WATCH: Dave Doeren’s Press Conference After Louisiana Tech (with transcript)

Head Coach Dave Doeren met with the media for his postgame press conference after NC State’s 30-20 win over Louisiana Tech You can watch it ABOVE, and read the transcript BELOW.

Yeah, very proud of the way our guys came back, and that’s what I’m used to seeing. It was obviously not a great first half, to say the least. But it was a great response in the second.

The players rallied around each other in that locker room. Defense talked about, you know, what they needed to do. Offense, what they needed to do.

CJ (Bailey) obviously played very poised. Just proud of him. And the way the guys played for him, catching the football.

And, you know, just protected better. You know, did some good things, correcting some things. We were getting too many free hitters in the backfield.

In the run game and the pass game in the first half. But it’s a hell of a win. You know, I mean, anytime you’re down two scores and you come back.

And particularly when you’re doing it with a quarterback that’s really throwing his first pass in college football. He got some snaps against Tennessee, but he didn’t throw it. It says a lot.

And the defense really did a great job sparking us with the pick six. I mean, Davin Vann, captain, gets back there, hits the quarterback. And DK (Kaufman), you all just met with, did a great job capitalizing on that.

And getting the ball back again. And we played, you know, two quarters of complementary football. And really this season, in three games, I think combined, we’ve played four quarters that way.

And that’s what we have to do to win. You know, it’s a team game. And as far as Grayson goes, I’m not going to comment on his injury until I know exactly what’s going on.

You guys saw him. He was on the sideline after the game. Congratulating CJ.

And so once I have information in my conference Monday, I’ll let you guys know where he stands. But I’m not going to speculate on it.

What was the most impressive part of CJ’s performance today?

I think it’s just poise. You know, I mean, he just went out there and played the game. You know, whether he’s throwing the football or scrambling, throwing it away.

Rushing for some tough yards at times to extend the chains. Did a really good job just managing it and playing fast. And he looked really poised.

So that was good to see.

Update on Aydan White and Brandon Cisse. Thoughts on those that replaced them.

Yeah. Really proud of the way that Devon Marshall came in the game.

Jackson Vick came in the game. Corey Coley. Aydan will be back. Kind of day to day.

I would say then as far as Cisse, I’ll let you guys know on Monday.

Define this win in 1 or 2 words

I thought we showed a lot of heart. I mean, I really do. I think it was a heart, just gritty win.

What was your message for your team at halftime?

You know, they said a lot for me.

And when they were done, it was just, it’s time to go do what we’re supposed to do. Just do your job, play together, overcome adversity. We’ve been in this place before.

I told them CJ is going to play his ass off. And everybody was behind him. You can hear them rallying behind him.

Defense is going to get up first. They’re going to make a stop. Offense, you’re going to go score.

And it’s going to be a one possession game before you look up. And I said, just quit thinking about the scoreboard. Thinking about playing really physical and together.

And if you do that, we’re going to win. And that’s what the guys did. They did a great job.

Listening, being in it, responding, cheering each other on the sideline, demanding more. I thought it was a really, really good response.

Was there a sense of urgency at halftime?

Yeah, just a little. Yeah, just a little.

I mean, was it a palpable thing? Or how do you try to calm that down? How do you handle that, sir?

No, I mean, you know, look, you want the players to be able to vet. You want them to get stuff out in there. You know, I mean, I’m going to wait and see.

Let the coaches make the corrections. Let the players say what they need to say. And then based on how I’m feeling in there with what’s being said, I’m going to respond and add in or take it over.

And I didn’t really have to take it over. It was really a calm talk to them because they were very, very agitated coming in. And Sean (Brown), you know, Captain Sean Brown was in their face, you know, which he should be.

Demanding more. And then I thought CJ, he had a bright look on his face, man. You could tell he was excited and ready to play football.

And the guys saw that, felt that. Yeah, but, you know, each halftime, you guys is different. Every time you walk in there at halftime, it’s different what the team needs.

And I just got to kind of assess that and do my best to fill that need.

You mentioned CJ, sir. Did it build as the game progressed? He made those two really nice passes, I think, to Noah (Rogers) and then the next one was to (Justin) Joly. Did you see it, sense it building as the game progressed?

Yeah, I think, you know, once you get a couple completions, you start feeling it. And he did, you know.

And Robert (Anae) did a nice job giving him some completions that were pretty easy, you know, with good protection and let him get in a rhythm, let him get going. And we were able to get some better runs as well, which got us out of some long yardage plays. And then we were able to make some plays with our feet at quarterback.

You know, he was able to extend some drives and a couple of draw plays. So, yeah, he was playing confident football. I think everybody could see that.

Coach, you guys dominated time of possession and the ground game. You had 13 more minutes and over 100 more rushing yards than Louisiana Tech. Was that the game plan going in, or did it kind of just change once your circumstances changed after the first half?

Yeah, time of possession is something that is important. You know, when you’re playing a no-huddle team, they weren’t really going fast. So I wasn’t as concerned about that.

Sometimes you’re just not getting explosive plays, and so your drives take longer. And we weren’t. We weren’t really having explosive plays.

That’s the style of defense that they play. There’s eight guys, and they don’t blitz very much. So you’re not going to have a lot of down the field plays against defenses like that.

You know, in the shots we took down the field, we didn’t connect. You know, we tried to hit a couple guys on deep balls and just didn’t connect. So they were long drives.

I told the guys that when you play a drop-eight defense that doesn’t blitz a lot, it’s going to be a dink and dunk, run-the-football type of day. You know, and defensively, it’s always the same. You know, can we get off the field as fast as possible, a three-and-out or a takeaway. And offensively, trying to possess the ball and end every drive with a kick.

Run game and CJ being used in it

Yeah, you know, mixed thoughts.

Disappointed in some of it. You know, we were able to convert on short yardage runs today. So that was a plus.

Every time we had a short yardage, we were effective and got the first down. We scored on the goal line a couple times today on short yardage runs from there. So that was improvement.

But I do think there’s too many runs that aren’t getting the plus three-and-a-half yards that we want to average. We had some explosive runs as well. We had one callback for a holding, which obviously hurt your average.

That was a pretty big run. We got to get better there. We just got to keep working at it, you know.

But it’s better than it was. It’s not as good as it needs to be. That’s probably the best way to say it.

What made you confident putting CJ in?

He’s done that in practice the whole time.

You know, I mean, what you saw today is what he’s been doing. He’s got a really good arm. He has good arm talent.

And so now it’s just the repetitions and how fast the defenses are playing. And he’s got good players around him. So he’s going to be a fun player to watch, you know.

He’s got a bright future for us, obviously. As far as him running the football, yeah, he can run. You know, he’s at 6’6″.

It doesn’t look like he’s running as fast as he is, but sometimes he can cover ground with his stride length. So we’ll just have to see as we get into the game plan now that he’s the starter as long as Grayson’s out. And how we can maximize what’s best, you know, to move the chains and get first downs and touchdowns.