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NC State Football

Dave Doeren: "There Are Opportunities To Get Better"

November 9, 2020
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With Florida State coming to Carter-Finley Stadium for homecoming Saturday, NC State will look to bounce back from a disappointing loss to No. 11 Miami Friday night. 

The Wolfpack has four winnable games left and an opportunity for a strong finish. Head coach Dave Doeren spoke to the media via Zoom at his weekly press conference about the loss to the Hurricanes and what lies ahead. Here’s a full breakdown of everything he had to say: 


Opening Statement

Just starting off with the recap from our game Friday night -- anytime you lose a game that is that hard fought and goes down to the wire, it’s obviously going to be a heartbreaking loss. It’s an emotional loss. However, I was very encouraged and very proud of the way our guys prepared, and fought, and improved from how we played two weeks prior before our bye against UNC to how we played that night.  

Obviously, there were a lot of things that we did well. There were a lot of plays that were made; a lot of tough plays that were made. It was a really good football game, and one we just didn’t finish. Miami’s quarterback, I thought, played an elite game. We wanted to make him have to throw it to beat us, and he was able to do that. I thought he threw the deep ball as good as I’ve ever seen him throw it in that game, and so he deserves credit for that. Obviously, we need to be better at defending that, but it was a heck of a football game.

I thought we started fast. Our first drive offensively was a really great opening drive. Really great play call to get Bailey [Hockman] on the throw back from Thayer [Thomas]. Our offensive linemen blocked it really well. I thought we struggled in the first quarter defensively, gave up 21 points and then shut them out in the second quarter. We did a nice job of adjusting there, and we were able to build a 10-point lead going into the finish of the game. We had our chances to win. 

I thought the kickoff return by [Bam Knight] was huge to kind of put the game in our advantage, and it was a great momentum play on special teams. Chris Dunn drilling a 53-yard field goal after a penalty that I thought should have gone our way to give us a first down right there, but it showed a lot on his part. That’s not easy. It was great for him to make his second 50-plus yard field goal of the year. 

Then it just comes down to four or five plays in the game. There were plays that had nothing to do with Miami, routine plays that we could have made that would have put the game away, and we weren’t able to do that. There were a lot of positives, like I said, and there’s negatives that our team will learn from, our staff will learn from, and together we’ll continue to fight to be better than we were the week before. 

Offensively, just speaking positively first, we scored on six of our first seven drives of the game. We were efficient on third down except for the last two third downs of the fourth quarter, which ended up being costly. I thought Bailey played well. He gave us a chance to win. He threw the ball into some tight windows. With the exception of two throws in the game, I thought he was really, really good. I know he would love to have the one back that he missed to [Emeka Emezie, and obviously the last one was a little off target. We had zero drops in the game at receiver, tight end, and running back. We were 100% scoring in the red zone. 

The negatives were that we weren’t able to put the game away. We had the ball with six minutes and 15 seconds, and we got a first down and then three straight plays we were off the field. We’d love to be able to consume more clock than that and drive the ball and get a score, if possible. Then obviously the interception at the end.  

On defense, we played hard up front. I thought our D-line improved. We were physical at the line of scrimmage. I thought we shed blocks better. I thought Daniel Joseph and Alim McNeill played much better. Negatively, we just didn’t make enough plays that helped us in the game. They were going to score points. We were playing with some injured guys, some backups for some injured guys in the secondary. We knew they were going to complete some passes and score some points, but we weren’t able to get any takeaways which would have helped us gain a possession. 

There were two critical moments in the game where they were able to make plays where we had a guy in position and didn’t. We had four penalties, whether they were questionable or not, that were called, and they hurt us on drives. So, things we’ve got to improve.

I thought our special teams were really good in some areas. The field goal by Chris that I mentioned, the kickoff return, our punter Trenton Gill, and the coverage by Tyler Baker-Williams. I thought he was outstanding. Obviously I hate that we lost a possession on the ricocheted kick, but it bounced off of one of our guys. We knew they were going to squib it and our guy was trying to avoid it, but obviously didn’t do a good job of that. 

I think there’s a lot of positives from that game that we can carry forward. There are opportunities to get better. I’m encouraged by how we responded from our last loss. I know that we’ll get the same type of result from these young guys. We’ve got four games left and an opportunity to really have a great close to our season. I’m excited about what Bailey did and the confidence that will come from that. 

From an injury standpoint, we hope to have Drake Thomas and Tanner Ingle back for this game, but until we get on the field I can’t confirm that. It is trending in the right direction.

So now we get ready for a very athletic Florida State team and a quarterback that is very dynamic and has really changed their offense in [Jordan Travis]. I know he was injured in the first half, but he was on the sideline and seemed to be pretty normal just looking at him during the game, because I watched it Saturday. Like you always see with Florida State, they have great receivers with [Tamorrion Terry] and [Ontaria Wilson]. 

At tailback they have two guys that they rotate in that are different from each other. The tight end is a good pass catcher. They’ve had some injuries on the offensive line, but the quarterback is what’s changed them. Obviously, we’ll have to see who they put out there. I’m not sure we’ll know until gameday on that. 

