WATCH: Dave Doeren’s Response to the Firing of UNC Coach Mack Brown

NC State Head Coach Dave Doeren met with the media today to give a response to the firing of UNC Head Coach Mack Brown. You can watch the VIDEO above, and read the transcript BELOW.

I heard the news about Coach and just wanted to say what a great career, and have nothing but respect for Coach Brown. I’ve known him since I was a young assistant coach and he’s done things the right way. He’s worked hard in his profession.

He’s helped a lot of coaches and so I have a lot of respect for him. I don’t know all the ins and outs of anything I found out on the field a second ago. I do know he’s coaching the game and I always look forward to coaching in this rivalry against Coach.

So I just want to wish him well.

Obviously this week is about our football team and that’s where our focus is, trying to take all the things that are about the rivalry, but pour it into the execution of playing the game the way it needs to be played.

Do you feel like the players for Carolina are going to want to be playing for Mack? Does that kind of up the ante and the effort that you want to see from your guys?

I don’t think it impacts us. Obviously there’s going to be an emotional response from their team and you would expect that, but I expected it anyway. I expected them to play really hard and give us their best and obviously this for them is another incentive, but for us, no matter what’s happening on that sideline, we’ve got to make sure ours is right.

We’ve got to go in there with the right frame of mind and understand that the emotions of rivalry games are great, but the execution is how you win. The fundamentals, the finish, the ball security and that’s what we’re going to be focused on.