NC State head football coach Dave Doeren met with the media yesterday for his weekly press conference before the Wolfpack’s matchup against #24 Pitt this weekend. You can watch it here, or check out a BULLETED breakdown below.

VT Recap

• Khalid Martin is back with us today.
  • In our team meeting.
  • Very scary moment, obviously.
  • Don’t know how long it’s going to be, but all the scans, all the X-rays, all the imaging have been positive.
  • Thankful to God and all the health, safety and medical teams that were a part of that situation & Virginia Tech staff.
• Teshaun Smith is now out for the year with his other shoulder.
  • Will help in practice and be a part of what we’re doing.
• Expect to have Payton Wilson back with us full go.
• We’re hopeful about Tanner Ingle.
• As far as the game goes, it always starts with me.
  • Did not perform the way that we thought we would.
  • I’ve got to do a better job preparing our team.
  • Knew it would be a game of adjustments, not knowing with all the things that were out there, who might play, who might coach.
  • Knew they had a new defensive coordinator, so not having film on them would be a 1st quarter where we needed to hang in there and get used to what they were going to do and adjust accordingly.
  • Didn’t do a good job there as a staff.
• Opportunity to learn. It’s a loss for sure, but it’s also an opportunity to get better.
  •  These are experienced coaches. They’re great young men…prideful young men…care about each other.
  • We all hate losing.
  •  It’s a long season and there’s a lot of opportunities in front of us.
  • This team has been through a lot, and they’ll stick together and fight even harder.
• Knew that on the road needed to win the turnover margin and control the line of scrimmage. We didn’t.
  • Gave up 6 sacks.
  • Turned ball over twice.
• Defensively, didn’t not stop the run.
  • For us to be good, we need to be disruptive. Need to be in the backfield. Need to create takeaways. Didn’t happen.
• Chris Dunn had a career long 53-yard field goal.
• Trenton Gill had a 47 yard net average on punts.
• Thayer Thomas had a good punt return for us.
• Ran the football efficiently.
  • Backs were physical.
  • Only 1 negative play in the backfield in the running game.
    • The rest were very efficient runs, some explosive runs.
• Red-zone offense continues to score.
• Devin Leary came in off the bench, moved our offense, and scored a couple of drives for us.
• Third-down defense was something we wanted to improve and did, but it starts with stopping the run.
  • That’s an area where not having Payton Wilson and Tanner Ingle hurts, but schematically we’ve got to do a better job shedding blocks, holding edges and tackling.
• WR C.J. Riley had an impact on offense.
• OT Tyrone Riley is playing a lot on offense.
• S Rakeim Ashford played a lot and then had to come out.
  • Khalid Martin went in and got hurt and then Devan Boykin was playing.
• CB Malik Dunlap playing so much better than he played a year ago because of all those games he had.
  • Playing with more confidence.

Pitt

• Pat Narduzzi does a really good job with his football team.
  • Experienced staff.
  • Offensively Coordinator Mark Whipple is a really good football coach.
    • Known him a while. Coached against him.
    • Very creative. Uses a lot of formations, tackle-over formations, motions.
• Very physical & experienced football team.
• Play complimentary football.
• QB Kenny Pickett is a really good football player.
  • 66 percent completion rate.
  • 31-game starter
  • Very accurate and mobile.
  • Very underrated quarterback.
• Very good receiving corps.
  • Freshman, Jordan Addison is electric with 21 catches.
• Have a bunch of RB’s they bring in…the Davises and their freshman, who played a lot in the last game. He’s a physical guy.
  • They are all different from each other.
• Jimmy Morrissey is probably the best center in the conference, if not the country.
  • O-Line has only given up 2 sacks.
• Defense is fast and disruptive.
  • They pressure with press coverage.
  • Only giving up 10 points per game…177 yards per game.
  • 17 sacks in 3 games and 34 tackles for loss.
  • 6 interceptions.
• Paris Ford, Jason Pinnock and Damar Hamlin have played a lot of football for them in the secondary.
• Use linebackers and nickels in their blitz game.
  • Do a good job of disguising.
  • Put a lot of guys in the box.
  • Going to force you to throw against press coverage.
• Their punter is averaging 43 yards and does a nice job there.

QB’s

• Devin Leary has worked hard.
  • Was disappointed with the circumstances he had. Understood it and battled back through it.
  • Prepared well last week, practiced well and got in the game.
  • He threw the football well, was decisive, and operated the offense the way coach Beck would like him to do it.
• Bailey Hockman had thrown his 2nd interception, and you could tell he just wasn’t in it.
  • Nothing against him. He battles and is tough, but sometimes it’s just not going your way.
  • Needed that spark for the offense, and thought Devin gave us the opportunity there to see how he was and where he was at.
• Like I said last week, we need them both. They’re both going to get reps this week, and we’ll see who is the most ready to lead our team this weekend.

Rakeim Ashford

• That’s a day-to-day thing, so we’ll just have to see where he ends up.
• If we were to play today, he would not go.
• Shoulder has bothered him since Junior College. Sometimes it doesn’t.

Freshmen Devan Boykin & Aydan White

• Both of them are mature, come to work everyday with a great attitude, are consistent, and learn well.
• Devan’s learned Strong and Free Safety.
• Both of them have really bright futures here.
• Aydan was starting on our punt return unit at corner last week.
  • Did a really nice job.
  • He’s made plays in practice.
  • Was our 5th corner going into the 1st game.
  • With Teshaun Smith out and Chris Ingram out, that just elevates him that way.
  • He’s a guy we’re excited about.
• Being consistent every day for a freshman is a hard thing. Big transition from high school to college.
  • Those 2 guys have been able to do that.
  • They’ve come in organized every single day.
  • They pay attention & they work hard.
  • You know what you’re going to get.

Defensive Struggles

• Were effective against run game on external on the edges, and that’s where the problems were in the 1st week.
• We were out of our gaps at times inside.
  • Got a little bit less diverse in what we do in that game, because we didn’t know who would play QB.
• VT was were very different from what they did a year ago with all the motions and things.
  • Worked so hard on all these jet motions, and it wasn’t that.
  • It was a lot more quarterback-based run game…just straight ahead at you.
• Coach Gibson’s defense is about being versatile…moving guys…blitzing.
  • We got away from that.
  • I think Tony would tell you he’s disappointed in what he did in the game.
  • He wants to pressure more and move the guys around more.
• When we did get them in 3rd down, we stopped them, but there were too many explosive runs.
  • You can’t give up 300 yards rushing and win a football game.
• Our top 2 tacklers are Payton Wilson and Tanner Ingle were out and we missed them in a run-heavy game.
  • But the guys that are in there have to be able to make the plays and we have to put them in position to make the plays first.

O-Line vs. VT

• Had 7 different offensive linemen play.
  • Each of them lost a pass rush that ended up being a quarterback pressure or a sack.
  • Some of it is just pass rush fundamentals.
• They did have a scheme on one of their blitzes where we did not have a linebacker picked up, and he scraped over the top and made a nice play.
  • So schematically, they got us on a play.
• Each guy just got beat as you guys know.
  • We’ve got to do everything we can to play with better fundamentals, whether it’s a speed rush or you over set, or you’re too aggressive, there’s just little things that happen.
• Pittsburgh’s got a really good defensive line and their linebackers come hard, as well as their nickels and corners.