VIDEO: Dave Doeren Speaks to the Media After Practice Before Wake Forest

Dave Doeren spoke with the media after practice today before NC State’s matchup with Wake Forest tomorrow night. The video is ABOVE, and a BULLETED breakdown is BELOW.

• We have four games left. We handle our business, and it’ll (CFP ranking) be a relevant thing, but it’s not relevant until we do that. We are one poor game away from being back down. It’s great to be recognized, don’t get me wrong, but I’m more concerned about finishing where we want to finish then being there with four more games to play.
• Junior Cornerback Nick McCloud and Redshirt Sophomore Shug Frazier practiced all week.
• Senior Defensive Tackle Eurndraus Bryant isn’t in full practice mode. He is running and in pads doing things, but we haven’t seen him play, so we have to see how he feels in warm ups tomorrow. Feels way better, but we’re not going to put him out there if the trainer says no. He wants to play, I can tell you that.
• We offered Wake Forest Quarterback Jamie Newman in high school. Thought he was a really good player. He was in our camp. Big, strong guy, big arm, great kid. There’s not a lot of film this year, but you see that he does run tough. He’s not trying to go down, and he’s going to try to run through people. Not a lot of game reps to evaluate how he’s gonna handle the crowd and the noise that goes along with it. I’m sure he’s excited to compete against us and it’s a big opportunity for him, and obviously for us. Third game in a row where the quarterback situation has been unknown.
• Kids want to be on national television. To me, this game is without a doubt, the best atmosphere we have in Carter-Finley. The Military Appreciation game is special. Have the troops here. Flag at halftime.
• I think Wake Forest head coach Dave Clawson is very smart.  He understands his roster…gets them to play. I think Dave’s a really good person. I like being around Dave and respect him a lot for building programs and he treats people with respect. I think his kids play hard and they are classy in how they do it. There’s a mutual respect I think between the both of us.
• Bradley Chubb, first of all, I think is the backbone of what we’ve tried to build here. Built himself into what he is. No shortcuts. Did things the right way. Treats people with respect. Plays harder than everybody on the practice field. Prepares himself to be the best player on the game field. He’s doing that now. I was talking to one of their scouts this week and he said that the guys were mad at him in Denver when he first got there because he was practicing so hard. Now they’re starting to practice like him because of his production. They’re like, “Wow, look at what’s happening because of his practice habits.” He’s a glue guy.  He’s a guy that transforms your locker room.  I’m so proud of him and not surprised at all that it’s happening. I look forward to recognizing him and he deserves it.
• I talked to Kelvin Harmon this week, and he is going to go through Senior Day. He has not made any decisions, but this is a milestone type thing and he has a lot of family coming in, which for him is very rare. He’s going to go through like Ryan and Chubb and all of these guys. I’ll get the NFL stuff back, but sometime during the bowl week we will sit down with him and his dad and decide.  He’ll decide if he’s coming back or not, and he said if he does, he will have two senior days. He doesn’t want to not have one if that’s the direction he ends up going. I didn’t want you guys misreading it or wondering why he’s out there, but this is one of those things for him that he loves the milestones of his career.  I think it’s really important and he doesn’t want to miss that if that’s where he ends up at the end of the decision, but he has by no means made a decision yet and won’t until he gets all of his information back. So I didn’t want anyone reading into that anymore than it was.