WATCH: Everything Dave Doeren had to Say in his Weekly Press Conference Before NIU (with transcript)

NC State head coach Dave Doeren met with the media today for his weekly press conference leading up to the Wolfpack’s game against Northern Illinois this Saturday. You can watch the videos BELOW with the transcript UNDERNEATH.

All right. So, recapping the game with Clemson, frustrating performance to say the least, and not much you can say when you’re outplayed and outcoached the way that we were. And as I said after the game, I take everything that happens on that football field personally.

I feel the same frustration that I know a lot of our fans do and our players do. And when you watch the film, there’s several guys that are playing really hard, and there’s several guys that aren’t. And so, a lot of positions are being evaluated.

A lot of people are being challenged. It’s going to be a competitive week. There’s going to be positions that are going to change.

And that’s what competitive depth does. And so, guys have to understand the value and the honor that it is to be out there in the red and white. And it’s going to be a fun week of practice.

I’m excited about, going out, challenging guys, challenging each other, not throwing anyone away. Our job is to get players better and get them to play at a high level. And so far, we haven’t done that as well as we’d like, obviously, with a 2-2 record.

But I do believe in the grit of this university, believe in the grit of our staff, the discipline and the toughness that it takes to go through, a humiliating loss. It is what it is. You get up and you fight.

And that’s what you have is a coach that’s going to fight. As long as I’m breathing, I’m going to fight my ass off and I’m going to get these kids to do the same. And when you lose the turnover margin in a football game, bad things happen.

We were minus three, two turnovers in the first quarter, which is the opposite of how you play well at Clemson or at any good teams stadium. We needed to stop the run. We did not.

We did not set edges. We did not turn the ball back the way that we need to, which puts other players in bad positions. We didn’t tackle well.

We didn’t make plays on the ball, period, on that side of the football. And that’s not what we’re used to doing on defense. That’s been a calling card for us.

And nobody’s more frustrated and upset about it than Coach Gibson and his staff. And I know they’ll get it fixed. And the players on that side of the ball need to do what it takes to get it fixed as well.

And it’s an us thing. It’s not a them. It’s us.

And when you win, the team wins. When you lose, your team loses. And it always will be with me, we, us, and ours.

But it is something you can fix, and you can fix it two ways. You go out on the field, and you work really hard at the fundamentals of what it’s supposed to look like on both sides of the football and special teams. Defensively, it’s setting edges.

It’s executing calls. It’s communicating at a high level. It’s destroying blocks and tackling and executing with technique and playing with confidence, playing competitive coverage, coverage and pass rush working together.

A defensive players’ responsibility and value to the team is always how close they are to the football at the end of the play. It’s playing with maximum effort and urgency to get there. Like, you’re the only guy on the field that could make that play.

And for years, I’ve seen that, and we didn’t see it Saturday. And so we got to get back to playing that kind of ball on that side. Offensively, we can’t put our defense at risk.

When you give them a short field to play on, it’s tough to play good defense. We did that twice in the first quarter, once on a fumble and once on a – well, two fumbles, once on a pass rush fumble and once on a play where KC was straining to get extra yards and needs to protect the ball.

I am encouraged, by our run game. It’s the fourth game in a row that our offensive line, tight ends and backs have gotten better in the run game. We created rushing lanes. Our guys blocked hard on the perimeter.

We averaged 4.8 yards a carry, 4.1 in the first half when they were playing their starters, but 4.8 on the game. And up front, we did a good job picking up blitzes and stunts in the run game and creating lanes. I thought our perimeter blocking was exceptional at times.

CJ (Bailey) couldn’t ask for a tougher start for a freshman quarterback on the road with the crowd noise against a good football team that traditionally blitzes and stunts and changes coverage like Clemson does, and I thought CJ handled himself very well in his first start. It was a tough assignment. He managed the crowd noise.

He didn’t have any penalties. I’ve been down there with veteran quarterbacks that, you had delay of games. You had false starts.

The line couldn’t hear the quarterback, and none of that happened. So he did a great job from that standpoint. He managed the clock.

