NC State Head Coach Dave Doeren met with the media for his weekly press conference yesterday leading up to the Wolfpack’s game against Syracuse this Saturday. You can watch the videos BELOW, and read the transcript UNDERNEATH.
Recapping the game, like I said after, I was very proud of how we responded after a really tough moment with Grayson’s (McCall) injury. In reflection, it’s probably 30 years of being on a college field, the scariest moment I’ve had and felt so bad for him and his parents.
I thought our trainer, Justin Smith, our head athletic trainer, did an amazing job on that field with his team and the docs managing the chaos of the moment, keeping everybody calm. Did a tremendous job, and after the game, when information was coming back on how everything was going, communication was great. I got to spend time with Grayson and his family at the hospital. After the game, all the scans and things they did came back clean, and he was in good spirits. He has been released, actually Saturday night was released, and is with his girlfriend and his parents recovering.
He’s in the concussion protocol, and we’ll give him time to go through all the steps that he wants to go through before we talk any more about what the next steps are. I think it’s only fair to him and his family to allow them that opportunity and be supportive of him as he goes through this tough time. Thankful that he is, for the most part, okay.
It was just a concussion, and when you see a guy get hit in college football or in pro football in the head, it’s one thing, but when the helmet comes off and then he gets hit, that’s another, and so that was a really weird thing. I don’t think there was any malicious intent. It was a clean hit from the side when this helmet came off and the other player coming in.
It was a tough play, and, you know, a lot of people have asked me about the play. Was it targeting? Wasn’t it? And I’m not here to criticize our officials at all. I do think that the rule probably needs to be studied.
The letter of the law, that rule, he was not a defenseless player as a runner, and if you hit somebody with the crown of your head or you launch yourself into somebody’s head with the crown of your head, that’s targeting, and in that particular case, it was the front of the guy’s helmet that actually hit Grayson, and so, obviously, when you see a play like that, you think, ‘Why does it matter what part of the head hits him at all?’ Scary moment. Talked to him on the phone a little bit ago. He’s in good spirits. He’s excited to be back around the team, and we’ll go through all the proper steps with him and be there right behind him.
When I was talking to him at the hospital, we were talking about the play itself. He hadn’t seen it, and his dad and mom were in the room, and he said, ‘Coach, I thought about sliding, and then I said, no, I’m not doing that,’ and he just has given the game so much. He’s such a competitor.
He’s such a warrior, and I know myself and everybody around here, we were pulling hard for him, and so it’s just not what you expected in the game. Turning from that event to our sideline, seeing our guys and how emotional they were, because, in the moment, wasn’t even thinking about the rest of the guys, thinking about him, and like, ‘Dang, how are we going to get these guys back on track here? This is tough,’ and it was. There were a lot of tears on our sideline, and so, I was proud that we got back in the game.
CJ Bailey came in and did a really nice job. Didn’t get a lot of reps last week as a backup. You never get as many as the starter, and then the disappointment is that we didn’t finish. Really disappointed in that.
It’s something that we take a lot of pride in as a program, and had plenty of opportunities in the fourth quarter. 10 minutes left in the game, 10-point lead, and multiple, multiple times, plays presented themselves to us that we could have got off the field defensively or made a play defensively or a third and three on offense where we don’t protect the way that we’re capable of. Just felt like we didn’t finish, and that was disappointing. Really disappointing as a coach, and so I own that, as always.
I’ve got to get our team to finish better, and our players will own that as well. They got to finish, but I’m proud of CJ, and this team will battle for him. I thought Kendrick Raphael really battled in that game, ran hard, protected well.
Our outside receivers continue to improve. I thought Noah Rodgers, Wesley Grimes, Terrell Anderson and Keenan Jackson all caught the ball well and did some things with their legs after the catch. Justin Joly did the same.
Made a really nice play on third down and strained for a first, and we ended up scoring on that drive and then had the touchdown later in the game.
Negatives, we had two turnovers that we forced on defense that we got zero points out of offensively in the third quarter.
We scored right before the half. Knowing we’d get the ball back to open the third quarter, I thought, ‘Alright, we can get some momentum here’ and didn’t, went three and out, so that was a disappointing drive. We got beat in protection in some critical spots. We had some guys wide open on a couple plays and CJ got rushed and couldn’t get the ball to him.
We had KC (Concepcion) on a screen and go, and then on that third and three, we had a high-low route, and he couldn’t throw the ball to him, so we got to be better.
