Dave Doeren’s Press Conference After Wake Forest

Wolfpack head football coach Dave Doeren met with the media after NC State’s 45-23 victory over Wake Forest last night. You can watch it here, or check out the BULLETED breakdown below.

Opening Statement

• Super proud of the resiliency of our team.
  • Kept fighting and had a lot of fun tonight.
  • We were physical.
• Started fast in the 1st quarter, started fast in the third and then had to overcome some adversity.
• Rushing the football the way we did was a major point of emphasis for Coach Beck, Coach Garrison and the whole offense.
  • The kids took pride in that. Helps us tremendously, just attitude wise in what we want to do.
• Other than the 1 interception, which was a big play for them, we took care of the football.
  • Disappointed in some of the penalties we had.
• Credit goes to Wake.
  • Battled back and played hard.
  • They’ve got some good players on that football team.
• Ricky Person had 2 touchdowns and threw a touchdown.
• Bailey Hockman did some really good things.
• On defense, there’s a lot of stuff where we’ve got to get better.
  • Gave up the edges a bunch and that wasn’t by design.
  • Proud of the way we finished the game.
    • Back-to-back 4th-down stops,
    • Pass rush didn’t get tired, it only got better.
    • Coverage didn’t get tired, it only got better.
• There’s a lot to work on, but we’ll take the W. It’s great to be 1-0, and I look forward to celebrating that tonight.

Hockman instead of Leary

• Somewhere in the middle of the 8-day break, Devin Leary had to quarantine.
• Ended up being gone for almost 20 days.
• Came back as our starter, but just was not there.
• Had some rust.
• Really was just kind of a victim of circumstance, to be honest.
• Tried to get him back for the game, but it just didn’t feel like he was sharp enough.
• We weren’t putting him in the best place to be out there as the starter.
• Hopefully we’ll get him back to where he needs to be because he was having a really good camp prior to that.
• I feel really bad for him.

Payton Wilson Injury?

• He plays so hard. He plays his heart out.
  • I think he was dehydrated.
  • Nothing serious.
• Tried to IV him at halftime, and he just was lightheaded.
• He kept wanting to go back in, then 2 plays later he’s out.
  • So, we just pulled him.
• Trainers said he just didn’t have enough juice left.
• He had a touchdown-saving tackle on punt coverage, too.
• Gives you everything he’s got.
• He loves the game. He loves his team, and we love him. He’s a great young man. He’s going to keep getting better.

Rotating Running Backs

• Causes problems for defenses because they have different styles when they run the football.
  • Hitting holes in different ways.
  • Different vision
  • See things a little different.
• Keeping them fresh is going to keep them healthy longer.
• Bailey ran the ball well, too.
  • 30 yards rushing.

On QB Competition Between Leary & Hockman