He had poise, and when things didn’t go well, he responded and came right back in with confidence and made some good throws. A throw he made on the deep out, on the sprint out over the top of coverage was a beautiful pass. He gave us some chances on some deep balls where we ended up getting three DPIs, and he’ll get a lot better from that game.

And so I’m proud of CJ. Also, he’s got areas he’s got to clean up and there’s things that he can do better, and those are the things we’ll work on with him.

I was really disappointed in Anthony Belton’s response.

Things happen on the piles, and all kinds of things happen in piles. And we all know as players, and Anthony knows as a player, the guy that responds and retaliates is always the one that gets penalized, and a tough lesson for him. He put strain on our team and got ejected from the game for it, and he’s learning a tough lesson.

He won’t start in this football game, and that’s just not what we do. And so, he’ll learn from that, and he’ll grow from that, and choices have consequences. That’s something that he’ll have to learn from and prove himself and come back from it and be better for it.

But that’s not a representation of him. He’s a great young man that made a bad mistake, and he’ll pay for it. Our hope is he’ll grow from it and get better when things get heated.

And you’ve got to respond, not react. Take that second. Take a breath.

On special teams, I felt like we’re better in some areas. I thought our return game, Jalen Coit averaged 13 yards per return, did some great things. Catching the football, their punter sprayed it around, and none of those punts hit the ground and saved us a lot of field position.

Kanoah (Vinesett) missed a field goal that we had a high snap on. Our long snapper has to put it on the money every time so that our operation is smooth.

I thought our punts were inconsistent. We can be better there. Our coverage units did a nice job. I mean, the one punt return they had, we had 3.2 second hang time, and we’re trying to have four-plus second hang time.

That puts your coverage at risk, and so all these things tie together.

So now on to Northern Illinois, obviously a team I have history with and great respect for. Had two great seasons there.

I have a lot of fond memories of the Dekalb and the folks there, and some of them still work there. It’s a great place, and I think Thomas Hammock, their head coach, has done a really good job building a tough football team. And they’re going to come in here and run the football.

I mean, that’s what they do. A lot of long-edge runs, multiple tight end sets, motions. They got a really good running back.

Obviously, they went to Notre Dame and won two games ago. They had a bye week after that, but it was an impressive win on the road. And it’s a program that takes a lot of pride in beating power 4 teams, and I was a part of that experience while I was there, and obviously we’ll spend time educating our team on that.

But this game is a lot about us. We have to respond the right way. We have eight games in the season remaining, a lot of football on the table, a lot of things that we can do better, and I look forward to the opportunity to do that.

And it’s time, in NC State fashion, to come together and fight. We understand what we need to do and how we need to do it, and that’s where our focus will go. Our team leaders have to do a great job, and the players under them have to support them and play hard with them, take strain off of them.

It’s an opportunity to face adversity and fight harder as a team, and it’s a challenge I’m excited to face. I told the team this, I’m built for stuff like this, man. I love adversity.

I love obstacles. And I’m going to battle and fight, and your team’s going to fight. I would ask our fans, as frustrated as they are, to fight with us.

And there’s a lot of fair-weather people and bandwagon people out there in the world these days, and the Wolfpack needs to be the version that’s not that way. I watched it last year with our team, and then it came back the right way. I watched it with our basketball team.

Like, this needs to be a group of people that supports these kids because they’re going to fight. And having people behind you cheering for you helps. And trust me, all that enthusiasm, passion, and spirit makes our stadium a hard place to play.

And we share your frustration in a big way when we don’t play well and know that nobody’s more disappointed than I am when that happens. And you’re going to get our best, and it’s going to be a dogfight. And that’s a good football team coming here to play us this week and challenge laid, challenge accepted.

I look forward to the challenge and the opportunity to help these young men become better. And our staff needs to do a great job making that happen..

Dave, I know obviously CJ played this past week, but is there any update on Grayson (McCall) at this point and where his health stands? And then the same question with D.J. Jackson as well, seeing him leave the game on Saturday.

Yeah, Grayson’s getting better. I don’t have an answer for you on that.

