QUOTEBOOK: Dave Doeren's Weekly Press Conference

NC State head coach Dave Doeren met with the media today to recap West Virginia and preview Saturday night's matchup against Ball State.

NOTE: Click the video above to watch the interview.

Opening Thoughts on Offense...
Going back to last week, obviously disappointed but not discouraged. There are a bunch of upset, mad guys, coaches alike. Disappointed at what we did and didn't do.

This is a huge, huge learning opportunity.

Offensively speaking, there were really two different halves. The first half we moved the ball well, got 21 points, with a 92-yard touchdown drive.

We ran the ball pretty efficiently but gave up too many negative plays.  A lot of details, whether route details, location... there's so many little things which could have played how we did on offense.

I do think our redzone offense has been really good; other things we have to do better.

I like how some of the guys competed, but a lot of things we have to fix. I'm excited to do that with our guys.

Opening Thoughts on Defense...
Defensively we played slow, and I don't think we tackled the way we have... whether we were losing a gap, misfitting a run, or not setting the edge.  We didn't contest balls the way we had been and weren't disruptive... didn't play with great technique.

They played fast, their tempo was good, and we didn't play [fast].

On special teams, the blocked punt was a critical error that really shouldn't happen with our protection scheme that we have.

We got a stop on defense and an unfortunate penalty that allowed that drive to extend. We have to play the ball better when the ball is in the air, but flags will be thrown when you don't.  

Moving on to Ball State...
The best part is it's an opportunity and I think every obstacle in life is a choice of how you handle adversity.  We get to come home and play a night game, a Blackout game, sold out game.

Ball State is a football team that's really good on offense.  Good receivers, good running backs, there are athletic players in that league and the quarterback is playing at a high level.

Balanced offense like that, almost 50-50 in run-pass with play-action down the field.  They play fast... getting over 80 plays per game, so the tempo will be something we have to play well against.

A good football game for us to have at home against a good opponent. They are sound defensively with a lot of players back.  They have a free safety who is 6-4/220 who makes a lot of plays for them.  

They are a team that plays hard with a coach who has been there for a few years. It's a good test for our football team and a chance to getting back to running the football, throwing it and catching it... playing well defensively.

What was your main takeaway from Matt’s performance after re-watching the game? Did you think you have to re-evaluate what you’re doing there?
There are always things you have to re-evaluate. There are certain things he's doing really well.

There were situational things on 3rd-and-1 where we had RPOs called... that's on us. We shouldn't have him even thinking about throwing the ball there. That's not on Matt, that's on us.

There were a couple of third downs where he threw a good ball and the ball was dropped, obviously you’re going to say the receiver should catch it.

There is a lot that goes into him playing better, and he needs to play better. He was mad at some things he could do better.  What is he doing well? He's not turning the football over.  He's getting guys lined up, outside of the first play of the game, he's managing the clock well.  He's doing some good things.

It's his third college game.  It’s his first road game in a loud environment.  Did he play great?  No, he didn't.  Can he play better? Yes, he can.  

As far as changing things, yes, we’re going to grow. We are going to evolve offensively. We have a lot of new parts and an injury with CJ Riley being out.  As the season goes on we'll become more and more of who we are going to be, as you see us.

We have to do a good job of evaluating that. What has he done well? What hasn't he?  Let's get rid of that. Let's focus on the things he's really doing well. Where are we succeeding in the run game?  What can we do off the run game to help with the pass game?  

That's part of being young on offense. You think you know what you want to do, but after you play you really find out what you can do.  That's our job, to change some things based on the information we now have.

The other two quarterbacks are practicing well.  We have to keep getting them better. Like I tell them, everyone in our program in the two-deep, three-deep has to be ready to play. If they get an opportunity, they do at some point.

I'm never going to say Matt underperformed to the point where I have to pull him out.   I think there is a lot of things. Look at our running backs, our corners, our offensive line, our tight ends. Across the point as a team we have to play better.

Do you think this is a game where Bailey can get some snaps and get him in there? 
You'd love to say that, but you just have to see how it goes this week.

RPO – did Missouri do that and you wanted to do it?
No, we had RPOs and they've been good.

Sometimes you play with tempo and when you play with tempo you'll run that play.  If you have inside zone/outside zone and there are throws to throw, he'll throw them.

Maybe you don't want them to throw it so don't call the play with the option. Just say we'll run the run, but when you do that you can't play with tempo now.  You have to slow down.

It's just a learning curve. When you have a more experienced quarterback he'd say, "I don't care there is a throw on, I'm running this thing."

