NC State head coach Dave Doeren met with the media shortly after the Holiday Bowl was canceled. Here are some quotes from Doeren on the cancellation.
First initial thought when you heard the news...
I thought it was fake news to be honest. Our team has done everything right. We had 100% of our team vaccinated.
We were prepared to play this game, our opponent wasn’t apparently. It’s disappointing. A lot went into the finish of the season to get a 10th win, and we would have won the game. There is no doubt about it with the way our guys prepared.
It’s tough.
Where were you in your pregame process when you heard the news?
Watching the last three minutes of the bowl game that was on, Auburn-Houston, a one-possession game thinking about what I would do in that situation, expecting a one-possession game... going through what I would do in my mind.
Is there a possibility to find an opponent?
Yeah... maybe? I thought we'd be playing a game 30 minutes ago so I don’t know.
Is there a limited window of where it becomes too much to ask?
There's a lot of logistical things. Do we have a hotel to sleep in after tomorrow? Is the baseball stadium available after that day? Who’d have the finances to get here in time? How many days would we get to prepare?
I'm not going to schedule a team for a game tomorrow and not prepare our quarterback for blitzes he may see. That's not fair to him. Is it possible? Yes, but I don't know how possible it is.
Right now I'm more concerned for our guys and trying to figure out what’s next.
Was this the toughest message to deliver?
Man I don’t know, there's been a lot of messages these last two years that have been hard. This was one of the more disappointing messages but there’s been some hard news.
What was the mood like?
A lot of sad, mad, angered, confused... we felt lied to, to be honest. We felt like UCLA probably knew something was going on, on their team and didn't tell anybody on our side. We had no clue they were up against that.
I don't feel it was very well handled from their university. It would have been great to have a heads up that this could happen so two or three days ago we could have a plan b. It's disappointing.
When did you first hear?
I got a call from Boo minutes before on Twitter it went out from Bruce Feldman. We found out the same time you guys did. That's why you feel undercut a little bit there.
Have you had a chance to talk to the team?
We just had a team meeting seconds ago. It wasn’t really a message. You all know what I know... kids came up and talked, guys who will never play again for our school, guys coming back talked...
Is the plan to still go back tomorrow as scheduled?
Right. Unless all of a sudden we get a great opportunity we can make manage, we'll do that.
What are you going to do tonight?
I don't know man. I’m still like, is this happening?
Does it feel like when does this stop?
Yeah... you want them to have some good things happen, and we've had a lot. I don't want this to diminish what happened here this year.. Nine wins with seven defensive starters now out for the season, that was a really good season for us.
Yeah, you feel we deserve a little bit of luck here.