But Grayson is getting better and excited to see, CJ progress, and we’ll see where we end up. But I don’t have any medical information for you to change where we’re at yet. Okay.

As far as D.J. goes, yeah, D.J. probably going to be out this week. It’s not a long-term thing. But definitely was sore after the game.

I can’t imagine it’s going to be a two-or-three-day deal. I bet he’s back in two weeks. But that could change.

But coming out of our meeting yesterday, they felt like it might be a week or two.

As a follow-up, you mentioned, obviously, some players that you felt like didn’t play to the standard that you guys wanted to see. Was there any specific position groups to be looking for in that?

On defense? Yeah, every position group. I mean, it’s a team game. You know, they all got to play better.

It always starts up front. You know, the defensive line getting knocked back, and when they’re on the edge, being on the edge where they’re supposed to be. Linebackers need to communicate better to the front.

I thought we tackled really poorly at different positions throughout the game. We can definitely play better at strong safety and nickel. There’s a lot of competition that’s going to be on that defensive field this week, a lot.

And so it’s not one guy. You know, there’s multiple guys, different plays, and that’s what defense is, and especially when you’re talking about fitting the run, because the way a lot of teams run the football, if it’s not an RPO, they’re going to get everybody blocked, and you’re going to have a free hat somewhere, and they got to show up and make plays. And it’s a collective effort.

And when you have seven of eight drives, score points, it’s not one position group. It’s multiple position groups. And it’s more about the identity of playing hard, tough together that needs to show up.

And so I’m excited to see that happen this week. I know there’s going to be a lot of enthusiasm on that side of the football to get it right.

You talked about competitive depth, and it seemed like Val Erickson was able to get his first solid run on the offensive line. What did you like seeing from him, especially after Anthony went out and he got a lot of run at right guard?

He’s gotten better. We’ve played him at right and left guard, and so just trying to have opportunities for him to get in the game and get better and better. He’s a physical guy.

I mean, one thing about Val is he moves people. I mean, he displaces bodies, and he’s still working on the ins and outs, the nuances of how we do things, but I do think it creates depth there. It does create competition, and it gives us some flexibility, as you saw in the game, when we had to move Tim to tackle to be able to get him in there.

And the more he plays, the better he’s going to get. You know, he didn’t play at all last season, and so he’s really getting his first game reps in his life right now outside of scrimmages. So we’re excited about his future.

He’s got a lot to work on, but he is a tough kid, and he brings a demeanor onto that field. He’s tough, and we need that.

Do you expect him to start with Anthony Belton not starting this weekend?

Possibly, yes.

A couple games in a row now where KC’s (Concepcion) had some opportunities, hasn’t been able to really get going. Has that been more what the defense has done? Have you guys not schemed him up a little better? What have you seen relative to his play?

Yeah, we’re trying hard to get him open on some things. We had him on a deep play last week.

We got sacked on it. The quarterback got rushed. We had a double move on for him that he got a DPI on, which was a shot to him down the field.

We’ve had some things in for him that way. We had a reverse, two reverses in there for him. We pitched it to him.

I mean, we’re finding different ways to get him the ball. He caught a screen and got eight yards. But to your point, none of them have exploded.

I think there’s pretty high expectations for him, and he’s on the radar. A lot of people are game-planning for him. There’s a lot of people pointing out where he’s at.

And it’s going to be harder and harder. You know what I mean? And so that’s why you’re seeing the ball getting spread around a little bit. I know Coach Anae is very intentional about trying to find him.

We targeted him 15 times in the game, and he had five catches. So it’s not because we’re not trying.

You mentioned the DPIs. I know you guys weren’t able to go deep often, and I get it. It’s a lot with what’s going on up front as well. But you were able to draw three in that game. I mean, is that something maybe moving forward you’ll look to kind of get going as well, just the deep ball?

Yeah, we need to be able to push the ball down the field. There’s no doubt.

It’s a part of what helps loosen the coverage. You know, guys can sit on short things all day. I mean, so that’s something we’ve got to do a better job of.

You mentioned your time at Northern Illinois. How do you think those two years really impacted you as a coach and where you are today?

