NC State Head Coach Dave Doeren met with the media today after practice before the Wolfpack’s game against Louisiana Tech today. You can watch the video ABOVE and read the transcript BELOW.

Coach, how have the guys bounced back this week? Did you like what you saw with the guys in practice this week?

Yeah, they were upset. Resiliency and coming back from a loss. You know, there’s been a lot of good things said by the players.

And we definitely had really good speed in practice on Tuesday and Wednesday. That’s one thing we can chart and see kind of where our top ends have been compared to other weeks and the guys were flying around. You know, it’s the first real game week where we’ve had a normal Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday to get ready.

You know, we had an elongated period for the first game, obviously an extra couple days coming out of the second. So, to get back into the normal game routine was a little bit on Tuesday for them. And I’m glad we’re in it now.

It’s good to be in a routine with these guys. And I like the resiliency of the team. Now it’s time to prove it.

Louisiana Tech runs a 3-3-5 defensive scheme as well. What are the differences between their scheme, and your 3-3-5 scheme?

Yeah, I mean, there’s similarities, obviously, with the personnel being 3-3-5. But the cover scheme and the alignments, the pressures are all different than our defense. And the coordinator’s been doing it a long time.

So, you can go back and watch his film at other schools and kind of see the DNA. He does a good job. You know, it’s very sound.

These guys know where to line up. They play hard. And it’s been a good week of prep that way.

I mean, it’s one thing going from four down fronts to three man fronts. And you never see it. We see it every day.

So, there is carryover, you know, in how we box certain looks and things like that.

You’re having to prepare for two different Quarterbacks this week. Does that help you early in the year for this scenario happening later?

Yeah, you know, these two guys aren’t that different as far as what they play like. Obviously, they have a starter and a backup for a reason. But it’s not like one of them is a drop back guy and one of them is Lamar Jackson, right? Like, you have two guys that run a similar style of offense.

So, it’s not as different as it would be if they were completely different athletically. What makes this more unique, which I said earlier in the week, is that it’s game three with one game that’s on film. Usually by game three you’ve got a little bit more information.

And in today’s age with so many new players, eight new transfer starters on defense, you just don’t have the film, you know, that you normally would. So, this will be a game with them having a bye and us not with a lot of adjusting.

The guys said that they called a meeting together just to kind of air things out. Was that something they did on their own or you suggested? And are you happy that they did?

No, I’m real happy. I mean, one of the things I get to do with captains, with guys that want to lead better, is have these one-on-one talks. And a lot of the times it’s, ‘Coach, what do you think I should do? What’s a good way for me to help this player? What do you think I need to say?’ And for me, it’s ‘what do you think needs to be said?’ You know, and sometimes it’s something that needs to be said with just those guys in the room so that they can go into certain things that they don’t want to say, maybe in front of the staff amongst themselves and call each other up and challenge each other and get on the same page.

That’s healthy. It’s really healthy. And so, you know, our captains, Davin (Vann) asked if he could do that and heck yeah.

I mean, that’s something that’s happened here for years and I think it’s a healthy thing on a football team. And it’s not always after a loss, you know, sometimes you win a big game and you can feel guys are feeling themselves and they need to remind them what it takes to win. So that’s a captain’s responsibility, you know, is to know when it’s time to step on his platform and talk.

Importance of vulnerability on a team.

Yeah, it’s talking about your life away from being a football player more than anything, you know, I mean, what your hardships are, who your heroes are, what’s going on in your life, things that are going on, you know, with you as a person, bringing stories up from your past, something we do as coaches with them as well.

And I think that just creates a different relationship, you know, and it’s not just football. And so we’re very intentional about not just doing that when it’s scheduled, but allowing guys, you know, when they need an opportunity to talk, and you can read these guys and they can read us, you know, there’s times where you want to vent and let things out, you know, and so being in a space where you know you’re going to be respected and loved for doing that, something that we cherish here, yeah.

Off-field chemistry leading to on-the-field chemistry

It’s a work in progress, I think, you know, when you have 41, 42 new players, I mean, it’s not something that you just snap your fingers and fix, you got to have reps and reps and game reps are the most important when it comes to that because that’s where you really see what’s going on when the bullets are flying out there per se.

So it’s going to get better and better and this is a team that has to improve each week and that’s what this week’s about, it’s about responding.

We don’t talk a lot about Sean Hill, what kind of leader is he for this team and how have you seen him grow?

Yeah, Sean’s a tremendous teammate and he’s a leader on campus outside of the football team, you know, with what he does with One Pack Empowered and what he does on our campus, what he does away from our campus, you know, going to different things that he can go to learn and grow and bringing ideas back to his teammates. He cares a lot about what’s going on in that locker room, he cares about his brothers, he cares about his coaches.

