Connect with us

NC State Football

Dave Doeren’s Postgame Press Conference After Pitt: BULLETED

Published

on

Head Coach Dave Doeren spoke with the media in his Postgame Press Conference after NC State defeated #24 Pitt on the road today. You can watch it here, or check out a BULLETED breakdown below.

  • That was a heck of a football game, and I’m super proud of our young men and our coaches.
  • Talked about fighting and throwing the 1st punch, just continuing to throw punches, and to make sure we throw the last punch.
  • Our guys were very resilient. They know it’s a long year. They know it’s a long year.
  • Played a really good Pitt team today, a well-coached football team.
  • We had a good plan.
    • Used our tempo well on offense, changing the cadence up and getting them to give us a lot of free 1st downs in the 1st half.
  • Devin Leary really played a stellar game in his 1st start of the season.
    • Really proud of him and the way the wideouts & tight ends caught the football.
  • The running backs took care of it on the road.
    • We said ‘no turnovers,’ and we were able to do that.
  • Defensively, we hung in there.
    • Some good red-zone stops.
    • Good goal-line stand.
    • An unfortunate deal where we had a pick-6 called back.
      • I personally didn’t think that was a very good call, but the guys still stopped them on that drive.
    • They were resilient.
    • We are down in personnel right now, so those guys really had to suck it up on that side of the football.
  • I think a lot of people just wanted to throw us in the trash can after last week.
    • That’s the world we are in right now.
    • These kids and coaches just hung together.
    • There’s a lot of football left.
    • We’ve got 8 more games.
    • We’ve embraced the chip on our shoulder, and we are going to continue to do that and try to make the most out of the players we have to coach and get ready for another great game next week at Virginia.

Long-term impact of this win…

  • It’s huge for the character and confidence.
  • It’s one thing to say ‘we can do it.’
  • It’s one thing to believe, but it’s another to go do it.
  • It’s a tremendous thing for your quarterback to know it doesn’t matter what’s on the clock, that he’ll drive us down and score to win.
    • It was a really good drive.
    • There were some good play calls by Tim Beck.
    • The kids executed well.
    • They managed the clock and the time.
    • The O-line protected against a really, really good defensive line.

Thin Secondary…

  • Found out on Thursday that we wouldn’t have starting Nickel Tyler Baker-Williams because of contact tracing.
  • Josh Pierre-Louis, a true freshman, started his first game at Nickel.
  • Moved Taiyon Palmer during training camp from Corner to Nickel, and then last week had to move him back to Corner.
    • Didn’t take a rep of practice this week at Nickel.
    • So Josh Pierre-Louis goes out of the game, and we had to teach 2 linebackers how to play Nickel on Friday.
  • When you take Chris Ingram, Teshaun Smith, Tyler Baker-Williams, Khalid Martin and Rakeim Ashford out it’s pretty crazy what we’re dealing with.
    • There’s 6 Defensive Back’s that are not playing that are in our 2-deep.
  • We’re very thin.
    • It says a lot about the heart and toughness of that group.
    • They need a cold tub right now. That’s what they need.

Devin Leary…

  • As hard as it was for him not to play in the Wake Forest game, I think it was the right thing for us to do coming out of the quarantine that he had.
    • It’s given him time to get back to where he needed to be, and he’s done a great job of taking coaching from Coach Beck.
  • It was nice to see him with starting wideouts and starting offensive linemen and 3 rotational tailbacks and all the tight ends.
    • I think you got a good glimpse of what he is and what he could be.

Defense…

  • There was a time there where offensively we weren’t getting a whole lot going.
    • We were out there a lot defensively in the 3rd quarter.
    • A lot of heart and toughness.
  • Obviously we don’t want to bend but not break.
    • They got in some unbalance and we didn’t adjust well at times, and they had guys wide open because of that.
    • We’ve got stuff we’ve got to clean up, but when it counted they stood up.
    • They made some really key plays in some key moments, and they showed a lot of resiliency and toughness.

Stopping Pitt’s Rushing Attack…

  • It’s a joint effort when you stop the run. It’s not one guy.
  • Obviously having Alim in the middle helps.
  • It always starts inside-out, but as you guys know we didn’t play well in the rushing defense the 1st week because of our edges and in the 2nd week for a myriad of reasons.
    • It was great to see them get that shored up in game 3.
  • We tackled better.
    • Crisp, contact plays on defense, striking people.
    • It wasn’t just dragging people to the ground.
    • Fun to see some knock-back tackling.
  • Guys are getting into game shape.
    • Hopefully, we’ll have enough guys to continue to play.
    • It was fun to watch them fly around there for a bit.

Emeka Emezie…

  • It’s awesome for Emeka.
  • He was struggling these past couple weeks because his role wasn’t too big yet.
    • Kept fighting, working and practicing.
  • Coach McDonald does a good job with him.
  • I was really happy for Emeka to make that play.
    • He’s earned it by continuing to work hard.
    • That was a big play for us on that drive, and obviously the 4th-down conversion with Thayer Thomas was huge, which led to the touchdown.
  • Devin Leary was nails, man.
    • He did a great job of reading coverage and putting the ball where it needed to be.

