Dave Doeren’s Postgame Press Conference After FSU: BULLETED

Wolfpack head coach Dave Doeren met with the media for his postgame press conference after NC State’s 19-17 victory over FSU on Saturday. You can watch it here, or check out the BULLETED breakdown below.

• Heck of a game and an incredible win. Super proud of our guys in their fight and resiliency. There’s a lot to be proud of. It’s a great feeling. It’s very rewarding, very rewarding.
• I told them at halftime, ‘We’re going to come back and win this game. All you’ve got to do is believe, execute, dominate the line of scrimmage, and win the turnover margin.’
  • That’s what happened.
  • You’ve got to give our kids a lot of credit. They have a lot of heart.
• To come back in a game like that against an offense as good as theirs.
  • They were averaging 48 points a game going into our game, and to shut them out for a half.
    • Coach Tony Gibson, the D-staff, and the defensive kids deserve a lot of credit.
    • They fixed the things that were physical which was tackling and getting out of gaps.
      • That happened multiple times in the game in the 1st half. We adjusted a few things design-wise and disguise-wise. Then, we made plays.
    • Guys broke up passes. Guys got to the quarterback. Guys intercepted the ball. We had to make some plays.
    • I talked about that last week. We didn’t make plays in key moments in the Clemson game, and Clemson did. We made key plays tonight. That was the difference.
• There were some really great individual performances.
  • Cyrus Fagan didn’t even practice this week, and he played a good game.
  • Delbert Mimms came in and ran the ball hard.
    • Demie Sumo-Karngbaye ran really hard and then had to come out, so Delbert stepped up and played behind his pads.
  • It was good to see Darryl Jones get a touchdown. He’s played a lot for us this year.
  • The biggest hero for us tonight was Jack Chambers with what he did to move the chains for us and orchestrate three scoring drives.
• Obviously, I feel bad for Devin Leary.
  • X-rays were negative. They’ll MRI him tomorrow, and we’ll be able to tell you more after that, but it’s positive that the X-rays were negative.
• Very proud of Jack Chambers coming in and leading the team the way he did.
• Our running backs really ran the ball hard tonight.
  • I’m proud of them and the way they played.
• Defensively, we got 2 takeaways and had a 4th-down stop.
  • Those were great plays by Shyheim Battle and Devan Boykin there.
• Chris Dunn hit a 53-yarder, tied his longest.
• Heck of a win and a heck of a football game.
  • Florida State’s a very good team. They had a good game plan, and I thought our coaches made good adjustments at the half, and the kids executed them.
  • It was awesome to see our crowd help us there in the second half. It’s a great win. It’s great to be 5-1.
• This team doesn’t quit. They don’t flinch. They believe in each other, the plan that we have in place, and the next man in. This continues to find a way to make the plays that we need.
• It was a ‘tweener call [deciding to punt instead of kicking 53-yard field goal].
  • If we didn’t make it, we’d given them a shorter field to travel.
  • I was worried about a possible block as well.
    • They’d gotten close on a couple of rushes today.
  • It had nothing to do with Chris.
  • The way we were playing on defense, I didn’t think they could go 90 yards and beat us, and Ryan Fitzgerald is 5-of-10 on the year.
  • I just felt like the odds were better that way than making another 53-yarder. It’s a tough call.
• We thought there was a chance they’d throw it [at the end of the game]. They’ve got good receivers.
  • Devan did a great job covering that guy and made a tremendous play on the ball.
• We made adjustments based on what Florida State was doing [at the half].
  • They really played in 2 formations offensively the whole 1st half.
  • We went in and discussed ways that we could defend them better.
  • The guys did a nice job executing. We tackled better, as well.
  • But more than anything it was just looking them in the eye and saying ‘this is a gut check, men. You’re going to be tested as competitors. This is your stadium, so how do you want to look in it.’ It was more about the attitude change and the execution.
• I didn’t see him [Devin Leary return to the sideline]. I was so focused on the field that I didn’t see him on the sideline after that.
  • He got hit while he was throwing in motion, so they X-rayed that entire part, and there wasn’t anything on the X-ray. That was clean.
  • The MRI will tell us if it’s anything else.
  • Hopefully, it’s just a muscle strain, and we’ll have him back soon.
  • Say your prayers for him tonight. I know he’s down, and he’s a competitive dude. He wanted to be out there.