It wasn’t just on the O line. There were two on running backs and then on the O line. We got to be better in those moments.
You know, on defense, we got two takeaways, and then we had a couple strips we didn’t capitalize on.
One of them was one of the plays I’m mentioning. You know, (Tamarcus) Cooley does a great job stripping the quarterback. The ball’s right there, and three of our players are there, one of theirs, and they get the ball back, and that would have ended the game.
I thought our DB’s played man-to-man coverage very well in the game. Didn’t make enough plays when we were in zone defense. Obviously, they out-jumped us for one in the corner of the end zone on a third and ten, which is a play we need to make. We had poor eyes at linebacker a couple times on play action, and then the roughing penalty was a critical error.
We were really good on third down defensively, eight of 11 successfully. We were 0-3 on fourth down, and those were all in the fourth quarter.
Our special teams was really kind of a wash in the game. We were 3-4 on field goals. I think our punter is better than he showed. He had one extremely good punt, excuse me, and they called us for being in the backfield, which I don’t see on film, which hurt his average, but he did have a shanked punt earlier in the game, and their punter did as well, so really the special teams were not a factor for either team in that game, and in the past, they have been.
Now we move on. We’re at the halfway point of the season, 3-3, obviously not where we want to be, but we have a lot to play for, and excited about the next opportunity with Syracuse. They’re a 4-1 team coming off an overtime win on the road at UNLV.
Really good quarterback in Kyle McCord, obviously a nationally known guy from Ohio State, really good arm, poised, experienced. He’s won a lot of games.
The receivers have a lot of experience. Pena is a guy we’ve seen for a long time, and he’s a good returner as well.
Gadsen was out last year, but the year before we played him, and he made a lot of plays on us, and receiver #7 Meeks. The running back, Allen, is an experienced back, and they get the ball to him a lot of ways. They’re putting up really good numbers on offense, particularly in the air, and will be a great challenge and opportunity for us.
Defensively, they play a lot of different things. They’ve been four down. They’ve been three down.
The entire game, sometimes they do both in the game, so there’s a lot, really, two systems that they’re merging. Number 10, Diggs, is a disruptive player, plays defensive end and linebacker, has eight TFLs and four sacks. They’re big up front.
They have a really big D-line. A lot of experience, nine guys in their defensive depth chart that have been starters at one time. And Pena, like I mentioned, is a really dynamic returner.
Excited to have our night game at home. We’ve had three straight home or noon games, and I know from a crowd standpoint, we’ve always had great energy in our night games. We’ll be in our all-black uniform and hope that we have an incredible crowd.
You know, with our fans, I know all of us wanted better than 3-3. Trust me, no one’s more disappointed than me and our players, but I also know NC State’s about fighting and not giving up, and that’s where we’re at. We’ve been in worse situations and rallied and had really good finishes, and that’s what we’re going to try to do.
We’ve got six games, six opportunities. We’ll take them all one at a time, and we’ll work our butts off with a lot to play for, a lot to fight for, and I know it’s frustrating. I feel your pain, but I know one thing about this school.
We don’t quit. We dig in and fight, and we stick together, and that’s what I’m asking for with our fans. We need your help in this game.
Crowd noise matters at home. You’re playing a team that throws the ball on the road, and having you behind us would mean a lot.
Any update on Hollywood Smothers, Brandon Cisse, Dacari Collins, Val Erickson?
No. I don’t have to discuss injuries, Cory, so I’m not going to. I’m giving you the update on Grayson because of how public the injury was, but there are no rules around that, and I’d rather not talk about their health.
What have you seen from CJ Bailey up to this point?
He’s handled adversity very well. He’s got great energy and enthusiasm and belief in himself. He gets better with each game.
You can see him improving. And he loves football, you know. He just really enjoys the process of going through the game plan and practice.
He’s not an excuse guy either. When he makes a mistake, he’s the first one to own it. I just think he’s a guy people want to play for.
He’s also a great teammate. I mean, he hurts for Grayson, and Grayson’s a good mentor to him. And Lex Thomas is the same way.
Those guys are really tight, that group of guys. And so, CJ’s going to play well. He’s going to come in and play really well.
I’m excited for him.
How would you assess where the running game is at this point of the season?
I would say early on it was pretty bad, and it got better. I thought it got quite a bit better against Clemson. NIU, not great.
I think we had some good runs in that game. But we didn’t turn the ball over, and that was a physical front.
Had some good runs in this game.
