NC State head coach Dave Doeren met with the media after practice today leading up to the Wolfpack’s game against NIU this Saturday. You can watch the video ABOVE, and read the transcript BELOW.
You talked about being more physical this week in practice, was that the case and how did it go?
Yeah, it was very physical.
Yeah, guys were definitely encouraged by themselves, by coaches, by former players. There’s a certain brand of football that exists at NC State that needs to be on the field and it wasn’t last week. It starts with being a physical bunch of guys and that’s in essence the DNA.
It starts with physicality. So that was preached and talked a lot about. Obviously our opponent believes in the same thing.
It’s going to be a really physical football game. So Tuesday and Wednesday were that. They were really physical practices led by the players.
They did a great job pushing each other, competing. Did a lot of good on good this week to get the speed of the game that we needed to do that. So definitely put the work in.
Is that something you can do every week or just periodically?
It depends on the health of your team. It’s not like we do an hour of it, but you do enough of it that you get that strain across from you. The picture’s different.
It’s moving and it’s not the opponent looks. You’re just running your defense, your offense and giving them that starter on the other side of the ball. It’s playing with a little bit different twitch and our mechanical difficulties here.
Yeah, I mean you’d love to do it all the time, but you put yourself at risk doing too much of it. So it’s kind of a sweet spot there.
Is there any position group of players that you saw kind of step up and really take that challenge on?
There isn’t one that needs to do it better.
It’s a team thing. We have to play 11 man football that way. I said this after the game.
There’s some guys that are playing that way and their teammates need to play that way with them. I’m not going to single one group out. Everybody needs to do it together.
You mentioned former players. Did you have any former players come in and talk to the team?
No, not directly, but there were phone calls made and they weren’t because we asked them to. These guys want each other to play well and when you leave as a former player, you want the guys behind you to carry the torch forward and not just do what you did, but raise the bar.
That’s what you call your legacy. There’s an established way that we play the game. Obviously hard, tough together is something that goes way earlier than my tenure here and we believe in that.
It’s getting back to the identity of our football team.
How much of a focus was it this week to work on getting off to a fast start and maybe not having to play from behind quite as much?
Yeah, it’d be great. It’s funny people talk about that.
Every week you want to start that way. You want to have a lead, but I can’t do that for them. They’ve got to get out there and not have pre-snap penalties that are preventable, not have a holding penalty that takes away a 20-yard run, not give up an explosive play in the first drive.
You just go out there and do what you’re supposed to do. Do your job. You do it with an intensity.
You do it like you’re the only guy on the field that can get this done. You play with that kind of demeanor and pride about your performance. At the end of the day, they’ve got to care a lot about their film.
Their film is their resume. As a coach, I look at that film as a reflection of my coaching. In both cases, we’ve got to be better.
It’s a we, us, and ours venture around here. I take it personal. I understand when we don’t play well, it’s a reflection.
I don’t like that reflection. I’m doing my part to get this thing right. Now it’s their turn to go out on that grass and fight for it.
Brown at Northern Illinois is a terrific running back and clearly very loyal to his school, but he also hurts you in the passing game. Is there anything you do with Sean Brown or any of the linebackers just to be aware of where he is as a receiver?
He’s a good football player. I have a lot of respect for him.
Obviously, they use him well. They find matchups for him. You can’t always do that.
Sometimes you can. Third down is a lot easier to put who you want on people when it’s a passing situation. But they get him to ball off of play actions and wheel routes off of run plays too.
You’ve got to use your rules. Guys need to know where he is. He’s a very good football player.
Is there anything different that you’ve seen from Coach Gibson in terms of the way he’s kind of running things on his side of the ball in practice this week?
It’s been really intense. I think a lot of it just comes from a reflection, like I said. Coach Gibson’s a guy that every day shows up with the same expectations.
I think his job this week was to make it very clear that some of those expectations weren’t being met. Because of that, you’ll see different guys start in the game in certain positions. At some point, it’s not tryouts.
It’s the best guy that’s the toughest guy that’s the most consistent guy gets those reps. Reps are earned, not given. Like I said earlier, guys aren’t being given up on, but they’re being challenged.
Coach Gibson’s challenging his side of the ball. Coach Anae’s challenging his. Coach Goebbel as well.
Each position coach, the same. Obviously, that directive starts with me with them. It’s been a week of that.
Being challenged, understanding what we did last week on the field, in my opinion, was an embarrassing reflection of who we are as a program. It’s not what I believe in. Definitely not what these kids believe in.
Doesn’t mean I don’t care about them. I love these guys. But I also love what our program stands for, toughness.
We’re back to that, and we’ll see if it shows up on Saturday. Because that’s what this is all about. Each game’s a test.
It’s a mental test, a physical test, an emotional test. It’s all that. We’re a coach and a player.
We talked to Isaiah Shirley a couple days ago. He mentioned one of the hardest parts of this weekend was just being honest and reflecting upon what they put on film. What were some of the honest reflections you felt as a team that you all had to really look in the mirror and see?
It’s ownership.
I think accountability starts with that. As a coach, things that I’m seeing, not believing in transparency, also not demeaning, being very demanding, demanding more, demanding competition at certain positions, demanding the best that we can get out of each player, demanding the coaches deliver with what their position groups are responsible to do. That’s what it’s about.
Those team meetings, it’s like you can sweep it under the rug and it’s just going to come right back out and get you. You know what you’ve got to fix. We’ve been through this before.
It’s just a different issue this time. We’re doing it with Grayson (McCall) out. It’s playing with a young quarterback.
You’re going to have some guys around them that have to step up and play really hard on that side of the ball. The defense needs to do their part getting us the ball in good field positions.
NIU is a high-effort team we know schematically. Are they also intricate? How is it preparing for that?
It’s a different intricacy. There are a lot of edges in their run game. They do a good job making you defend a lot of formations.
There’s a lot of eye candy, a lot of blocking schemes, a lot of bodies in misdirection with it. Then obviously off of that stuff comes naked and play actions and screens, and then third down is third down. They do a great job with their system.
They understand who they are. Coach Hammock’s a really good football coach, and he’s got a good staff. I’m really impressed with what he’s doing and the way that they’ve been able to do what they’ve done.
It’s hard in that landscape. When you look at non-Power 4 teams, and when they have a good player, how many people are trying to get those players to leave schools? It happens here. You leave the locker room after a game, and there’s agents trying to track kids down all over the place.
It’s unhealthy. What he’s been able to do, you see four-year starters, three-year starters. There’s guys there that are staying, and that’s a great reflection of what Coach has done there.
Do you think preparing for a high-effort team indirectly helps your team, because you know you have to match that effort and then exceed that effort?
Well, we respect this opponent. I’m sure that that does help, but I’ll be honest, man. This is about their pride.
That other side of the ball, it’s about how we play football. Yeah, we’re going to play a physical team, but it’s more about how we play football. We’ve got to get back to the DNA of who we are and take pride in what we put on film.
That film is a forever record of effort, is what it is. It’s a forever record of effort. And for eternity, how you played in this game on this day is on record.
Win or lose, but the effort needs to be winning, and that’s what I’m looking at. Everyone cares more about the wins and losses. I understand that.
I care about the DNA and the toughness and the way these guys play for each other. That’s what I’m coaching. And how hard we play is a reflection of what ends up on the scoreboard.
