NC State head coach Dave Doeren met with the media for the final time before Saturday evening's game against Ball State.
NOTE: Click the video player above to watch Doeren’s interview.
Do you have a feel for what you’ll have when your team has the experience you’re looking for?
We were just talking about it. When it clicks, you’ve got a lot of talented, young guys out there. It’s just got to click. It’s a fast football team. It really is. I said that during the summer to my staff. This is the fastest team, when you look at it from top to bottom, that we’ve had.
Speed doesn’t look fast when it’s confused or shellshocked as they were in some spots last week. I think it’s a group that can play with a lot of speed, that has a lot of depth in certain positions – not others – but we’ve just got to get it to click.
You had speed and height with CJ Riley. Is there someone who can do what he was going to be expected to do?
I think between Emeka [Emezie] and Keyon Lesane. [Lesane]’s growing into his role. He’s fast. He was banged up a little bit in the first week, and I thought he made some nice plays this week in practice.
Tabari [Hines] is a guy that can do some things down the field. Cecil Powell is a guy that can do some things.
We’ve just got to grow. Every time you lose a player, it’s the next man up, but it changes the chemistry. You’ve got to kind of figure out where you go from here. That’s something we spent a lot of time discussing: what we’ve lost and how we’re going to plug and play.
Ryan trusted Kelvin...
It took time. It wasn’t like that when [Kelvin Harmon] was a sophomore.
How long does it take for Matt to get trust in Emeka similar to that?
I think [Matthew McKay] threw a really good ball to Emeka in the game, and he ended up six inches out of bounds on the catch. I think that trust is already there. We just need to get the timing of those things. He did make a nice back-shoulder throw and catch in our opener to Emeka.
I think that’s going with Devin [Carter]. That’s the thing we’ve got to get, so it’s on both sides of the field.
The plan was to get James Smith-Williams and Joe Boletepeli back. Will they be back?
Joe [Boletepeli]’s good. James [Smith-Williams] is still questionable.
The addition of Deonte Holden...
It helps now that Deonte [Holden]’s healthy. He missed all of training camp. Now that he’s healthy, it helps to have another guy.
Savion [Jackson]’s got to continue to get better as he’s gaining reps in our defense. That’s kind of where we’re at.
Did you like what you saw in practice this week?
I did. Tuesday was very focused. Now, there’s always going to be a lot of mistakes on Tuesday because you’re introducing game plan stuff to the guys, but their energy was excellent.
Wednesday was our best Wednesday that we’ve had this year.
We’ll see how it translates. It’s our first night game of the year, so we’ve got to deal with that, as well. I expect a very angry football team. We’ve got to put that into execution and go out and do our jobs.
Is there any difference in preparing for a night game?
It’s a long day, and we’re a morning-practice team, so our guys aren’t used to that. The good thing is that we’ve got three in a row, so this gets us in a routine again.