When you look at the other side of the ball, it’s another defensive line that has two great defensive ends. Big, thick, long number 11, [Janarius Robinson], 6’5” and 260. Number 13, [Joshua Kaindo], is 6’7”, 265. And [Robert Cooper] inside is 331. So, it’s a very formidable defensive line that can run. Asante Samuel at corner has made a lot of plays for them in the secondary. I really like watching their Will linebacker, number 1 Emmett Rice, he’s very active, has good speed, gets to the football. 

It’s a good football team, an athletic football team. It’s a team that obviously has a new staff and has played really well. They’ve blocked two punts, blocked two field goals this year. They beat North Carolina in a huge upset, so we know they are capable of playing lights out. For us, it’s just another opportunity to improve, work hard in practice, and try to be better than we were the week before. 

How much would having a packed Carter-Finley have helped? 

Our home-field advantage in a night game is as good as anybody’s in the country. So yeah, I think it could have helped our energy on defense, probably. It would have hurt them offensively with cadence. They changed a lot of plays at the line of scrimmage in that game. That would have been challenging for them to do. There’s a lot of things that as a home team we are losing out on with the COVID-19 part of this, but both teams have the same things. It’s just part of the deal. 

Can you speak to Bailey Hockman’s performance? 

I think just being the guy getting the reps [is big]. The game plan was built for him, which it was in the Wake game as well. I think when Tim [Beck] can do that, knowing who the trigger guy is, it’s different, as opposed to where you’re bringing a different guy off the bench and hoping he gets it as good as the first guy did. So, it just played to his strengths. 

I think Bailey did a nice job of preparing and looking at the different things that could happen. I just thought he was quick with his reactions. He didn’t sit there and wait. He made quick decisions. He gave his receivers a chance. He used his feet a couple times to extend drives on some scrambles, which he can do. I think just having the success and seeing those guys make the plays for him is just going to lead to more success for him.

Does Jordan Travis have any similarities to D’Eriq King? 

They’re built different. You can’t really say he’s like D’Eriq King as a passer yet, just because you haven’t seen enough film of him having to throw like that. But boy is he quick. He can run. He’s electric running the football. He’s like Lamar Jackson that way, just how fast he can accelerate. The run he had on Pitt the other day, the 88-yard touchdown, he was out the gate. 

He’s scary with his feet. He does a lot for them on his own, similar to D’Eriq King where he can extend plays that aren’t there. There’s just not enough film to tell you what kind of passer he is, not that he can’t. There’s not a lot of body of work there to say that he can do the things D’Eriq King does with the throwing part of it. 

How much film do you need to see on a guy before you feel comfortable? 

It helps to have four or five games, just so you can see a lot of different situations. As you know, some games are a lot different; maybe they are behind and just having to throw it all over the place, or they’ve got the lead and are running it more. There may not be a two-minute drill. They may not have a backed up drive or a red zone drive. Or maybe he didn’t throw a pick. You want to see how he responds. So, it takes a little bit of time. You want to see different defenses. Some defenses are blitzing more than others or playing different coverages than you play. The more games you can have, the better. 

You brought up the penalties. Coming into Miami, you guys had been flagged just over eight penalties a game. As you move forward, how do you address that with your team?

Some of them are discipline penalties that we can prevent. Dylan McMahon jumped offsides when we were on offense at guard, and that’s something that, as an offensive lineman, you’ve got to know the cadence. That should never happen. But then there are penalties that are judgement calls by officials. I can talk as much as I want about that, but like I thought C.J. Clark’s play on the quarterback was a good play. I wouldn’t have coached him to do anything different right there. So those plays sometimes get called and sometimes they don’t. And there’s not a lot that I can do. 

Payton Wilson’s play on the sideline, he can’t do that. We can’t hit a quarterback going out of bounds, so those are conversations we’re going to have. So it’s just really a matter of what type of penalty it is. Sometimes there’s pass-interference penalties where a guy doesn’t play the ball and you can coach him better. Sometimes the guy played it perfectly and there’s nothing you can do about that. So I just think some of the things, there’s human error in officiating. As coaches, we understand that they’re human. We’ve got to do everything we can to play within the rules and still be aggressive when we play the game. 

Sometimes games get called really tight and everything gets flagged. Sometimes they let everything go and they don’t call anything. So it’s really challenging that way when it comes to coaching. You want to give the guys an opportunity to play a certain way and know that the refs are going to be agreeable with it.

You mentioned the receivers not having any drops on Friday. Can you speak to the play you guys have gotten from that group and the improvements they’ve made from last year? 

I’m really proud of that group. Coach McDonald takes a lot of pride in having a group of guys that’s dependable, that works hard. I think from [Emeka Emezie], to Devin Carter, to Thayer Thomas, to Porter Rooks, you’ve got a group of guys that have really increased – I know Porter wasn’t here – but improved their production from a year ago, and really improved counter production. We had a lot of dropped passes a year ago. When you add Cary Angeline into that, there’s another guy that’s very dependable that gets a lot of balls. 

