Dave Doeren’s Weekly Press Conference Before UVA: BULLETED

NC State Head Coach Dave Doeren met with the media yesterdasy for his Weekly Press Conference prior to Virginia. You can watch the video here, and check out a BULLETED breakdown below.

• It was great to go on the road and beat a top-25 team in Pitt.
  • Particularly coming off a game where we performed as bad as we probably could have.
  • To see the fight and resiliency of our staff and our players, and how they worked through that and learned from it, I’m very proud of them.
• Positives Offensively…
  • • • Obviously the finish, the 2-minute drive at the end with 1:44 left and no timeouts.
      • The way the guys caught the football
        • Thayer Thomas on the fourth-down conversion
        • The protection by the linemen, backs and tight ends against a very good front
      • The poise of Devin Leary
        • There’s been a lot of good quarterbacks here.
        • It takes a lot out of a guy on the road against a defense like that, to take a team down the field and score a game-winning drive like he did.
        • Played a great game: 4 touchdowns, 300 yards plus, 0 interceptions.
        • He was very poised and accurate.
        • He gave his receivers and backs a chance to catch the ball.
        • He’s our starting quarterback, and we are very excited about the growth we’ve seen in him over the last two weeks.
      • No offensive turnovers.
      • 50 percent on 3rd & 4th down conversions combined
      • 100 percent scoring touchdowns in the red zone.
      • Gave up 1 sack against a very good defensive front.
      • Cary Angeline and Emeka Emezie both performed well catching the football and making plays.
      • Dylan Parham was really physical in the run game at tight end.
      • Ricky Person Jr. made some critical runs in short yardage where there wasn’t a lot there.
        • That helped us stay on the field, and a couple of times there was an unblocked player that he just made miss or ran around or ran through.
• Negatives Defensively…
  • Need to continue to improve our short-yardage run game.
  • We’re making plays, but it’s not as clean as it could be.
  • The opening drive of the 3rd quarter we came out and got 3-and-outed.
    • We want to create momentum in that opportunity.
  • Operationally, as good as Devin was, there were some things in the RPO game that are there for him to take advantage of, and he did at times. It’s just being consistent.
  • Didn’t like the procedural penalties; we had 3.
    • Our cadence was a weapon in this game, and it beat us 3 times.
    • All 3 of them were at the receiver position and jumping offsides.
  • The busted play on play 2 can’t happen.
  • We aligned well when they went fast-tempo to some of their formations.
  • Had to substitute a lot due to our personnel issues we had with Tyler being out.
  • Twice they broke the huddle with 12 men on the field and were not called for it, which forced us to have to use timeouts in substitution.
    • We didn’t have enough timeouts at the end, and so we ended up with a 12 men on the field penalty.
  • We lost contain on a few unblocked plays off the edge that could have ended drives.
    • One of them was a 4th down where Payton Wilson lost contain and it could’ve been a stop.
  • 3 costly defensive penalties.
  • Great teachable moment with Josh Pierre-Louis.
    • He targeted the QB, and if he is 6 inches lower on his contact that’s a pick-6 and we are up 24-7.
    • Instead, they stay on the field and get a FG, so that was a 10-point swing.
  • We had a 3rd-and-16 defensive holding and a DPI.
• Positives Defensively…
  • Stopped the run.
    • Less than 100 yards rushing
    • Less than 2.5 yards per carry.
  • We overcame a busted coverage on the 2nd play of the game.
    • It didn’t rattle the guys.
  • Really the story of the game was the red-zone defense.
    • They were down there 5 times and only got 2 touchdowns.
    • Held them on a goal-line stand and potentially could have had another.
    • I thought we stopped them on the 1 sneak.
      • He definitely did not have forward progress, but they ruled it a touchdown.
  • Played really well on 3rd down throughout the game.
  • Levi Jones was very impressive.
    • He played 4 positions in the game with what happened to Tyler Baker-Williams being out.
      • SAM linebacker, Nickel, Dime and extra-backer position on the goal line.
    • Had some extra-effort plays.
  • Malik Dunlap played the best game of his career.
    • He tackled well.
    • Big hit on a bubble and a nice tackle on the line of scrimmage early in the game.
  • Drake Thomas and Payton Wilson were both very physical and active.
  • Isaiah Moore had some really good plays running through and disrupting things.
  • Really impressed with what Josh Pierre-Louis and Taiyon Palmer did, finding out Friday that they were going to be playing.
    • They got 1 day of practice as a Nickel going into that game, and their leading receiver coming into the game was their slot receiver.
    • Very proud of those two young men.
• Special Teams…
  • Chris Dunn continues to be a weapon.
  • Trenton Gill is doing a great job kicking off.
    • I think he’ll tell you that he had a sub-par day as our punter.
  • We missed some opportunities.
    • Close to blocking a punt…late off the football and missed it by an inch.
  • Kickoff return was poor, and we’ve got to clean that area up.
• Practice the week prior…
  • They learned that they have to practice a certain way if they want to play a certain way.
  • We didn’t just win the game on Saturday.
    • We won that game starting on Monday with their attitude, performance, meetings and the way they practiced with great effort.
• Don’t get a big head…
  • Can’t let a win on the road get to our head.
  • Can’t at any means, at any time get a big head because of one thing we did well.
• Virginia…
  • Offensively…
    • Coastal champions from last year.
    • Veteran football team.
