Dave Doren’s Weekly Press Conference Before West Virginia (BULLETED)

Yesterday NC State head coach Dave Doeren met with the media for his weekly press conference before the West Virginia game. The VIDEO is above, and a BULLETED breakdown is below.

Areas of improvement against Georgia State…

• A lot of 1sts for a lot of young players.
• Pass game. Over 400 yards. Over 70% completion.
• No sacks. Gave up only 2 tackles for loss in the game.
• Averaged over 8 yards per play on 1st down. Improved dramatically.
• Similar to last year, struggled in the first game, but bounced back in the second, and will continue to improve as well.
• Continued to be successful on 3rd down.
• Did improve the yards per carry. Went from under 3 to above 3. Want to get back to over 5 yards per carry.
• Special teams improved. AJ Cole’s punts were better, and Dunn was 100% on field goals. Redshirt Senior Cornerback Maurice Trowell had a good kickoff return getting us almost to the 50-yard line.

Positives against Georgia State…

• Good to see Redshirt Freshman Wide Receiver Thayer Thomas take advantage of his opportunity. Great play to start the game and another one to score. And a play for him to learn on. End of the 1st half we could have gone out of bounds. Maybe could have taken another shot at the end zone.
• Freshman Running Back Trent Pennix did some good things in his second game, which we expected to see. Played a lot faster. Missed a lot of fall camp, but the game is slowing down for him.
• Great to see Redshirt Graduate Senior Running Back Brady Bodine get his first score.
• Junior Wide Receiver Kelvin Harmon had a great game.
• Other than the 1st drive, thought the defense played really well. Shutout afterwards. 3rd down defense was really solid.
• Good to see Freshman Defensive Tackle Alim McNeil get his first sack.
• Redzone continued to play well defensively.
• Big E (Senior Defensive Tackle Eurndraus Bryant) with the blocked field goal. Was a big part of we were trying to do. They had shown weakness there the week before. Executed the plan.
• Two 4th down stops on defense.
• Thought cornerbacks Nick McCloud (Junior) and Chris Ingram (Sophomore) both played the deep ball well. Took shots at both of them and they both played well.

Areas to improve after Georgia State…

• Need to tackle better on the perimeter. Going to be tested greatly this week with West Virginia’s speed. Need better angles coming out of our breaks. Not give up so many yards after the catch. Still see guys like Freshman Nickelback Tanner Ingle, who’s a good contact player, not wrap up. Something you can’t get away with.
• Disappointed in our 4th and 1. Had a penalty on 1 we converted, and the other one we got stopped.

On Stephen Louis…

• Stephen Louis is in the concussion protocol, and going through the process. He’s progressing, and we’ll have to see where he ends up.

On the weather this coming Saturday…

• In regards to the weather, we are expecting to play, and proceeding and planning like we will, till somebody says we won’t.
• We’ll have our monsoon plan. Do the best we can in the conditions, and try to take care of the football. Unique challenge two years ago. Hard to imagine playing in that again. If we do, our guys will definitely have experience like that to relate to.
• We definitely have to do wet ball drills. Whether it rains and we can do that naturally, or we have to create it, we have to do that for sure. We’ll over exaggerate it for them. I remember Joe Scelfo was our Center when we played Notre Dame, and we were constantly giving him wet balls throughout the week, and he went that whole game without a single snap issue.
• Last time played in the weather was the Spring Game. Ryan Finley threw the ball well in the rain that day, so that is probably big for him, but we didn’t catch the ball well that day.
• Hopes it rains some this week so they can practice in it.

On West Virginia’s offense…

• Really good football team.
• Head Coach Dana Holgorsen does a really good job with his program.
• They’re aggressive.
• They recruit well.
• Good speed.
• Explosive offense. Well-designed and well-coached. Talented players.
• Offensive line protects well and doesn’t give up a lot of negative plays. 2nd in the nation last year in TFL’s allowed.
• Will Grier is a talented quarterback with really good weapons around him.
• WR David Sills led the nation in touchdowns last year.
• WR Gary Jennings was their leading receiver, and now he’s starting to score a lot of touchdowns. Last year he had almost 100 receptions with 1 touchdown catch. He has 4 on the year so far.
• Think all of their tailbacks are impressive. They are averaging over 6 yards per carry, and don’t go down on first contact. Make people miss.
• Their Left Tackle Yodny Cajuste may be one of the better one’s we’ll see this year.
• Uptempo offense. Like to get the ball out quickly.

On West Virginia’s defense…

• On defense – 3-3-5 stack defense.
• Blitz a lot.
• Give a lot of different coverages.
• Not afraid to go Cover 0 and bring them all, but most of the time you’re getting a 4th or 5th guy.
• Some players that have been there a while.
  • Spur Linebacker Dravon Askew-Henry. Started 41 consecutive games.
  • Will Linebacker David Long Jr is really athletic, and makes a lot of plays for them.
  • Mike Linebacker Dylan Tonkery is very disruptive.
  • Defensive Tackle Kenny Bigelow Jr. had a heck of a game vs. Tennessee.

On Ryan Finley facing Will Grier…

• The other quarterback he is facing has zero to do with what he needs to do. If he’s worried about the other quarterback, he won’t be doing his job. Anytime you face another competitor, you want to play well, but you’re focus has to be on you, and not what the other player is doing.

On Trent Pennix…

• I expect him to continue to play fast. He missed some reads in the run game. He did a really nice job in protection. Obviously he had the one catch, and another where he made a guy miss, then he had a drop. Week 1 he was nervous. Week 2 he wasn’t. Week  3 to continue to build on the assignment perspective.

On Freshman Running Back Ricky Person…

• Person was out last week, and we’ll have to see if he comes back this week.

On the need to improve the run game with rain expected…

• Thought the Offensive Line came off of the ball better last week. Did miss some combination schemes we need to clean up. We’re struggling a little bit at the Tight End position, and hopefully Redshirt Sophomore Dylan Autenrieth will be able to play this week. That would help a lot, and get Redshirt Sophomore Cary Angeline back the week after. That will help us. Getting back Redshirt Junior Running Back Damontay Rhem will help us.
• It’s important to us. We’re not going to bail on it. We have to find ways to fit what we have right now.

On how injured Ricky Person and Jakobi Meyers are doing…

• They’re doing great. (with a smirk).

On where he expected the team to be at this point…

• I think we’re still a work in progress. Glad we are 2-0. Glad we’ve scored a lot of touchdowns, and have gotten new people the ball, but we’re still seeing what people can do.
• There’s a lot left for this team. Ricky Person hasn’t been healthy yet. Alim McNeil got his first sack. Both Trent Pennix and Chris Dunn were confident after being really nervous.