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NC State Football

Doeren: "We Don't Recruit Guys Like That"

November 16, 2017
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NC State head coach Dave Doeren met with the media following Thursday's practice.


Last three games Wake Forest has looked totally different.
They are playing really well at quarterback. That's one of the teams that finished with a lot of momentum last year.

They had a lot of changes on defense; lost their coordinator, lost their linebackers coach, learning a new system.  They are going through that which is hard, to have those changes.

But, I'm really impressed with them. They are doing a great job. Every year we've played against Wake their quarterback has had injuries, whether it was Hinton getting injured, John getting injured.  He's healthy, his receivers are playing well, and the offensive line is protecting him.

They have a potent offense. They scored 40 points in the second half last week. We have to execute.

Both programs show what happens when you have redshirt juniofs, seniors, redshirt seniors...
Oh yeah... you can't replace experience. You have guys with three or four years of playing time who have learned through battle how to do things and overcome adversity.

You're seeing success in both programs because of that.

The d-line has to stop the run first, do you see the difference when Matt Colburn is rushing for over 130 yards and when they didn't have someone who did that?
They had over 700 yards.  That was just part of the deal.

You can't let them be in a rhythm and be balanced. You have to stop the run, their pass game, the quarterback run game. There's a lot going on over there.

We have to play really well. Offensively we have to score, get touchdowns, possess the football, convert on third downs.  We have to play really well on special teams, create takeaways on defense... we have to execute.

Is Big T healthy?
He is.

Is everybody else healthy?
For this time of the year I think we're pretty good. We have guys nicked up in certain places but we're better than we were going into Sunday.

The perception has been it's just FSU, Louisville, and Clemson in the Atlantic, but now it feels like it's a meat grinder in the division.  How has that division grown since you've been at State?
First, there's really good coaching staffs on our side of the division. I'm not saying the [Coastal] doesn't, but we don't play against them as much so I'm not studying them the same way.

In the Atlantic Division you have seven teams where week-in and week-out you have to show up. Syracuse upset Clemson, and they've been hard to beat every week. Boston College is a really good football team. Wake has six wins and are bowl eligible already and the other teams are always full of really good players.  

It's a great division with great coaches. The players in it are competitors.

Do you find that kids and coaches embrace that as opposed to wanting to dodge it and go to where it isn't as hard?
We don't recruit guys like that.  We're looking for kids who want to compete against the best players in the country, week-in and week-out and develop themselves into teams that can beat them.

 
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