I think if you watch the game, how our game plan was, there was a lot of plays that were runs where we threw the football. And so, we took the numbers, took the leverage, I guess you’d say. Had we handed off some of those, there could have been some pretty explosive runs if you look at how the box was on some of those plays.
So, there are improvements in some ways.
Am I happy with it? No. I’ll tell you what I am happy with.
I’m happy with how hard the receivers are blocking. I think Kendrick Raphael is running really hard, physical, making plays with his feet. So, I am happy with that part of it.
But we can get better there.
What have you seen in Kendrick Raphael?
He’s gained weight. He worked really hard in the offseason to help himself, one, for his health, but two, for protection, to be able to take on linebackers. I think he learned a lot last year being a little undersized. So, his work ethic has helped his durability and strength.
The game is a little bit slower for him. I think he’s just got reps, and you get better and better. But he’s really competitive, and I’m not surprised.
The high school he played at, Naples High, that have split back veer offense. He’s kind of both tailbacks in that offense, or fullbacks half the time and tailbacks half the time. They blocked as much as they ran the ball.
So, he was brought up as a tough running back, not some guy that’s just a skill back back out there. He likes the contact of the game.
Were the total amount of passing attempts reflective of RPO play calls?
Yeah, it’s both.
We wanted to get the ball to our outside guys, but a lot of the run game in college football, not just for us, if people are going to play a certain way in the secondary, you’re going to take what they give you at times, with bubbles or smokes or slants or hitches or outs, and make people put bodies on bodies to lighten the box,? And so, when we were getting those lighter boxes, softer secondary pictures, we were throwing the ball out there more because of what they were presenting. And that’s why the numbers were up. If you actually look at the play itself, you’re going to see a lot of run blocking going on on those quick throws because they were run plays with tagged RPOs.
4th and 9 QB Scramble in the final drive
Obviously, he wasn’t a quarterback that ran around a lot. We had a four-man pass rush called, and we did a poor job executing the line stunt. We got no penetration, no disruption.
The game we had called was actually a really good game for quarterback draws and things like that, and we didn’t execute it very well. We had worked hard on that. I know it was something Coach Wiles spoke a lot about yesterday in our meeting.
He was disappointed in that play. Felt like we’d be able to capture the quarterback with that game, and obviously they did a better job than we did on that play. That was a tough one.
You get somebody fourth and nine, you’ve got to get off the field.
Have you talked to the ACC about the hit on Grayson being targeting?
Yeah, I’ve talked to the league, and I can’t discuss that conversation. That’s private.
I have a lot of respect for Al Riveron, head of officials, and that’s one thing we don’t do is publicly talk about those conversations. I think he and I are on the same page with the fact that the targeting rule itself needs to be studied. I think the language in it puts the refs in a tough spot, particularly on a play like that one.
I mean, you guys have watched a lot of football. There’s not a lot of plays where a helmet comes off and at the same time someone else is coming in to hit them like that. And so it really highlights the rule and the verbiage of the rule.
I do think in talking to him there’s going to be a lot of conversation from an officiating side about the language of targeting and is this the right way to officiate the rule. I know he felt terrible about what happened, and I have a lot of respect for him and how he does his job.
Should the play have been ruled dead because his helmet came off?
Yeah, that’s a good question. The ball came out simultaneously, so they didn’t rule it dead.
I could see where that could happen. But, again, you’re asking me to officiate and I’m not an official. I mean, some of those calls are on the field in the moment.
If a guy continues to play with his helmet off, you usually see that. But, as you know, that play he went directly to the ground. And so, I don’t know, it’s a tough one.
Would you ever tell a player you don’t feel comfortable putting them back out there?
Yeah, I’m going to always first start with the doctors and the family and the young man. And, obviously, if I felt that way, I have no problem making that call.
But I’m going to start with them. And I think that’s the right way to do it. I have three sons, and I would want them to be treated the same way that I’m going to treat these guys.
And if that’s where we’re at, that’s where we’ll be. But I have no problem making that decision if that’s where we end up. But the steps are not head coach first.
It’s medical team first, family, and then bring the head coach in. Here’s where we’re at.
Do you get a sense that you’re at that point with Grayson at all?
Yeah, I mean, like I told you, I’m going to let them go through the steps.
And once we do that, then we’ll have a conversation publicly. But he deserves that opportunity. I’m not going to supersede what he’s asking for.