O-Line…

  • Obviously they took last game to heart…giving up 6 sacks.
  • Worked really hard on our pass-rush fundamentals this week.
  • Some things got exposed last week.
    • We have to take each week and try to get better.
  • They saw what they were up against with Pitt’s D-line, and Coach Garrison had a great plan.
    • Tight Ends and Running Backs are part of that, too.
    • Then it’s just Devin throwing on time, not giving them too much time to get to him.

Leary’s calmness on the final drive…

Matthew is Co-Owner of Pack Insider. He writes for all sports, with a focus on football and recruiting, and is in charge of business strategy. He is an NC State alum who majored in business. Matthew is also the lead pastor of The Point Church in Cary, NC.

Click to comment
Subscribe
Notify of
0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

NC State Football

Former NC State Running Back Jordan Houston Signs with Marshall

Published

on

Former NC State Running Back Jordan Houston has officially transferred to Marshall for his final year of eligibility. NC State played Marshall this past season, but Houston didn’t play against the Thundering Herd, because he had already opted to redshirt the remainder of the season.

After playing in three games this past season, Houston opted to redshirt the remainder of the season (despite the fact that he was the starter at the time), giving him the ability to transfer with one year of eligibility remaining.

Houston played in 51 games for NC State over 5 years on the field, rushing for 1,392 yards (4.3 yards per carry) and 6 touchdowns. He also caught 60 passes for 398 yards and 1 touchdown.

Houston was a 3-Star prospect in NC State’s 2019 recruiting class out of Flint High School in Oakton, Virginia.

Continue Reading

NC State Football

Philip Rivers will Finally be Enshrined in the NC State Hall of Fame in April

Published

on

Wolfpack legend Philip Rivers will finally be inducted into the NC State Hall of Fame on April 20th!

Rivers was elected into the Hall of Fame back in 2013 (2nd year of the NC State Hall of Fame), but he has deferred his enshrinement over the years due to time constraints.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Tuffy Talk Podcast (@tuffytalknow)

Rivers pretty much owns every NC State record for Quarterbacks, and still has the most Career Passing Yards and Passes Completed in ACC history, and he ranks 3rd in Touchdown Passes. Rivers was the ACC Rookie of the Year in 2000, and the ACC Player of the Year in 2003.

You can buy your tickets here.

Continue Reading

NC State Football

DJ Burns Had a Word for Wolfpack Fans After Winning the ACC Championship

Published

on

When NC State’s DJ Burns was giving his acceptance speech after receiving the 2024 ACC Tournament MVP Award, Burns had the following quote to say when asked what he wanted to say to the fans.

“I’m going to keep it real simple. Thank you to the ones who’ve been consistent throughout the ride, and welcome back everybody else.”

Burns’ words struck a chord.

Throughout much of this season, it was embarrassing to see all the empty seats in PNC Arena.

As the Wolfpack lost 7 of their final 9 regular season games, it was clear that this team wasn’t just losing games, but they were also losing much of the fanbase.

It’s clear from Burns’ words that the empty seats were noticed, and so were the words of fans online.

NC State finished the regular season 10th, and much of the fanbase was frustrated, and rightfully so.

But, frustrated doesn’t have to mean giving up.

‘Never giving up’ is kind of supposed to be NC State’s thing.

The words of Jimmy V reverberate throughout the history of NC State basketball.

This team didn’t always put W’s in the Win column this season, and it wasn’t always an easy watch, but never for a moment were these players not playing as hard as they could for their school, one another, and their coach.

They never gave up.

Fans have a right to be frustrated, but you can still show up for a team, even when they struggle, because that’s what loyal fans do. When players wear a jersey with NC State across the chest, and they don’t give up, their fans shouldn’t either.

NC State fans aren’t known to be fair weather fans. Let’s not get in the business of leading our players to think we are.

But, like Burns said, whether you’ve been along for the ride all season or not, it’s time to hop on.

 

 

Continue Reading

NC State Football

WATCH: PackInsider’s 2023 Sean Brown Highlight Reel

Published

on

This past season was a breakout season for Junior Safety, now turned Linebacker, Sean Brown.

This past season, Brown started in 11 of the 13 games that he played in, and ranked 3rd on the team in tackles (66) and pass breakups (5). He also had 5 tackles for loss, 2 sacks, 2 interceptions and 1 forced fumble. Brown’s PFF Grade of 63.7 ranked 13th on the team. His Tackling Grade of 86.6 ranked 2nd on the team behind Payton Wilson.

As you will notice in our Highlight Reel ABOVE, Brown lived in the box, and is a very ferocious tackler. He will fit right in at Linebacker next year for the Wolfpack.

Continue Reading