I was unable to go to the weekly press conference yesterday, so I’m sorry this is late. Here is a FULL TRANSCRIPT of Dave Doeren’s session with the media. You can watch the whole thing here.
Opening Statement
“We’re going to wear our black helmet, black uniforms this week. Pack in Black. We’re asking our students and fans to help us out with the black out in the stadium. Obviously the weather could be warm, so maybe pregame you can have a light colored shirt on, and when the sun goes down you can put the black on. We’d love to have you guys help us with the cause. We’re very excited about it.”
“We’re very proud of last weeks game, the execution we had on offense, the lack of penalties, the way we were able to control the clock, the way we performed on third and fourth downs, the way we passed and caught it, we were very efficient. Defensively, there were 4 plays that took away from a pretty good performance. It’s a good learning deal for those guys. We can’t be a defense that gives up 150 yards on 4 plays, and they know that. It’s a good game for those guys to learn off of. I thought we handled their uptempo. Guys were lined up, ready to play, and we executed a lot of calls on defense. We were excellent on third down. We were 8 of 9 defensively on third down in the game. It’s a game where we just have to get back to understanding that every play is the most important play in the game, and making some plays on deep balls, which we’ve worked really hard to do. Happy with the performance of our first game punter, snapper, kicker, and kickoff. All of those guys were playing in their first college game and performed well.”
“Week 2 is about discipline for our guys in the process. Watching that film with thick skin, and taking the little details of the game very personal, and working hard this week to get it off the film in week 2 against a really good Eastern Kentucky team. They were 9-4 last year…in the playoffs last year…1-0 this year…scored 52 points in their opener. They are the 14th ranked team in FCS. It’s a team that has a lot of condition. Historically, they are the second winningest program. They’ve gone to the playoffs 21 times. It’s a team that has a lot of players in the NFL, and they have some players on their team right now that have the chance to do that as well. Head coach Dean Hood, who was at Wake Forest. He was good defensive coach, and you can see it in their team. They were 2nd in the nation in forced turnovers last year. They forced 33 turnovers. I know he’s an opportunistic coach as well. He was the defensive coordinator at Wake. He’s a very good coach. He’s been the Coach of the Year finalist twice since he’s been there. We look forward to the challenge.”
“Offensively, their quarterback had an allergic reaction last week and didn’t start, but #4 (Bennie Coney), he’s a transfer from Cincinnati, he’s who we expect to see. They have played two quarterbacks. Their tailback is the guy that really makes their offense go. He was a preseason All-American, #7 (Dy’Shawn Mobley). He averaged 5.8 yards per carry and had 20 touchdowns last year. He had a very productive season. They have two big receivers, two 6’5″ guys. Jeff Glover had two touchdowns in week 1. Guys that can go up and get it. They have a really good offensive lineman that plays Right Tackle. He has 33 straight starts. They have some good offensive players. Their running back is a transfer from Kentucky. They also have some playmakers on defense. Their best player in the front seven is a defensive end that transferred in from Ohio St, #9 Spence. He’s really quick twitched. Great get off…change of direction…good pass pressure. Their cornerback is also a returner…#27 (Stanley Absanon). He had a really good first game and is a really athletic guy. He breaks on the ball well. He had a pick-six in the opener and does some good things for their football team as a returner. Their D-Tackle has a lot of experience…their 390 pound guy. They have big guys on the inside.”
“For us, it’s another game where we are going to talk a lot about ourselves with our Football team, and being disciplined in the process…understanding that if you made plays last week, and you played to your ability level, and if you felt like you prepared the right way, then be disciplined to do it again. If you didn’t, look at why things happened the way that they did, and what do you have to do in the process to keep that from happening, so that we can improve as a football team. That’s what we talk about in week 2. What we have to do tomorrow is understand our packages on 1st and 2nd down…On offense, defense, specials teams with our punt and kickoff coverages tomorrow and getting into our situations on Wednesday. Eastern Kentucky blocked 7 kicks last year, and they have a player who blocked 5 himself, #88 (Devin Borders), so that’s an impressive stat. We have to be really good on our special teams and our protection with our field goal and our punt team. We are excited for the opportunity and to be back at home and to have another crowd like we did last week.
