their work ethic.  You saw several players on our team make plays that a year ago they didn't make. 

They're are going to be excited to play this game. I don't have to say anything to you about that. I think it's just in your preparation.  It's in your faith in your ability and your trust in your training. That's where we're at. 

I'm excited for those guys to get out there and have that opportunity, but this isn't one of those games where I'm going to have to do a whole lot, as far as motivating. We just need to prepare them the right way, practice them smart, and put them in a position to make plays... let them go make them.

That would be ideal if we could do that, but we have to sometimes beat seven blockers to get to him.

That's one thing with Florida State, they'll use their tight end and their tailback in protection schemes, run three-man routes, and check those guys out late. 

It's not a deal where you can just sit there and rush four and get there.  You're going to have to do different things, pressure-wise to get home, and you're going to have to beat blocks. The guys that have one-on-ones have got to win.

But that would be ideal.  We don't want him to get in a rhythm. We don't want him to stand back there and feel good and feel like he's got a lot of time. He's got excellent receivers and you can't give him that much time to throw it down the field. 

It helps the strength of your team is your pass-rushers.

Any game we play is going to always come down to that. We have four senior D-linemen that need to play at a high level all year for us. They know that and they're excited about that opportunity.

This will be a great challenge for them. He's got an excellent offensive line and you find five returning starters for them and they're playing four turning starters for us so I think it's a great matchup up front.

Is it weird to have to watch Hudl film of a quarterback before a game?

It's unique. He had three snaps, and he handed it off three times in their game at the end so you just don't know.

You can watch his highlight film and find out really quick he's got a strong arm and he can throw it.  In Jimbo's offense, they're going to have down the field routes where he's going to be able get it to them and he has big receivers that can make plays. So that part will never change.
He's going to have a guy that can throw the football and that kid can.

As the season ended last year, there was an emotion... has the South Carolina game put you in that spot already?  Where you have chip on your shoulder?

No.  I think we've had a chip on our shoulder since week seven of last season, to be honest with you.

I think as a program, these guys have worked so hard and our coaches have worked so hard... we want to see our players get the fruits of their labor. We want to see that for them.

So all of it's about letting them play fast, and free... and have fun and to do that you have to work hard and you have to really prepare yourself to play a team like Florida State that is so talented.  Your margin for error is very small, and they can score quick.  They can create turnovers on the other side... their pass rushers are really good.

I think with these guys, it's just let them play and prepare in the right way.  My frustration for anything with these kids they work really hard, they're great kids, and I want them to win.

That's the hardest thing is when you feel like they did everything right and they don't get to feel that at the end.  Just continuing to work and know that everything that we've been through has happened for a reason. I believe that has made them a tighter unit. I think our chemistry is extremely good because of what we went through last year.

More on the secondary...

That's the key is getting that depth back in the secondary.  When we started we felt like we had almost 12 guys back there that we could play with and quickly it went down to six. We're getting two of them back, so we feel a lot better. We've been able to play a lot of guys.  I think all the reps that these other guys have had to take has helped them immensely.

The player that Alston is now, the player that Tim Glass is now... even Chris Ingram got 19 snaps at corner in a game this past week.  All those live snaps, you can't take that from a kid. Those are huge plays in their lives.  Bryce Banks had 15 plays at corner and played on special teams.

That's the benefit of playing guys... they're going to be better for it. They're going to play faster with more confidence because they've been out there now.

It will help us in the long run. If we can get Mike and Dex in there this week where they feel great, that really helps our depth and our rotation.  Who knows what the weather will be like down there? If it's a hot one at noon, it will help to have a little more depth back there that we can rotate.

I think you can just see it in the eyes of those five guys, I think they're more comfortable. 

The same thing with Witt and Joe, when they got in the game at the end they were playing fast. It wasn't their first time out there. Sometimes when you put your backups in you see some really bad things happen, and we ran the ball well… we didn't have a lot of mistakes.

We did have a couple of penalties with those guys in there, which you don't like, but I thought they played fast.

Overall, those guys are going to continue to improve and be ready because of the first two games they played a lot in.

It seemed like Roseboro and Street had an extra burst.

I don't know if they had that.   The week before, I thought our entire front on defense at times took their eyes off their keys... were trying to do too many things. I think coach Patrick really got them back where they needed to be with their vision.

See a little, see a lot. I think that's something he says a lot to those guys.  Sometimes as a d-lineman... I want to make a play, I want to make a play, and you end you end up hurting us because you're not doing your job.

I thought that those guys really read their keys and played quick.  They tried to get the ball. They ran away from Chubb a lot in that game, and they were the benefit of that. They had a lot of plays coming at the both of them, and they did a nice job.