He’s a tremendous young man and it’s great to see a guy that, you know, he’s not playing on game day but his impact is felt throughout the locker room and he loves being that player.

You guys did some things during fall camp, even off campus to help with team building. How does that help when maybe a team’s facing adversity? How do those experiences help bring them together?

Yeah, I think time spent, you know, you can invest money, obviously.

That’s a short-lived feeling. I think time and memories are long-lasting, you know, when you invest time and so being intentional about those things where you have memories together and you remember being in a bunkhouse in the middle of the woods, you remember things that you did, you laugh about those things, it just brings back locker room conversations, dining hall conversations. ‘Remember when we did this? Remember when we did that?’ Without those opportunities to grow and learn about each other, then what do you have? You have practice, you have meetings, you know, and so I have to create life experiences for them outside where they get to know the ins and outs of who people are and some of it’s not good, right? I mean, you learn, hey, this guy needs to be more accountable.

This guy is not doing what’s asked of him. You learn about these guys and we don’t play the game. They play the game, you know, and they have to be able to hold each other to a standard on that football field and the leadership every year changes, you know, and last year we had a young man that did that really well for us in Payton (Wilson) and now these four captains are in that situation and it’s their opportunity now and I’m excited to see them take a hold of what they can and go out there and play well and lead well.

How much does it help that 30 plus years, 20 plus years, your staff, I mean, they’ve seen it all, done it all. You know, how much of an asset is it this time where they can say like ‘this is what worked in the past?’

Yeah, you can lean on what you’ve learned over time. We’ve all in this business failed.

We’ve all in this business succeeded. So you can go back to this happened this year and this is what we did and it didn’t work. This is what we did and it did work.

We have a great room of coaches that has a lot of information when it comes to how to handle situations and those talks are valuable for me, you know, and this is a program that has always responded. And so that’s the challenge that us and the coaches have is a lot of these guys haven’t been here, you know, so it’s easy for me just to say that, like you have to show them what that means. You have to teach them what that means and the guys that have their blood in the bricks here that have been here for a long period of time have to help their teammates understand that.

Coach, I’m not sure if you’ve seen the plans for the entertainment complex out here, but I wanted to see what your thoughts were and how it could possibly enhance game day environment and help with recruiting in the future.

Yeah, I haven’t seen it. I’ve heard a lot about it, excited about it, you know, obviously having a space over here that not just helps the game day atmospheres for hockey, basketball, and football, but also when we bring recruits on campus and then you have a lively, you know, outdoor center with different places you can take them.

I think it’s great. I don’t know when it’s going to be finished and be honest with you, I think it’s the last thing I’m thinking about right now.

You mentioned making in-game adjustments against Louisiana Tech. You’ve gotten to do that for two games now with the Tablets on the sidelines. Did that have as great of an impact as you were expecting going into the year?

For us, it does. You’re able to diagnose what’s going on.

And so you can try to make real-time changes in what’s going on. Here’s how we’re going to, we’re fitting this wrong. We need to fit it like this.

So you can immediately make those corrections. You still have to execute. But I do love the information that you have.

Like there is no, ‘oh my gosh, I wish I would have known that.’ Which that happens. Because this game goes fast.

I mean, your offense, defense, sometimes there’s a turnover in one play and the defense doesn’t have a lot of time or vice versa. We get an interception, the offense is right back out there. So being able to immediately diagnose a problem is really nice for a coach.

And then for the players, just slowing it down, getting rid of the emotions from the last series and being able to look at that play and say, ‘okay, here’s what I got to do better.’

Even with the information available on Saturday, it didn’t lead to execution against Tennessee.

It comes down to 11 guys doing their jobs at the end of the day, better and harder than the guy across from them. And to me, that game’s a great learning tool for our guys.

We had a great game plan. We’re going in to tie the game up before the half, 10 to 10. We had time of possession.

We hadn’t turned the football over. We were plus one in that category. We were getting off the field on third down.

We were eating clock on the offensive side of the football. And if we walk in there 10 to 10, or 10 to 6, it’s a different football game. It wasn’t.

We had a terrible play happen and we didn’t respond well. And then what happens in those scenarios as players, sometimes you start trying to do somebody else’s job and now it gets even worse, you know? And so you got to give them credit, like I said, after the game. And for us, it’s a great learning opportunity.

You know, one bad play doesn’t change the outcome. We saw that last year. We were down to, two years ago, we were behind in the Virginia Tech game, behind in the Florida State game, and the guys just dug in.

And so we’ve got to get back to being able to do that again. And that’s my job.