He's a third-time starter. That's not on Matt, that's on us. Those are things you see. How do you make it easier for him?  Well we did. We got to the next 3rd and 1, and we handed it off. We had a play-action called, but we took the game management out of it.  

As quarterbacks grow you can add those things back to their plate.

You have competition this week in practice. How important is that?
It's great. It makes people have to practice well with the guy behind them trying to take their job.
We are playing an offense that's averaging 80 snaps a game and some of the teams are getting almost 100 snaps a game. That depth is only good if it's competitive.  You want those guys to be able to compete.

At some positions we've been able to do that more than others.

You have three players from Clayton. With their recent grade-fixing scandal, are there any concerns for you?
No, every student-athlete at NC State goes through the same process as every student. It's not an athletic evaluation. It's on campus... they go through every class on the transcript, and then it goes to the Clearinghouse.

It's a two-fold process and never comes through our office.  I feel good about what's happening on our campus.

James Smith-Williams and Joe Boletepeli are on the depth chart. Do you expect to have them back?
That's our hope, yep.

With CJ Riley out, is Tabari Hines... any chance he can play more outside?
He's been outside at times. He was outside in the game on Saturday.  That's one of the things we're looking at, how can we utilize the different guys.

Keyon Lesane was banged up early, and it adds another piece. Devin Carter and Emeka Emezie probably played a little too much.  We’ve usually had a little more of a rotation, and that’s something coach McDonald has talked about.  

Kishawn Miller is now listed as a starter. What has he done to get to that point?
I'll tell you, he's one of the hardest workers in our program. He's consistent. He competes. He's knowledgeable in our scheme.  He understands what to do and how to do it.

He has great confidence in himself, he communicates with his teammates. He's been through a lot, and I'm proud of what he's done.

He went in the game and competed, I thought.

You had the same number of penalties in this game as the first two.  How difficult is it to manage or control penalties?
Some of the penalties you can manage. Clock management, that's coaching and players doing their job... focus is your pre-snap stuff, offense and defense. Those are things we've been pretty good.

Some of the things between the whistles is technique. Offensive holding happens every play, but sometimes it's called and sometimes it's not.

Pass interference, sometimes it looks like PI and it doesn't get called and sometimes it does.  We have to coach the technique the best we can to try and make prevent it from being called. 

Jarius, his penalty out of bounds, he can't do that.  There is no way he can do that as a senior who has played as much football. Calvin Hart jumping on a guy on the ground... he can't do that.

We can’t do that. Those are choices made in the game... they can limit that.

We spend a lot of time talking about the heat of the moment... we didn’t do it well in this game.  Nine penalties is way too many.

The margin for error is slimmer with the penalties...
Don't beat yourself... let's not make it where we lost the game. Every penalty we can take off the board is yardage, one way or another. We have to own that as a program.  We talk about it a lot and emphasize it a lot.

That's one of the things we control. I don't think you control a holding penalty because it happens all the time.  A lot we can control things as players... like a late-hit, you can’t do it.  That’s just maturity and we have to be better than that.

Fans and media are prone to overreaction. How do you try to see the big picture to keep yourself focused and not caught up in benching Matt or turning the program over to Lou Holtz’s corpse?
Honestly, Boo has helped me with this.  He's been very helpful to me. It all steps with him to me, me to my staff, and my staff to my players.

Seven days ago everyone was loving everybody, and today... that's this game.  

As the leader of this program I can't act like that. We have to get better. We got hit in the mouth so we have to get better and go hit someone else in the mouth. That's football. We didn't play well.   We didn't prepare them, that's us as coaches. I felt like we did, but it didn't show.   We have to own that, the players have to own their part.  

We have to get back to work. You're one day away from someone loving or hating you in this business.  That’s how it is. You sign up for it when you become a college coach.

How important was playing on the road and the environment...
I can't give them a gameday.  A road game like that, that was a great environment. We didn't handle it well, but we'll get better from it.

We have another like that in two weeks when we go to Tallahassee.  It was great to have that opportunity and learn from it.

How much was the bump up in the level of competition?
It's a factor. That was the fastest team we've seen in a long time, since the bowl game. They have good team speed, they play fast.

You can't simulate those things everyday, there’s no doubt, but that's not why we lost the football game. It's not. We just didn't execute.  That's what we have to focus on.

We do a lot of good on good where we see speed in practice everyday... against each other, but for four quarters of football, they had good players at the skill positions.  I look forward to continuing that because it’s where this is going the next eight weeks.