Dave Doeren’s Press Conference Before Clemson: BULLETTED

Head Coach Dave Doeren met with the media today for his weekly press conference before NC State’s Homecoming matchup vs. Clemson. You can watch the video here, or check out a bulleted breakdown below.

• Looking forward to playing a home game.
  • It’s been a month
• Excited for homecoming night.
• Night game opportunity against a tremendous football team.
  • It’s what you play for, to play against such well-coached good team, and to do it at home in a night environment at the Carter.
  • It’s been awesome to have those types of games. Look forward to having one.
  • I know will have a tremendous crowd.
• Excited just to get back on the grass with the guys.
• As everyone knows we’re injured and we’re young.
• Going through some challenges, but I love the challenge, and love when my back’s up against the wall.
• Our guys aren’t going to flinch. They’re going to fight, and we’re going to fight as a program to get better.
  • That’s the biggest thing for us.
  • It’s not who we play. It’s what we do to get better every day. That’s what we have to focus on regardless of where we’re at with our injury report.
• It’s really fundamentals. It’s executing 11 guys at the same time.
• You turn on the film, there’s lots of plays where you’re 1 guy away.
  • It’s catching. It’s blocking. It’s finishing 1 more step on a block. Getting your hand inside vs. outside. How you leverage the football. How you tackle. Basic football fundamentals.

Clemson…

• When you’re playing a team that’s done what Clemson’s done.
• I can go through their statistics, but you all know where they’re at.
• Really good job on both sides of football.
• Well-coached…good players.
• We just got to go out there and be the best that we can be with what we do.

Young Linebackers…

• Early in the season, fatigue was an issue for Payton Wilson, but as the season’s gone on, his production has increased.
  • So he’s a guy that’s making a lot more plays than other guys, and his stamina has improved.
  • That’s allowed us to play him more.
• Wilson and Drake Thomas, played their best game last week (Wake Forest). Both very active, physical, good spirit about them.
• Also thought C.J. Hart did some good things when he had his opportunity.
• The young linebacker corps has banked reps.
  • They have been able to play in every game.
  • You see growth when that happens.
  • That’s the value of that of staying healthy.

Devin Leary…

• The thing you like, other than how well he can throw football, is just how competitive, how into it, how coachable, the conversations that you’re able to have with him.
• The mistakes that he makes are going to happen. You don’t want them to happen, but this was his first start.
• He made some really good throws.
  • He had a great corner ball throw to Cary Angeline on the sideline.
• He missed an easy out route throw, which he’s thrown a million times in practice.
• Just need to get him consistent.
• They did a good job sitting on some routes, which probably made him a little bit nervous on some throws.
  • He’s just got to learn how to get through that.
• I think that game is going to be a huge piece for him to grow from.
• I just like how he comes to work every day. He’s not ever in a panic.
• There’s a lot of things to be excited about.
  • Obviously, not excited that you throw a deep ball down the middle of the field with the post safety there.
  • Things that he can’t do.
  • The receivers got to try to break that up for him when that happens, but he’s going to grow a lot from that game.
• He’s going to get another team that wants to blitz every snap this week. So another opportunity.

On if the plan is for Leary to start the rest of the year…

• I can’t give you 100% on anything in life right now.
  • I would love to say that he’s going to grow and get better and better and better.
  • I think he’s worked himself into the place that he’s at for a reason, and he’s our starting quarterback right now and look forward to helping them continue to get better.

Optimism about the future…

• We’re playing the 2nd most number of freshmen in the country.
  • Drake Thomas is getting better.
  • You’re seeing Peyton Wilson get better.
  • You’re seeing Josh Harris, Savion Jackson…you’re seeing Bam Knight.
  • I thought Jordan Houston ran as hard as he’s ran in that game that we just played.
  • That’s exciting.
• It’s painful right now, because we’re not getting to enjoy the improvement, but it’s exciting.
• I’ve been through this. We went through it here when Bradley Chubb and Jerod Fernandez and all those guys were freshmen.
  • It was painful. It was a pain. They all ended up being really good players for us because they went through it.
• You don’t walk on hot coals and come out of it with nothing burned on your feet.
  • It’s going to hurt for a while, but I’m very optimistic. I’m going to remain that way.
• We recruited 2 really good classes back-to-back that are being forced into not just playing time, but very important roles on our football team.
  • We have 4 seniors listed on the 2-deep on our entire roster, so they’re being asked to lead and play.
  • That’s unique, but it’s awesome for the future of our program.

Creating 0 turnovers in ACC play…

• Thanks for bringing that up.
• I wish I could tell you why.
• When you watch the film, you’re seeing some really good hits.
  • Seeing guys put their face on the football.
  • You’re seeing guys punching, ripping at the football.
• We had a couple balls batted in the air Saturday, that didn’t bounce to us.
• We practice that skill set daily.
  • We work it…preach it…talk about it.
• I don’t know what else to say other than it just hasn’t happened yet.
• Some of it is we’re not making enough plays on the ball.
  • Not just picks, but PBUs. We need to have more of those as well.
  • It’ll come eventually. It’s how it works.

Similarities between this team and 2016, when almost beat Clemson…

• That team was a lot different than this team.
• We were playing with a bunch of Sophomores that were really good players.
  • Chubb and those guys.
• We didn’t have 11 starters injured for the season that year.
  • We were able to get better and better, and finished winning three of four games that year.
• I’ve had a different starting lineup for 8 straight weeks.
• So it’s not even close to that type of team. It’s not.
• The thing that’s similar is that we had a very talented young group of guys on that roster.

Did the running game improve against Wake…

• In some ways it did.
• It’s really hard when you’re down 21-0 to all of a sudden just run for 200 yards, but when we ran the ball we ran efficiently.
• Were 4.5 yards a carry in the game.
• There were some explosive runs, and I thought Jordan Houston did some really good things.
• Bam Knight was only in there for 9 snaps, so he didn’t get a chance.
  • Houston and Trent Pennix both had some good runs in the game.