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NC State Football

Dave Doeren: "It's a Remarkable Group"

October 13, 2022
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No. 15 NC State head coach Dave Doeren met with the media via Zoom to discuss the Wolfpack's upcoming matchup versus No. 18 Syracuse.

NOTE: Click on the video in the player above to watch Doeren’s interview.


On if Jack Chambers will start in the event Devin Leary isn’t available…

You’ll find out on game day.

On this week in practice and the quarterbacks’ preparation…

It’s been a great week of practice. The guys are excited to play a really good Syracuse team. We’re not trying any new quarterbacks; they’re the same guys we’ve had since training camp started. Everybody’s practicing and working hard. We’re at that point in the season where you can tell we’ve had two very physical games. They’re giving us everything they’ve got. I’m proud of how they’re pushing through. I think our bye week after this one will come at a good time. We’ll try to get some guys back to feeling normal. We are going to have a healthy Tyler Baker-Williams, so that’s a very happy addition, gaining him back. Outside of that, it’s been a great week. I’m proud of these guys for how they’ve managed these five straight night games that we’ve had, the number of times we’ve not gotten home until three in the morning, and everything else. It’s a remarkable group.

On if the playbook changes depending on who the quarterback is…

Well, did you watch the game? Then you saw that it changed a little bit. Everyone has a different skill set. If Devin’s in the game, it’s his offense. If Jack’s in the game, if M.J. [Morris] is in the game, or Ben Finley’s in the game, they all have things that are strengths that we’ll try to play through.

On how tougher Syracuse is this year with Garrett Shrader’s performance…

He’s impressive. He’s one of the more improved players I’ve seen this year. [He has a] 70 percent completion rate. I went back and watched our game from last year, and he really struggled throwing the ball. He ran well against us. To be at 10 touchdowns, three interceptions, and a 70 percent completion rate based off of what we saw last year, he’s done a great job, and so has their staff. The changes that Dino [Babers] made have paid off when you look at the way Robert [Anae] is running that offense and using his skill set. [Sean] Tucker’s still leading the ACC in rushing, so it hasn’t taken away from his production.

On if there’s been any opponent he’s faced that uses their top receiver the same way Syracuse uses Oronde Gadsen, II…

ECU had a couple of guys in the slot that were really good players, but Gadsen plays everywhere. They move him around. When you look at Robert Anae’s offense at Virginia, he did the same thing. He moved players all over the field and found ways to get them the ball: motioned them and made it hard for you to locate them and isolate one player on him to stop him. Robert does a good job with that schematically. Gadsden’s definitely their target, and their second-leading receiver’s the tailback. At the wide receiver position, Gadsden’s very important to them, and we need to know where he is.

On if Syracuse’s success is surprising…

They’ve got a lot of players back. I said this multiple times in the offseason when asked about the Atlantic division: whenever you have a starting quarterback back, which all of us do in the Atlantic, it allows you to improve your roster dramatically differently than when you don’t. I’m not surprised that any of these teams that returned their starting quarterback are better because they’re not worried about that piece of their offense. You can do a lot of other things, and we have the same thing. Unfortunately for us, losing Trent Pennix was a big blow for our offense when you talk about getting better. When you look at what’s going on up there, they’ve been very healthy offensively. I think Shrader was year one in that system. Now, he’s in year two with a new O.C., and Dino’s a very resilient guy. I have a ton of respect for him. He’s a program builder. He did it at Eastern Illinois. He did it at Bowling Green. He’s done it at Syracuse now twice. It doesn’t surprise me that they’re playing the way they are.

 
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