NC State Head Coach Dave Doeren met with the media after practice today leading up to the Wolfpack’s game against Syracuse this Saturday. You can watch the video ABOVE, and read the transcript BELOW.
There must be something good going on, the group’s getting smaller and smaller. We can just cancel next week’s.
How has this week of practice been?
It’s been nice outside, been beautiful weather. It’s been good to not have the humidity and make that part of the grind. But it was good to get back on the grass Tuesday, the guys were great.
I thought the effort was really good. Obviously, CJ (Bailey) getting the majority of the reps, so going through that. He’s excited, but he’s still young.
So there’s learning that takes place on the field. But yeah, it was a tough loss, and it takes time to get over games like that. So practice is the best way.
That Sunday, Monday after a game like that suck. When you get back on the grass and start working towards the next game, it’s very helpful.
In the past, you used to tailor weeks to certain phrases or words. I don’t know if you still do, but I would think this week would be a little poignant for it.
Yeah, ‘hard work’ is our core value this week, and ‘finish’ is what we’re talking about, no doubt. And it’s been everywhere, said by everyone multiple times. And so what do you do when things aren’t working well? You don’t stop working, you work harder, and for us, we just need to finish.
And I think there was some emotional drainage that took place during that 15 minutes when Grayson was down, and unfortunately, we didn’t have enough left in the tank to finish that game. And so you gotta fill the reserve back up, and that’s what these kids, they’re young, and they’re capable of that, much more than adults probably. But yeah, that was a tough, tough window of time that sucked some of that out of us.
And I’m glad we get to play this week. I’m glad we get to get back on the field and go compete and get back to it.
How do you get the players back in that mindset when they’ve gone through something so traumatic right then?
I mean, just talk openly about it, I mean, it was hard on me too. I mean, it’s hard on everybody, it’s parents, fans, crowd, you name it.
And I was proud of the guys for rallying back, like I said. But Grayson being out at practice yesterday, cheering guys on helps. Seeing he’s okay, not that he’s okay, he’s had a concussion, but that he’s not as bad as he could have been from a hit like that.
He’s doing well, and seeing that helps, right? And so, man, he’s gonna be a good coach. That guy’s really good at the game of football. So it’s good to see him get back that way.
Are there any guys who maybe have surprised you in the way that they’ve stepped up this week?
Yeah, Noah Rodgers has had a good week, really good week. KC’s (Concepcion) had a good week on offense. Hollywood Smothers practiced well today.
It was good seeing him running around again. Dante (Daniels) has really had a good week. He’s getting better each week at tight end.
I thought Rente Hinton did a really good job at practice yesterday. I’m excited about his progress. Kelvon McBride had a really good day yesterday.
And so, seeing guys get better is one of the things I love about this sport still, and the progress that young players make. So those are just a few.
Eight o’clock game this week. Just how geeked are you to have the nighttime crowded?
Well, I’m happy for the fans. They get a full day of drinking.
It’s nice for them to enjoy that. It’s been three straight early ones. It’s kind of hard when you can just have a Bloody Mary and some eggs, and now they get the whole day.
So maybe they’ll stand up on third down and help us this week and be loud. I know students are usually phenomenal on the night game. So it’s supposed to be beautiful weather too, so all those things combined make for a good crowd.
And all black uniforms look really good. Excited for the guys to break those out. They’re excited to wear them.
And it’s a great, great team we’re playing. They’re 4-1. They just came off an overtime win.
They got a lot of energy, good quarterbacks. Gonna be a good football game.
Do you think the ACC is maybe underrated, because each week seems like you’re playing really great teams in competition.
Yeah, it’s always been that way. I mean, media-wise, there’s just more pull. From a network contract standpoint with the SEC, obviously the Big Ten Network’s been what it has been for a long time.
So I think it’s been great football. The whole time I’ve been in the league, it’s never been a league that didn’t have, I think our bottom is way better than other people’s bottom. I mean, you look at some leagues and there’s a lot of teams that just aren’t very good.
You don’t see that in our league. It’s competitive each week. There’s a lot of close games.
There’s a lot of good football coaches. There’s a lot of athletic players. And some of these kids go to some of their schools because of the higher academics that you see, and they’re really good football players at those schools as well.
Yeah, and just as long as I’ve been here, I mean, the battles you see week to week with the teams that are fighting to get into bowl games, there’s some really good games, man. You don’t see a lot of blowouts.
Syracuse obviously had their shootout with UNLV, and I don’t know if you prefer a shootout type of game. But the Stanford game is probably more of a defensive-minded, and they kind of blitzed a lot. Do you take anything away from how Stanford was able to slow down that offense?
Yeah, I mean, obviously we’re gonna blitz no matter what. That’s what we do.
So that doesn’t change with who we’re playing. But we watch everyone’s games, and study everyone’s attack, and whether they’re dropping eight or blitzing, or both. Three down, four down, what line stunts work, what pressures, what coverages, what gave the quarterback or the O-line more problems.
Holy Cross did some good things. They had five sacks. I mean, we watch everybody.
And they didn’t blitz hardly at all. So players gotta do their job. We gotta have good enough coverage to make them hold the football.
We gotta react to all the screens. We know they’re gonna screen us to help them with pressure that we might bring. And we gotta mix it up.
Tony (Gibson) does a great job. The games that he’s called the best, it’s a constant mix of pressure and drop eight. Rush four, bring five, bring six, bring them all, drop eight, and just roll it in disguise. And we gotta do a good job of that, and the guys gotta make plays.
I know it’s the middle of the season, but was just wondering if you had any thoughts on the national letter of intent being eliminated last week?
I have zero thoughts on that. Trying to win a game.
Oronde Gadsden II’s a unique kind of tight end. What’d you learn from what he was able to do two years ago?
He’s a good player. Big guy, catches the ball well, big catch radius. That was obviously, he was in Coach Anae’s offense at that time.
They moved him all over the field against us. He was in the backfield, he was in the slot, he was outside. Really versatile, obviously, has a high football IQ to be able to manage all that stuff, and coming back from the injury he had, he’s probably hungrier.
You gain perspective on the game when you can’t play it. A really talented guy, we have a lot of respect for him.