You learn a lot, the first time you get a position change, whatever that is. I’m sure everybody in here can relate. But there’s a lot more responsibility on a head coach’s plate when you think, what you’re getting into when you’re a coordinator.

Oh, I’m going to be a great head coach. I know how I do this or I do this. And then you get there and shoot my first week on the job, I had a player shot and was in intensive care. I had to drive to the hospital every couple of days, which is not in DeKalb. It’s about 40 minutes away.

And so quickly, I was like, holy cow. And it was crazy to deal with something like that. There’s a million things that go on in a head coach’s seat, and you really don’t understand it until you get into it.

I learned a lot about delegating, the importance of your staff. Learned a lot about time management, balance. I didn’t have great balance as a coach at that time, I mean, probably not the best father and husband at that time.

I was working like crazy. And not that I don’t work hard now, but I do understand the difference between what I was and what I am with work-life balance. And there has to be a ratio there.

You know, I learned a lot about doing things with less. I mean, the motto at that school is ‘the hard way,’ and it’s real. They have very few amenities there.

And so you have to do a lot with a little. I think I’ve always been good at that because of that experience. And my experiences at Montana and Drake, where you’re just at schools that have less amenities, less resources.

Doesn’t give you excuses. You just got to find a way to get things done, roll up your sleeves and get to work, and outwork people, be creative. So I think, having that opportunity there, I think that MAC and really that level of football, conference-wise, is great training ground for head coaches.

You know, a lot of the head coaches that have come out of those conferences and moved up have done very well. I think it’s because they’re not entitled. They’re guys that really understand how to work hard and how to do all the little things.

And no job is too big. You see a table that needs to be moved, you go move the table. You see trash on the ground, you pick it up.

You do what you have to do. And those kind of places are great training ground for that. I have so much respect for the MAC conference and for Northern Illinois and for the folks there.

It was a great experience for me, a great learning experience as a coach.

What were the emotions like when you had to tell Northern Illinois that you were leaving for NC State? And then if I remember right, did you watch the Orange Bowl in the stands?

Yeah, it was hard. I was excited.

We had just won our second conference championship in a row. I was really excited for an opportunity to come to NC State. I felt like I had done what I could do, you know, at NIU.

And they hadn’t won the league in a long time. Obviously, they had never been, the MAC had never been in an FCS bowl of that magnitude with the Orange Bowl. And so it felt like it was time to move forward with my opportunities.

And it was sad and exciting all at the same time. I mean, I’d slept. We finished the game in Detroit and bussed home.

And on the bus ride home, one of the buses caught fire. And so, I mean, it was a long ride home. We didn’t get home until, like, 6 a.m. And then that next day, everything just changed.

And a day later, I was on a plane to come here. So, it’s pretty crazy all the stuff that happened in a short period of time in that transition. But I have so much love and respect for those kids and the program itself.

You know, leaving there was hard. At the same time, when you inherit something, which I did from Jerry Kill, he did a great job there, building that program up and then take it where it wasn’t, to a championship, back-to-back. I felt like I definitely put that place on solid footing.

And they promoted Rod Carey, who was my offensive coordinator, to head coach. And so, they got to continue with the same type of culture. And he did a great job for the number of years that he was there.

Did you watch the Orange Bowl from the stands? And what was it like?

Oh, yeah. That’s a long story.

But, yes, me and Jerry Kill and my family watched the Orange Bowl, which was probably the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do as a coach. Yeah. Not coach that game.

I mean, if there’s any regret I have in football from a coaching standpoint, it was that, not being able to do that. And it’s just how it worked out.

The defense’s sack and quarterback pressure numbers are down from the standard of Tony Gibson’s defenses the past few years. What would you attribute that to?

Oh, there’s a couple factors.

You know, one, when you look at third downs against us, there’s been a lot of screens and draws. There’s not a lot of five-step, six-man, five-man pro yet. This year, it’s been a lot to just get the ball out of our hands, and so that’s part of it.

