Wolfpack Head Coach Dave Doeren met with the media for his postgame press conference after NC State beat East Carolina 34-6. You can watch the video here, or check out the BULLETED breakdown below.

• Proud of players and coaches.
  • Emanuel McGirt getting his first start.
  • Tabari Hines getting his first touchdown.
  • Keyon Lesane get a run at the end of the game.
  • Jordan Houston catch his first pass.
  • Emeka Emezie make two strong catches in the second half.
  • Matt McKay in his first start to have 300 yards is pretty special.
  • Offensive line was able to rotate guys in and protect.
  • Getting Ikem Ekwonu at Left Tackle in the game was a big deal.
  • Getting Dylan McMahon in the game at Left Guard was a big deal.
• We’ve got to clean up several things.
  • Disappointed in kickoff coverage.
    • Did kick the ball well with Trenton Gill.
    • Got to be able to get it down and tackle better on kickoff coverage.
• I thank the fans for being there.
  • It was hot today.
  • Hopefully you enjoyed what you got to see from our players.
  • We need you. We need you for four quarters. I know it’s hot. I get all that.
  • We want to be special. Please just continue to do all that you can to be back in there for us in the third quarter. We love you if you can be. It means a lot to these kids.

Matt McKay…

• As practice went on throughout the week, you could see him getting more and more confident.
• Best practice ever on Thursday.
• Told the guys ‘If he throws like that, we’re good Saturday’…He was throwing dimes.
• Very confident. Very calm.
• Put his time in, studied, and prepared.
  • I tell the players that if you are prepared, you won’t be nervous. He prepared the right way for this football game.

3-3-5 Defense…

• Last year we played ECU in three down the entire game. When Tony Gibson got here, we were kind of bridging the gap from 3rd down, to being able to play it on 1st and 2nd.
• Interviewed a lot of DB coaches, but Tony put a lot of stuff on the table that you saw on the field today.
• It gives us a lot more answers for RPO football.
• A lot of injuries on defensive line. Don’t have enough defensive tackles to play four downs for an entire game with a rotation.
• Good depth at linebacker, which you saw today.
• Did get into some four-down fronts, which we’re still going to be able to do.
• As we get Josh Harris and CJ Clark back, actually hoping Josh will be back this week, it’ll open some things up if we want to play both as the season progresses.
• The 3-3-5 was something Coach Huxtable and I talked a lot about after ECU last year.

Rotating players…

• Guys worked hard in camp, competing to get on the field, earned the right to play.
• Playing our guys as much as we can early sets us up when you have an injury.
• Rotating 6 linebackers.
• There’s going to be a time when a player goes down. C.J. Riley today.
• Got Bailey Hockman 7 minutes on the clock today.

Stopping their short passes…

• They were throwing quick in the boundary.
• We were playing soft thirds in the boundary.
• So we Rolled our corners up, tighter coverage, played a little more Cover 2.

Excitement of Tabari Hines and Payton Wilson…

• Tabari Hines and Payton Wilson are so excited to be playing right now.
  • Wilson had tears in his eyes before the game.
  • After the 34-yard run, Hines said how much he needed that.

Jordan Houston…

• He’s really gifted catching the ball, so getting him in space on some people.
• He runs hard. People look at him and think he’s little, but he’s powerful.

Rotating running backs…

• When you rotate them, they’re all going to be fresh.
• They’re all going to practice hard.
• Utilize unique skill sets.
• Proud of how hard Ricky Person ran. Had some good physical runs.

Zonovan Knight…

• Great for his confidence to get in the end zone.
• Will play better in week 2, because he had success in week 1.

Defensive performance…

• Were coached very well. Had a nice game plan, and the players executed.
• Tackled well.
• Didn’t give up any explosive plays, except one at the end against Kishawn Miller.
• That’s the thing about the three-down package. Get more speed on the field and more overlap.

On passing so much…

• It really depends. A lot of our runs have passes on the runs. If they play off, we throw the ball. If they press a guy, and Matt wants to give a guy a go route, he can do that. He did that with Emeka.
• A lot of the plays that Coach Des Kitchings and his staff put together were either/or plays.

Secondary…

• There were a lot of contact plays at the ball.  I thought their offense caught some great 50-50 balls as well on slants.
• Making contested plays.
• I hate giving things up.
• 3rd and long…fine give it up.
• Making them earn every yard they get on 1st and 2nd down.
• Got their hands on more footballs.
• Getting takeaways is what it’s all about.