On having only 1 penalty…
I think you get what you emphasize. It’s something we talk a lot about. One of the foundations for us is ‘not beating ourselves on the field and off of the field’. It takes a lot of discipline. It takes a lot of focus. We talked a lot throughout the week about the process of when you get the call or play, focusing on what you’re responsibility is, playing with effort, and just doing it again. Not having a 70-play focus, but a 1-play focus. Our coaches did a good job preparing our players, and our guys did a good job focusing in the game. You just have to keep beating on it with the guys and not let them get away with anything like that, where you can beat yourself…you have to get those mistakes out.
On if he wished he would have had the field goal unit out there at least once in the opener…
“The answer is no. We’d rather score a touchdown, and I’ve seen him in scrimmage situation kick a lot, and I know the time will come. We were prepared multiple times to bring him out and kick, but we just converted. It’s just the way it went down. He’ll definitely have many many opportunities. I thought Kyle (Bambard) did a nice job in the game, going 7 for 7 on extra points. That’s a pretty good start for him. The snaps were good and the holds were good.
On concern of having the same excitement level for Eastern Kentucky…
“We actually feel like we know more about this team than we did the first, because they were there last year as a staff. You have a whole season worth of film, and the opening game to confirm what you saw a year ago. There will be more opportunity to watch film on this team, when we were watching other teams last week. As far as being excited to play, if you’re not excited to play, then you have a problem. I hope we don’t see that with any of our guys.”
On team identity…
“I don’t know yet who we’re going to be. I’m definitely happy with how the veteran players played. I thought they played better than they did a year ago. You saw that across a lot of positions. Dravious Wright was a guy like that. Josh Jones was a guy like that. Last year their opening game was not very good, and this year it was. You can see the growth in the team. You saw the Freshmen that played, there was quite a few, I think we were 1st or 2nd in the country in playing freshmen. I didn’t think they flinched. I thought they played well. You didn’t see a bunch of nerves out there. I thought they played fast. Reggie (Gallaspy) ran the ball well and Nyheim (Hines) made a couple of plays for us. They seemed like a group that enjoys playing the game and prepares the right way. We’ll just have to see how we do at getting better.
On if he thought the 2nd team got enough run…
“I thought we did good running the ball with our 2nd, 3rd and 4th running backs in the game. We didn’t ask Jalan (McClendon) to throw it a lot. We were nervous about him getting hit. He did have the chance to drop back a couple of different times. Once Schooley went down, and Adams went to Center, and Bradbury was out, we were playing some guys out of position up front. It was kind of hard to run all the plays we normally would have run with Jalan. We wanted to run the offense for him. The more snaps we can get those kids the better. I don’t know if you can ever say you’ve had enough snaps with your backups. We play those guys a ton so that they’ll be ready when it’s not a backup role, but a starting role.”
On Dravious Wright’s Hit…
“Nationally I haven’t seen it. I’ve seen pictures. It was a big hit. It was clean. It was physical. I wish he would have picked it up and ran it back for a touchdown. That’s the only thing I wish he would have done different. We needed that at that point in the game defensively. We were looking for some defensive spark, and he’s a guy that can spark us. I think he has that in him, so we just have to keep pushing him to be that player all the time. He’s a quick twitched guy that brings some punch when he hits you.”
On the jersey selection…
“The guys are excited about it. I talked to the Leadership Council Sunday, and we talked about a lot of different things. One of the things we talk about is what we are wearing this week. They were all excited and smiling. As far as wearing an alternate uniform, it’s something we will try to do. A little bit depends on what the opportunities are. It’s something from a recruiting stand point and the excitement in our locker room…it helps both of those things. I do believe in the tradition of the Red-and-White and we aren’t going to stray to far from that. We think it’s important that we stay with that most of the time, but these are young guys and they live in a world growing up where uniforms are important to them. It matters in recruiting. Last year, I know we got a lot of national pub about our helmet and jersey combinations, and our players enjoyed playing in them. We work really really hard every now and then to throw them a bone like that.”
On the fans staying…
“I was really impressed and extremely thankful. Our biggest thing across all of our sports is about raising the bar and becoming the best we can be. Someone asked me if there is anything else you would ever want, what would it be, and I would love to be sold out for 4 quarters all the time. I think we have such a good fan base, and for our recruits to see that fan base, makes us different than any other school in the state of North Carolina. That’s important and meant a lot. The rain didn’t bother any of them. They were awesome. They got wet and brushed it off. They were loud and were there the whole time. They were awesome. That’s all I can ask for. If we can continue to get that, I think that makes us a better football team.
