Dave Doeren: 'It was a pretty good night here'

There was plenty to be happy about for NC State head coach Dave Doeren following the Wolfpack’s week one 45-0 win over South Florida at Carter-Finley Stadium, including big games from Bam Knight and Ricky Person, Devin Leary’s return to action and a shutout from the defense. 

Doeren spoke to the media via Zoom following the victory, here’s a full breakdown of everything he had to say: 

Opening statement

It was a great win. I’m really proud of the guys and the coaches. Before I get into any of that, I just want to thank the crowd. It was great having them back and our student section. It was awesome just seeing them again and hearing them. It’s Thursday night, and it was what we were hoping for. I think the kids fed off of you. It means a lot to them to have the crowd that we did. 

As far as the team goes, when you can play a game like we just did and shut a team out, those are hard to get. Coach [Tony Gibson] and the defensive staff, I’m proud of those guys. We played a lot of guys on both sides of the football. It was good to see the way Devin bounced back after missing some throws. I thought he really played well after that. It was good to see [Emeka Emezie] make a catch like that, to build him back up confidence wise. All these guys played a part. The running backs ran really well, the O-Line manhandled them up front for most of the night, 293 yards rushing. We only had three penalties, and I think we came out of it pretty healthy. So it was a pretty good night here for what we wanted to accomplish. I think that’s about it. 

For your team to come out here composed for a home crowd they haven’t seen since 2019, and then Devin comes back and has a good night, your defense shuts out this team, what were you most impressed by from your guys tonight? 

I just asked them to be mature and they showed that to me. I think last year, we weren’t as mature as we are now. Being able to get up on a team and stay up on them, keep them in the corner, not let them out. They tried. They did a couple things to get down in the red zone, we were able to get two turnovers defensively down in the red zone, which are huge plays. I just loved the maturity of them. They really took things to hear that we pointed out in the offseason that we needed to improve on.

Did you think Devin was a little bit rusty early in the game with the amount of time he missed, and how happy were you with the way he bounced back and some of the throws that he made later in the game? 

Yeah, there might have been a little bit of rust. Also, defensively, you’re trying to feel a team out that you’re not really sure what they’re going to do. We had no idea who their starters were, as you guys know. They’ve got 29 transfers in the last two years. So there was a little bit of a feeling-out period there, but the thing you like about Devin is nothing bothers him. He throws a touchdown, he’s the same guy. He throws a pick, he’s the same guy. He needs to learn not to run the ball there at the end of the game, but outside of that, I thought he was pretty good.

Ricky Person found the end zone three times, what improvement have you seen out of him in the last year and how excited are you for his potential? 

I’m excited for all those backs. I think Ricky had a good game. I thought he ran really hard. He did some good things inside the tackles and outside the tackles. He has a nose for the goal line. Him and [Knight] are each other’s biggest fans and also competitive. I think they want to out-rush each other and out-gain each other, all these different things. I think there’s been a lot of talk in the offseason about Bam, and I know Ricky wants to prove how good he is as well. I thought he played really well. It’s great to see Jordan Houston get in the game and do some things there at the end.

What stood out to you most defensively? 

I thought Drake Thomas played a great game. I thought he was all over the field. [Isaiah Moore] was all over the field. The thing that I really liked, to be honest, was the way we played the football in the air tonight. I thought defensively it was the first time in awhile that our DBs have broke on balls, snatched them out of the air and made some really confident catches on footballs. That’s what you need to be able to do, and it’s the kind of defense where you’re playing with five defensive backs. So between Tanner Ingle’s interception and Cyrus Fagan’s interception, the way these guys broke on the football, we played all of our guys back there, everybody got game time, but that really stood out to me. 

You had nearly 300 rushing yards tonight, two backs with over 100 yards, but what did you see from the offensive line? 

I think they played really well. I think coach [Tim Beck] did a nice job mixing it up, and him and [John Garrison] communicated well during the game. They found some different formations as the game went on that presented some problems for South Florida structurally, and the O-Line did a nice job. I thought they mixed it up enough with the stretch game, the counter game and the inside zone game where they kind of had them guessing. There was a lot of movement up front. That’s kind of what I look for. Where’s the line of scrimmage going? I love that brand of football. It’s fun to see our offensive line and our tight end group play like that. I think the backs are just so hard to tackle. If you can get those guys started like that, a lot of good things are going to happen.

How much does it help you guys in the run game to rotate Bam and Ricky to keep them fresh?

It’s a long season, and they take a lot of hits on plays that you don’t see in the pass game when they’re protecting, picking up linebackers and things like that. They both had 16 carries, and that’s kind of a perfect world when you can get something like that. But they do keep each other fresh. I think you look across college football and NFL football, that’s how it is anymore. You need to have two guys, if not three, to make it through the kind of contact that these guys face every week.