Part of it, too, is we’re not winning enough. You know, when we do get opportunities for sacks, we got to get home. And Davin (Vann) has done that a couple times, but the rest of the group’s got to win more one-on-ones.

It’s not just the D-line. Our linebacking group, our nickels, our safeties, when we blitz, you got to come with a certain attitude and mentality to get there. And if they get the ball out quick and they run a screen, that’s a different story.

You’re not going to get sacks on those plays. But the other types of plays, it comes down to winning one-on-ones and straining and guys containing a proper way so that the inside rushers have a chance. And if it’s a blitz up the middle, the outside guys do their jobs, and we call it a flush sack.

Quarterback flushes out, you get them down. But it’s execution and it’s opportunity, both things.

You mentioned you wanted to see a highly competitive practice week. You expected that. Are there kids out there that are speaking up, stepping up, using this as an opportunity maybe to become more assertive as leaders, and is that something you would like to see?

Yeah, definitely, and we talked yesterday with the players. I met with the leadership council, talked to several guys one-on-one in my office about things they can do. You know, at the end of the day it comes down to them wanting it more, man.

I mean, that’s what it is. As players, you can only do so much in preparation, and when you touch the grass as a player, you got to play like it could be your last day out there all the time and have that hunger, that desire, that will and that want to, and we’re going to find out. I mean, that’s what this week’s about.

NIU is going to come in here, and they are not afraid of anybody, and they never have been. I mean, Coach Novak created a culture back at that school a long time ago, tough place with tough people. They play hard.

We’re going to have to be who we are. Our identity has been hard, tough together, and we need to get back to being that every day, and tomorrow’s practice is going to be a great indicator of the direction of our program and what we’re going to be like, and so I’m excited to see the response. That’s what I’m looking forward to, is getting out there and competing and helping these guys move back in the right direction that way, and we’ve had, obviously, we were down in two games, came back and won.

We’ve showed fight. We’ve showed resiliency. We haven’t shown four quarters of complimentary tough football this season in four games.

That’s what needs to change.

I know in the second half, Clemson played some reserves on offense. You guys looked like you might have been getting some younger guys in, too, but you did end the game forcing four straight punts. Were there some guys that you put in late that maybe popped a little bit when you were able to watch the game back?

Yeah, I think Isaiah Shirley did a really nice job. He did the same thing in the Tennessee game when we put him in in the second half, so he’s a guy that has shown that he’ll compete no matter what. He’s a guy that’s going to get more playing time because of that.

It’s obvious when you watch those two games. I thought he was very competitive when he went in there.

Kamal Bonner came in, made a couple tackles on defense. Devon Marshall went in the game, did some good things, but that’s about it. I mean, I’ll be honest.

Like, when their starters were on the field, they scored seven out of eight possessions, so it’s hard to get excited about what happened after that, and I’m proud of our guys for not giving up. I mean, that’s one thing you saw. We scored 28 points and only gave up 3 in the second half, but, too little too late, but we’re not going to quit, and that’s good that that didn’t happen.

The guys did play hard and compete until the end of the game, but we got to start fast. We got to get out there and play our kind of football from start to finish.

I know y’all like the 3-3-5 defense. Have y’all considered going, 4-3-4 or anything like that?

No. We’ve led the ACC in defense three years in a row.

As my grandpa used to say to me, and he was Native American, so I can say this. “It’s not the Arrows. It’s the Indians.”

You’ve got to get out there, and you’ve got to execute. It doesn’t matter what defense or offense you run. If 11 guys aren’t doing their jobs, it’s a bad one.

It’s a bad one, and so we have a scheme that’s proven. We have a coach that’s good at coaching it, and we have players that need to step up and do what they’re coached to do.

You mentioned 11 guys doing their job. With Cade Klubnik’s 55-yard run to set the tone of the game, what did you kind of see on that play? What could have happened, or did Clemson just have the right play at the right time?

They definitely called a good play. I’ll put that on us, to be honest with you.

There’s things that could have happened. When we crack replaced, our safety came outside of that block, which then blocked him into the corner. Had he fit inside, then our corner would have been sitting there to get it down, but the defensive design of that, they caught us in a bad call against a good play.

