Doeren: "It's Time To Go Win One"

NC State head coach Dave Doeren met with the media after Thursday's practice to discuss Florida State.

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How much have you improved since South Carolina?

It's game four, so how much, have we got better since the last game? That's how we look at it.

How is Mike Stevens?

He's good. I mean he has some muscular soreness, which you expect, but from an injury standpoint he's completely healed. So just getting back into football shape. He looked really good in practice.

Do you expect him to play this week?

Yeah, I do.

Do you think he'll start?

We'll probably just rotate. For sure, have a three-man rotation at corner.

What about Dexter Wright?

Questionable.

How much was he able to do?

Not much.

Is he trending in the right direction?

He is.

Is urgency the theme... does it come back at all for Florida State?

All the things we talk about are always present.  All of our core values are present all the time, and this week it's been about faith.

It's trusting the plan, trusting your ability, and trusting your training to go make the plays that are there to make and finish.

Do you have a good handle on what James Blackman can do?

No, he's been coached by Jimbo since he got on their campus.  He's going to be a better player than he was in high school, and they're going to run their system like they have with every quarterback that's played prior.

How much they run him? We'll have to see and adjust during the game. Like I've talked, they've had 21 days off.  I know they haven't been preparing for us the entire time, but they've been preparing without their quarterback being healthy. 

What they're going to do with him? It's a game of adjustments for us on defense, and we'll have to react and talk about it on the sideline... see what they're going to do.

Did you look back at what Winston did in game one or Francois in game one?

Not really, I mean the last time we were down there they had the Notre Dame transfer kid in there and they yanked him and put the other guy in. He threw the ball over the place, and he hadn't played for a long time.

I told the defensive kids they're going to run their offense.  I know they believe in their quarterback or they wouldn't have recruited him. They have good players around him.

You got to stop what Florida State does. They are going to attack the perimeter and edges just like they always do and try to run by you and run reverses. They'll use their stretch plays and bend-back plays.

You've got to stop what they do. You have to make the plays that are there to make.

How much of a difference does Derwin James make?

It's just one game, but they played him all over the place. 

He's lined up at the nickel, he was lined up at linebacker in the dime package and he was lined up at safety in their base defense so they move him around. He's obviously able to handle a lot of things mentally which is impressive.

I'm not sure if he'll do that against us or not but any time you see a kid that can do so many things it's impressive as a coach.

You talked about how a win in a game like this would be a payoff for the players. Do you feel like this signature win would be a payoff for you after five years?

That would be great, to have that for a program, but to me it's all about the players.

The work that they put in, and that's what we just talked about, for four years they've been fighting to get themselves in position to win games like this.

It's time to go win one.

I'd love to see them do it, and that would be the pleasure I take from a win would be seeing their faces and feeling their emotions in the locker room afterwards.

It's not about me.  I'm going to be fine. I've been a part of signature wins as a coach. It's about these kids that have given us everything they've got for four years that are seniors who don't get to play Florida State ever again.

Letting them walk out of that game feeling right, that's what it's about to me.

How are you guys doing with this simulated crowd noise this week?

First day there were some issues and after that, yesterday and today, it was much better.