Dave Doeren: "It's a great group of people to be with"

NC State football ended its impressive 2020 regular season with a 23-13 win over Georgia Tech at Carter-Finley Stadium Saturday. The win gives the Pack an 8-3 final record after finishing 4-8 last year, and also sets a school record for conference wins in a season with seven. 

The Wolfpack will now get some time off as it waits to see what bowl game it will end up with. Head coach Dave Doeren spoke with the media via Zoom after the game; here’s a full breakdown of everything he had to say: 

Opening statement...

I’m very proud of our team. They once again showed resilience. The defense played out of their minds. They were able to get fourth-down stops and make key plays at key moments, and continuing to have to see other guys step in. Aydan White played the entire game. Shyheim Battle went down and Taiyon Palmer game in. Tanner Ingle got disqualified again and Isaac Duffy had to go in. Payton Wilson went out and Calvin Hart went in. It was unbelievable. To hold them to 13 points, I think, says a lot.

It’s been a crazy year, but to break a record that these guys are very proud of, for Chris Dunn to have his record tonight on a clutch kick to give us a two-possession lead, I thought that was outstanding. I’m just proud to be a part of this football team, and these young men, this coaching staff. Looking at where we came from a year ago, we had one ACC win. Now we have seven. That’s quite a year, when you talk about improvement. The beauty of it is, a lot of these guys are back. So it’s going to be a fun offseason. We look forward to the bowl.

Obviously, Emeka Emezie had a big game. Bailey Hockman threw the ball well. To be able to have a playmaker like Emezie come up with the catches that he did and have guys trying to rip his jersey off when they can’t cover him, he was pretty awesome for us in the fourth quarter.

You made a lot of changes in the offseason with goals of what you wanted to do after the way last season, how exciting is it for that to all come together the way it has this season? 

The hardest thing you do as a coach is fire somebody on your staff. I went through some tough times last offseason. All the decisions I made weren’t because they weren’t good coaches. I wanted to get a different type of feel in our building. I wanted the power of positivity to take over, not just with our kids but with our coaches and the camaraderie and chemistry. It’s what we do for a living and I wanted to have fun doing it every day. I wanted these players to have fun. That doesn’t mean we don’t work hard here, we do. But at the end of the day, it’s because we love the game and we love being around each other. 

I think that made this year really special to see it all come together the way it did, particularly when we had to get separated from each other during quarantine in the spring. The guys just took over, our players, with accountability to each other and to their coaches. I couldn’t have done it without these young men, particularly the leaders on this football team.

On that final drive, a lot of teams typically run the ball, but you guys threw six times. What went into that discussion, was it how things had been progressing throughout the game?

We rushed for 88 yards on the night. We needed to get some first downs. They couldn’t cover [Emezie]. Bailey was throwing good balls, and we needed to get first downs. So it’s really just trusting that we were going to make the plays. Devin Carter made a couple plays there on the slant route.

We were catching the ball well all night. So we trust our wideouts and there was no reason not to trust what was going on in the passing game. At that point, we had not run the ball well for a while. I was glad we were able to run one at the end to kind of put it away. We had to go with what was working at that point. 

Were they doing anything specific to take the run away today? 

I need to watch the film to be honest. They blitzed almost every play. So without seeing how we got plays made on us, I don’t want to be wrong. But there was a lot of pressure. The D-Line was slanting and angling with a linebacker, safety or corner. That’s why we were able to throw the football. They were in one-on-one coverage in the back end almost all night. 

Would you consider this your best coaching job? 

I think that’s for you guys to decide. I’m just blessed to be here. I’m very proud to coach these young men. I haven’t evaluated myself. I’m just trying to do everything I can to be better every day. So we’ll see how that plays out.

So many of these wins have gone down to the last drive or two, but your team has found a way to pull it out. Is their resiliency one of their biggest signs of growth from last season?

This team has grit. That’s the sixth game that we’ve now won a one-possession game this year. There’s no flinch. There’s no soft. They’re hard, they’re tough, together. There’s some things I’d like to say about people faking injuries, but I won’t. Our team just finds a way to win.

Some coaches said playing this season would have been a win. But considering the adversity you guys faced, what satisfies you most right now?

I think it’s just the way that these guys play and how coachable they are. How much fun they are to be around. It’s a joy to coach this football team. There’s very few distractions. I think we just had our highest team GPA since I’ve been here, as well. It’s a great group of people to be with. They truly want to be better. You can coach them hard, you can tell them the truth and they give you everything they’ve got. It’s just fun to be around guys like that.