Dave Doeren Talks to Media Before UVA: BULLETED

NC State head coach Dave Doeren met the media after practice yesterday prior to heading up to Virginia. You can watch it here, or you can check out a BULLETED breakdown below.

Preparing for 6’7″ UVA receivers…

• Cary Angeline is 6’7″. so that’s the closest we’ve got.
• Obviously when the game starts, 6’7″ is 6’7″.
• You’ve got to do your best and time your ability to jump and be physical with guys like that at the line of scrimmage.
  • That’s the one thing when you’re playing a longer guy…there is a lot of surface area for you to get your hands on them early. We’ve got to do a good job at that.
• On the perimeter we are pretty good when it comes to height matchups.
  • It’s more when the Safeties are covering a big Tight End, which is pretty much how it is every week for a Safety.
  • Most of the Tight Ends in this league are 6’5″, so it is kind of what you deal with.
  • You have to be physical and try to get them off their routes and make quarterbacks make really accurate throws, not just letting people run free.

3 straight road games…

• I don’t really like being gone 3 straight weeks regardless of what is going on, pandemic or not.
• I guess we’ll pay the benefit of this at the end of the year because we’ve got a bunch of home games to finish the season.
• For the kids to have to miss school 3 straight Fridays, I don’t think that is good for guys academically.
• I wish we can space that out a little better as a league, but it’s what we have.

Having a strong passing game when the run is limited…

• I’ve said this before, but you’re not going to beat Pitt running the football.
  • There’s a reason they were ranked #1 in the nation in rushing defense going into our game.
  • They’ve got their whole team up there.
    • You have to throw to win.
    • You run the ball to be physical against them.
    • You run the ball to get short-yardage first downs.
    • You run the ball to balance, but to score points and beat Pitt you have to throw the football.
    • We were able to do that obviously.
• It does give us confidence knowing that we have that ability.
• Our receivers have been waiting for that opportunity because in the 1st game we were able to run the ball basically whenever we wanted.
• You don’t want to be a team where they’re just going to pack the box and then you can’t throw it. It’s not going to be a successful team if that’s what we are.

High-level recruits coming to college…

• I think for all these guys, recruiting has created almost a false reality for them.
  • All the edits, social media and the public fanfare puts you on a pedestal and makes you feel like you’re already ready for the NFL.
  • It’s unfair to these kids, because that’s not reality.
• Reality is they get on a college campus and they’re now the youngest guy on the team.
  • Everybody there was just like them in high school.
• Some of them are mature enough to handle it, some of them are just super gifted and the game’s not fast. But that’s a very small percentage.
  • Most of them come in and they need time to develop.
  • They need the game to slow down in their head a little bit. That’s OK. That’s why most freshmen don’t play.
• In Shyheim Battle’s case, he’s on the field as a Redshirt Freshman and he’s starting.
  • I would say that’s way ahead of the curve for most people.
  • If you’re a 3-year starter in the ACC or the SEC you’re an elite football player. So he’s in a great position.

Tanner Ingle’s gritty performance against Pitt…

• I think he has to play like that.
• That’s why he’s voted captain, because he’s tough.
  • He talks a lot about how much this game matters to him.
  • You can’t talk like that and be out.
• You’ve got to be able to play if you’re capable of playing, medically.
  • That’s what we expect from Tanner.
• It’s very hard to get him out, to be honest.
  • The doctors could tell you he’s not playing and he’ll fight one of those guys. He’s going to try to play. He does not want to miss.
• It was great to see him come back and make the last play of the game, because he gave up the first touchdown.

Tyler-Baker Williams…

• Should be out of contact tracing by Sunday or Monday, so he’ll be back for the next game.

Rakeim Ashford…

• He’s done. He’s out.

Limiting UVA QB Brennan Armstrong running…

• He’s tough, 1st of all.
  • One of the reporters out there compared him to a linebacker if he was a defensive player and I think that’s accurate.
• He’s a very competitive, physical, hard-running guy.
• There’s a lot of run game designed for him that way.
• He’s not a guy that slides. He’s physical. We respect that about him.