      • A lot of Seniors, Juniors, Grad Transfers or Graduates on their team in their starting lineups.
      • Even where they’ve lost starters, they are replacing them with 3rd-and-4th year players.
      • Tribute to what they’ve been able to do there in their developmental program, keeping guys from transferring out and staying healthy.
    • Very sound and big.
    • Remind you of a Big Ten team when you look at how big they are. They’re strong.
    • They don’t beat themselves.
      • Low-penalized team.
      • Doesn’t give up a lot of plays in their backfield
      • Only had 6 plays in their own backfield in 2 games, and Clemson was 1 of those teams.
    • 7 takeaways in 2 games on defense.
    • When their QB is playing well, they’re playing well.
      • He has turned the football over.
      • He’s a tough kid, a good runner and scrambler.
    • Their receivers bring some different things.
      • Some really small, quick guys, and then they’ve got some really big guys.
      • Guys out there that are 5’9″ and can really run, and then you’ve got a 6’7″ Receiver and 6’7″ Tight End that are big targets.
    • HB Wayne Taulapapa runs really hard. Tough guy.
      • He gets a lot of yards after contact.
    • 5 experienced players on the O-line.
      • Only given up two sacks a game.
  • Defensively…
    • Very sound and long guys on the edge.
    • Have a lot of experience.
    • 3-4 scheme and get into some Nickel packages. They do a lot.
      • They do a good job of mixing it up.
      • A lot of different coverages
      • A lot of good disguises
    • Their linebackers are tough kids.
      • Nick Jackson is a young man that we wanted here quite a bit in recruiting.
        • He’s a really good player.
        • Zane Zandier has been there awhile for them at Mike, and he plays really hard.
        • I mentioned Charles Snowden, the edge, he’s a really good football player.
        • Noah Taylor on the other side does the same.
        • They’ll drop those guys, rush them.
    • Their safety Joey Blount has been there for a long time.
    • They are in the backfield a lot.
      • 7 sacks and 16 TFLs in just 2 games.
      • Compared to the teams they’ve played, they are +14 at making plays in the backfield.
      • They’ve only committed 6 total penalties being aggressive like that.
• 2020 mentality vs. 2019…
  • We have really good leadership on this football team in every position group.
  • Last year we had a lot of injured players that we counted on on that roster.
  • We were asking Freshmen to lead, and we just weren’t ready in those rooms to do that.
  • Now you’ve got veteran leadership in each position group, and that really makes a difference.
  • The message doesn’t change from the coaches as much as people think.
    • The thing that changes is players hold each other accountable a certain way when they are player-led teams.
• Emeka Emezie…
  • I was happy for him. He’s a hard worker. He expects a lot from himself.
  • He’s been making plays, he just hasn’t been making game-changing plays this year until Saturday.
  • He wants to win. He wants to be part of the reason we are winning. Sometimes, as we all know, in our society people want that the day that they want it.
  • I told him last week, you could see his frustration, just ‘keep working and good things will happen. Don’t be disappointed because you stopped working and then all of a sudden there was your opportunity and you weren’t ready for it.’ He did that. He kept working, to his credit.
  • He made some key plays. Devin gave him a chance, and he did what he needed to do. I was extremely happy for him, and I think it’s a great story for our team.
  • He’s a guy that 5 catches without a touchdown doesn’t make him happy. He wants to score, like all good receivers do.
• Balanced Offense…
  • I think it’s huge to be able to be balance.
  • Our offense is built around a lot of things, but when people are going to put 8 or 9 guys in the box, you have to throw to win. You have to.
    • We showed that we can do that.
  • It puts more pressure on the defenses we play because we have been able to run the ball efficiently.
    • We have 3 good tailbacks.
    • Our O-line has been physical.
  • So, you’ve got to pick what you want, and now Devin has that confidence, the receivers are catching the ball well.
• Tight Ends…
  • To have the physicality on the edge that Dylan Parham is showing us with his blocking in our zone game and our stretch game.
  • To see what Cary Angeline does vertically.
    • He’s a big target.
    • You’ve got Thayer running down the hash on one side and Cary on the other, and those are two pretty good targets for the quarterback to have in the seams.
    • He’s just very reliable on third down and in the red zone.
  • Dylan Autenrieth is kind of the Swiss Army knife.
    • He just goes wherever we need him, does things right, plays hard and does a lot of things behind the scenes with this group to help them get better.
• Josh Harris…
  • Josh Harris was in our goal line package the last 2 weeks, and obviously you got to see it this weekend with him and Alim McNeill and C.J. Clark in the middle.
    • Those are 3 big, stout guys that are tough.
  • It was great for Josh to get on the field.
  • He had an injury a year ago, and he’s trying to get some weight off still, but he plays hard in there.
  • He’s a big guy. He’s hard to move. He made a great play on the one run.
  • Josh has been down on the scout team going up against Grant Gibson every snap. He goes hard every day. He is getting better.
  • He’s getting his conditioning the way that we want it, and that’s how he earned a spot on that unit in our goal-line package.
• Taiyon Palmer…
  • We’ve been trying to rep him in.
  • He had an ACL a year ago, so we were trying to get him back to game speed.
  • Going into this game he had earned a couple of starting spots on special teams, and so we were seeing his improvement.
  • It just so happened that all of a sudden he was called in there, and what a play he made in the end zone.
    • They ran the slot fade and it was perfect coverage, great timing and a good pass break up.