It shouldn’t have been a touchdown, but it was because of how we fit. If you watch the end of the play, you’ll see the safety number five trying to get outside of an outside-in block, and if he fits underneath it, the corner’s right there to replace it, and so that’s just leverage, but it was a good play called by them against a defense that wasn’t designed for that play, and so sometimes you call a good play against a scheme, and it hits, and same thing happens for us the other way around, but it shouldn’t have been a touchdown.

Sort of off-topic about the game, but in the big picture of the transfer portal, we’ve seen a lot of teams take what amounts to a front-office approach within their staff of player personnel and that kind of thing. Everybody does it a little differently, but I’m curious kind of how you’ve gone about figuring out.

Yeah, I think I’ve said this before.

We definitely changed our recruiting office two years ago to more of an NFL model because of what you’re saying, and we have a guy, Tony Shields, and that’s what he does. He evaluates college talent, and so we have write-ups on guys that we think fit our program. If they go in the portal, then we already know, this is a yes, this is a no. You track guys regionally that leave in case they decide they want to come back home, and so, like we recruited a young man like Noah (Rogers), and he leaves, you pay attention to what’s going on, and so when he goes in the portal, you know that, hey, we liked him in high school.

If he comes back, he would be a yes, and so you’re just trying to do the background work prior to. It does help when you have previous relationships so that you don’t have to figure out is he the right kind of guy for us or not because that’s the hardest part, you know, and it’s really challenging.

We only have like two weeks before we start school in January from when the portal opens until classes begin, and so within a two-week period, if it’s a guy that you don’t know anything about, you didn’t recruit him in high school, he’s from outside the region, and he’s interested in coming because it’s a positional fit with a need. You got a lot of information to try to uncover in a short period of time. It’s really hard.

You know, the schools that start later in January, I think, have a big advantage in the portal not only because they can have longer time to recruit and get guys into school, but because they have more time to get to know them, more phone calls, more visits, all the things that can happen, from six weeks to two weeks, and so it’s hard when you’re a first week of January startup like we are for academics. It’s a short window, and so, that office has got to do a lot of homework, and there’s a lot of research that goes into recruiting behind the scenes a lot. We used to not have that set up.

We have a player personnel side that handles high school. We have a player personnel side that handles college transfers. We have a recruiting side that helps with recruiting.

Obviously, we have our graphics design and creativity side that helps us with the imaging, and, you know, Andy Vaughn is our general manager that oversees the entire thing, so it is an NFL model, and I think most schools at this level are in that. It’s really hard not to do it that way. We tried a few years back, and it’s just you feel like you’re chasing your tail.

Guy goes in the portal. You don’t know anything about him. You didn’t do any research, and you don’t have enough time to figure it out.

You can make some really bad decisions.

Do you feel like you have a good number of staff and structure? Is it still one of these things, though, that we’re still early in the portal, in the lifespan of this crazy world? Are you still trying to figure out this may need to change, this can work better, all those parts of it?

Yeah, I think you’re always looking at ways to get better.

Adding doesn’t always make you better, either. I think, you know, the people you have have to be really good. Sometimes you do need more hands on deck.

Sometimes that’s true. Sometimes it’s not. Sometimes you have what you need.

Sometimes you may just need a different person, and so I’m always evaluating how we’re operating, and I’m not afraid to make changes. You’ve seen that over the years, and that’s part of being in charge. You have to evaluate yourself first and then your staff under you and then the parts that they’re working with, and I do look at this as a group that has to drink the same Kool-Aid.

We got to work together really well. I have to communicate really well, and I’m fortunate. I have really good people around me.

I mean, I have a great group to work with every day. They do a good job. They communicate well.

They understand the vision and program, but it is, to your point, it’s evolving, man, and it’s going to keep evolving. Like, there’s so many decisions that are still just, we’re all waiting to see what judges are going to decide and how do those decisions impact staff? How do those decisions impact scholarship numbers? How do they impact our walk-on program? Like, there’s a million things that are on the table not decided that are going to have major consequences in college sports.