Preparing for Syracuse’s changing defensive scheme
I think we’ve got to get into our game plan here and see where we think their weaknesses are and what their tendencies are and why they’re getting into these fronts. You know, how random is it? Is it more down a distance? Is it more formation related? Is it just this team they did that and it never showed up again? Like, when you just watch five games, it’s all over the place. You know what I mean? But when you start to really get into it, you can find out how challenging it’s really going to be.
And at this point, I couldn’t tell you that. We’re in the middle of game planning right now, but for a freshman quarterback, he’s seen a lot, man. I mean, Clemson presented everything. NIU did a lot of stuff on defense. CJ’s already seen a lot.
And he’s got a veteran center with him. We’ll have to make the plan, obviously, one that he feels good about. And that’s our job as coaches to help him with that.
Is this a week where maybe Grayson being on the sideline helping out could be really vital for your team, speaking to Bailey?
Yeah, Grayson’s going to be a coach one day, I have a feeling, and he’s pretty damn good with those guys. So if that’s where he’s at helping them, he’s great with those guys on the sideline and no matter what it is, whether they’re playing us an odd the whole game, 4-2 the whole game, or both, he’s going to be really good with those guys on the sideline.
Syracuse’s success in the transfer portal this offseason
I mean, you see it both ways in some cases, but yeah, I think the portal can be a transitional thing, particularly for a new coach coming in, where they may have had some glaring spots, as you mentioned. I mean, getting the quarterback that they have right now has completely changed his opportunity as a head coach in year one. You go back to when I got here and I got Jacoby Brissett, but he had to sit out for my first year and we went from three wins in year one to eight wins in year two because of that position change? I mean, that position is the most important in football.
You can look at every NFL team, every college team, every high school team, if there’s a really good player at quarterback, they usually have a pretty good record. They usually do and they got a good quarterback. Kyle McCord’s a good player.
Thought’s on Tamarcus Cooley’s development
Yeah, I’m really impressed with his improvement.
His last two games, he’s been very good in coverage, in zone, blitzing, fitting the run. He’s getting better and better each week.
Really talented athlete. We knew that when he got here. He had a lot to learn and to his credit, he really worked hard at improving.
Coach Freddie Aughtry-Lindsay does a great job with our Nickels. Tamarcus has been a positive influence on our team. A spark for our defense, for sure.
Adding a lot of Defensive Backs in the offseason, and how the depth chart has worked out
Well, I think some of it’s because of injuries and losses that we had. Guys leaving our team to go play more somewhere else. And when you add guys and then Devan Boykin got hurt in the bowl game, it was a position group that we felt like needed some older players and competition in the room while we developed some of the younger guys.
Dameon Fagan’s injured as well. And so our returning guys weren’t healthy and we had some good freshmen coming in who I really am excited about. And Ronnie Royal’s going to be a really good player here.
Assad (Brown) is going to be a really good player. Jivan Bailey’s getting better. But you don’t want to go from senior to true freshman at every spot.
You want to have that differential. And so we knew we needed to add some guys. And yeah, did we take too many? I don’t think so.
I mean, they’ve all played and competed and some of them have been banged up along the way. But the reason we did is pretty obvious.
What tests did Grayson go through?
Yeah. I mean, he went through every test you can go through, but I’m not going to get into it. I mean, look, he’s at the trauma center.
That’s the number one trauma center in Wake County. They put every single resource into what they do and had really glowing results coming out of there other than he has a concussion, you know? So you feel good about it because as you all know, head injuries can have a lot of other things, swelling, blood and all, none of that. So, you know, feel fortunate that all we’re dealing with is a concussion.
But for him, there’s been multiple in his career, as you know. But the hospitals here in Wake County, and we’re fortunate, in the research triangle to have the medical care that we do.
Thoughts on Justin Joly
Yeah, he’s a really good ball catcher. He’s good yards after catch.
He’s hard to tackle. He’s quick feet, good in space, elevates for the ball, can track the ball. He’s competitive.
He’s getting better without the ball. I mean, that’s the biggest area we’ve been working hard with him. How to block in space, how to be good on different types of blocks, and when the pictures change, defenses aren’t always how they line up, how to adjust, and he’s continuing to improve in that. But he’s been a great asset to our offense, and he’s just getting better each week.
He works really hard, and he’s a fun kid to coach.
Quarterbacks love big targets for sure, and having a guy that can sit in space and make plays and it doesn’t have to be a perfect ball for him to bring it in with his catch radius, that helps a quarterback tremendously.