So they’re giving quarterbacks targets, they’re making tough plays for them, and all that does is allow your quarterback to have confidence to give you a chance. Those guys are making those plays. They’re contact catches, and in the past we’ve had receivers like Jakobi Meyers and Kelvin Harmon that can make those tough catches in games and can make big plays for you. You need that in order to extend drives. 

Is there any update on Devin Leary’s status? 

Nothing’s changed. He’s doing really well. Everything’s on time. It’s not going to speed up. It’s four to eight weeks. We’re still letting him heal. He’s doing a great job, he’s around at practice, he’s encouraging his teammates. We’re not going to see him until postseason play if he can play again then.

Miami ends up with 213 yards to six for NC State in the fourth quarter. Did you feel like there was a difference in the offense that took their foot off the pedal?

I think they just outplayed us. The same plays that we were getting yardage on in the first half and in the third quarter, we’re reaching guys. We’re knocking guys off the ball. And now they’re penetrating and disrupting. So you’ve got to give them credit. We didn’t make the same type of blocks, the same type of line of scrimmage movement that we saw in the first half, that we saw in the third quarter when we were efficient running the football. So you can go back and second guess what you were doing, but Tim was calling plays that worked well for him earlier in the game where we scored on six of the seven possessions. So you’ve got to give them credit for beating the blocks that they weren’t beating earlier in the game. We thought we could wear them down there, and we didn’t. 

You talk a lot about complementary football, but you guys had a lot of plays on special teams this week. Moving forward the last four games of the year, how important is it for that unit to keep playing to that level? 

I’m really proud of the performance. I think Todd Goebbel deserves a lot of credit, too. He does a great job schematically and just getting the guys excited about being on those special teams and blocking punts. Being motivated to return kickoffs. We went from, I think, second [from] last in the league in kickoff return in one play. So it’s amazing what happens when you put Bam back there. We’re excited that Bam has kind of emerged in that role. We’ve been searching a little bit. We had [Ricky Person] back there, we had Jordan Houston back there. Bam goes back there and changes the momentum of a game. So obviously we’re going to leave him back there and let him work. 

He told us after the game that he probably should have taken a knee because he caught it so deep. Does he have that green light? 

It depends on where the ball is kicked. Anything in the middle of the field, as long as they can catch it going forward, we’re pretty good with those guys bringing that out of the end zone. Obviously we wouldn’t want to bring it out of the back of the end zone, but if they can catch it within where the front of your lettering would be in the end zone, we’re going to bring it out if they’re going forward. We don’t like taking things out of the end zone if you’re running sideways and things like that to catch the football. 

You moved Tyler Baker-Williams to safety this game. How do you evaluate his play, and is that something that could maybe give you some depth even when you get Tanner Ingle back? 

Obviously we didn’t tackle well in the UNC game, and we felt like we needed to get somebody at free safety that’s just bigger, that can handle the run support things that happen at that position. Joshua Pierre-Louis had done some good things at nickel for us this season. We felt like moving Tyler to free would help us in the run defense, and it did. Tyler played 90 snaps in that game at free safety. He gave up one touchdown on a wheel route. Other than that, I thought he played a really good game, made a lot of plays. Led us in tackles, didn’t miss any tackles. And so there was a lot of improvement at that position. 

So having versatility there does help. When we get Tanner back, does Tanner go to free and Tyler go back to nickel? There’s a lot of things. We need to play better in the back end, and obviously getting Tanner back, one of our defensive captains, would help us play better. But until then, we need to improve fundamentally and get back to doing some of the things in coverage at corner. Until those last two games, I thought our corners have done a really good job of not giving up big plays. So we’ve got to get back to the fundamentals that we were playing with there. 

Cary Angeline had another efficient performance Friday night. Did you guys discuss getting him more involved in the pass game over the bye week? 

Cary’s doing a great job. He’s a big target. He probably has the best hands on our football team. It’s hard to cover a guy that’s 6-7. You can have someone on him, and his advantage is obviously not only his height, but his wing span, his catch radius, is huge. So we do look for him at times. We’re always looking for ways to get him the ball. We actually called a few other plays for him, he just couldn’t get out on some things that we were hoping he would. So Cary’s going to be a part of the game plan, and I know the quarterbacks look at him as a safety net because of how big he is. 

He’s a mismatch for guys, particularly in the red zone. You’ve got Devin and Emeka on the outside, Thayer or Porter on the inside and then Cary, whether we put him in the No. 2 or No. 3 position, working on a linebacker a lot of times. That’s good for us.

How do you preach to your team not to focus on what Florida State’s record is? 

I think our guys know. We play Florida State every year; we know what kind of talent they have. They beat us last year. They just beat UNC. So we have great respect for their program. Obviously this is a weird year, so you’re seeing a lot of ups and downs out of teams because of the ins and outs of players with lineup changes and your lack of ability to maintain chemistry at certain position groups. So I don’t know if you can look at any team’s record and give it a whole lot of credit. You don’t know what’s going to change week in and week out in the lineup, which changes the team immensely at times. So we know we’re going to play a fast, athletic team that has a really good defensive line. Terry’s one of the best receivers in the conference when he’s healthy. So we will not overlook these guys one bit. We’ve got to play as well as we can play to win. 

 

 
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