VIDEO: Dave Doeren Talks Before NC State vs. Georgia State

Head Coach Dave Doeren spoke with the media one last time before NC State’s matchup against Georgia State tomorrow. The VIDEO is above, and a BULLETED breakdown is below.

• Georgia State quarterback Dan Ellington led them in carries last week (18 carries for 77 yards). Some were designed plays, some weren’t. Design zone read. Quarterback draw. Then he has the ability to run on his own scrambling. Very mobile.
• Georgia State’s 3-4 defense doesn’t pressure a lot. They are going to bring their boundary player. They are going to bring their field nickel. Sometimes they are going to bring their “mike” and “will” linebackers. It’s more 4 or 5 man rush stuff. Obviously they have the ability to bring more than that. They run more zone defense than man. Some teams like West Virginia will have a ton of different coverages. These guys don’t have as many. They are trying to eat up blocks, and let their linebackers run to the football. They play pretty soft coverage, keep stuff in front, and tackle well. It’s not really bend but don’t break…they do enough moving around. It’s similar to Appalachian St. defense, that’s where he came from.
• Redshirt Graduate Senior Wide Receiver Stephen Louis is great. He’s practicing. He really looked good. Were careful with him on Tuesday, and he practiced yesterday (Wednesday), and today (Thursday). He’s going to play.
• Redshirt Junior Wide Receiver Jakobi Meyers is working like heck to get back. He ran last night (Wednesday), and he’ll run again tonight (Thursday). Every day he’s gotten better. We’re hopeful. He’s hopeful. We’ll just have to see how he feels on game day.
• Redshirt Junior Nickelback Stephen Griffin is getting there. He didn’t practice for maybe 20 of the 25 practices in training camp. He got out of shape. We were talking about it yesterday. Your physical fitness is like money. It’s hard to earn, and easy to spend. He was in great shape coming into camp, then 20 days of inactivity. We didn’t want to give him everything at once against JMU, then pull a hamstring. Last week he got some, this week he’ll get more. He’s back on some special teams units now too. His reps will go up each week as long as he continues to get better.
• For me, 4-men down has always been the defensive philosophy I’ve been used to. It’s what I know. Where I cut my teeth in football. We feel the 4-2-5 gives the ability to match up better on skill and play. With some of the route concepts and receiver skill in this league.
• We’ll find out on Saturday how much we improved this week. Obviously we want to run the ball with a better average. Want to play better on 1st down, to create better 3rd down opportunities. Defensively we want to do better against the scramble game. Special teams we want to have zero penalties in the game. Make all of our kicks.
• We had 19 guys play in their first college game, and they were nervous. Want to see them play with more confidence.
• Redshirt Graduate Senior Linebacker Germaine Pratt and Junior Cornerback Nick McCloud get the guys going on the sideline. They are very vocal. On the offensive side Redshirt Graduate Senior Garrett Bradbury has been good in that role. Has no problem calling guys out and firing guys up. He did that on Tuesday at practice.
• Last year I thought our sideline guys did a good job trying to get the crowd up. We’ve got to get better at that too.