VIDEO: Dave Doeren Meets with Media for the Last Time Before WFU (BULLETED)

NC State head coach Dave Doeren met with the media after practice today for the last time before the Wolfpack play Wake Forest on Saturday up in Winston Salem. You can watch the video above, and check out a bulleted breakdown below.

WFU as a rival…

• Definitely see it as an in-state rivalry game.
• Longest standing in-state rival from a consecutive game standpoint.
• With our football team, and even in the UNC week, we just have to be the best us.
• From being here, the build-up to certain games hasn’t been good for us as opposed to the focus to play well.
• Respect them a lot.
• We want to be undefeated in the state, and that’s something we still control right now.
  • This is the next step to doing that, and we have to play a really good football team.

Opening up the Playbook for Devin Leary…

• I think opening up the playbook is the wrong thing to do.
  • Have to execute the playbook.
  • Whatever the plays are, whether we have 50 or 100 in the game plan, we have to execute.
  • Have to catch passes, protect our quarterback, see the run lanes, finish blocks.
• Devin is excited and has done a good job. Excited for him.
• I think he’s got a good look to him…but adding plays to a guy going into his first start?
  • That doesn’t make sense. It’s about executing plays.

Moving Freshman Cecil Powell back to Defensive Back…

• Remarkably not difficult for him.
• Played both ways in high school, so he’s used to being on both sides.
• Was recruited by other schools as a wideout, so he has that skillset, and it’s out of necessity for us with four corners out.
• To have the ability to have even a two-deep at this point is pretty crazy.
  • The fact that we have De’Von Graves, Malik Dunlap, Kishawn Miller and Cecil Powell, we still have 4 guys we feel really good about.

Freshman Defensive Tackle Joshua Harris vs. BC…

• Joshua has done a good job.
• Was in a position when he got here where he needed to lose weight.
  • He’s dropped 25 pounds.
  • Still needs to get lighter.
  • Conditioning will always be a factor when you’re at a place where you want to be in the 320’s probably with him.
• Played well with his hands
• Better each week since he got back from injury
• Very valuable for him to be out there.
• Eats up a lot of space
  • Can take on double teams, and can knock the pocket back.
• It’s about him being able to sustain it now with his conditioning.

Expectations for Rush Defense…

• So many things we have to do better than we did at Boston College.
• Starts with your leverage, guys being gap sound, and tackling.
• All of those things matter, and the games we’ve done that well, we’ve played really, really good football.
• Wake Forest does a nice job where a lot of plays are runs with passes, the RPO game, so you’re defending both a majority of the time.