WATCH: Dave Doeren’s Postgame Press Conference After Defeating #8 Georgia Tech (with transcript)

Head Coach Dave Doeren met with the media last night after NC State defeated #8 Georgia Tech 48-36 in Carter-Finley Stadium. You can watch the video above, and read the transcript below.

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Well, first things first, I want to give all the glory to God. That was an amazing team effort and with the injuries that we’ve had and the number of guys that were out in that game, we needed guys to just really rise up and there weren’t even backups in certain spots in this game, and we couldn’t have done it without Him.

And secondly, our fan base tonight was homecoming. It was an awesome crowd. You guys were in it and we thank you for that because there’s a lot of people out there that have quit on us, and for those of you that came tonight, you didn’t, and so thank you for your support for these players, and I’m so proud of them and happy for them, because it’s been a tough year.

We’ve been through a lot and definitely have some games that we could have won and didn’t, and hung in there together, and went through a tough time with our staff, and the guys just kept coming in and let me coach them, letting their coaches coach them, taking things like, ‘Hey coach, it’s on us, we got to fix it,’ allowing us to do what we want to do, you know, and coach football and motivate young men and lead young men.

It’s a really, really neat group of kids, and I’m just really thankful they get to enjoy that. It’s special when you have a Top-10 win at home. Night games in the Carter are so special. Just proud of them. Proud of our staff.

Resiliency is what this place is about. It’s why I’ve always loved NC State. It’s definitely a part of my DNA and the harder it gets, sometimes I think the better we are, so we’re going to enjoy this one tonight.

Really proud of some of the individual efforts. I know you’ll ask me about them, but CJ (Bailey) played like a captain. He was in charge and played really, really good ball. The O-line protected him. Duke Scott had a phenomenal game rushing the ball. Our Tight Ends. That room, the way they played without Justin (Joly), really stepped up and had to do more things than they normally do. Impressive.

I thought Caden Fordham played his best football game. Had a lot of tackles, huge interception at the end. Was in charge and that was a tough offense.

Brent is a great coach and that is a really good football team. I have nothing but respect for him and their staff. Buster Faulkner, his offensive coordinator, one of the best in the country and their quarterback is a really good player. So that was a hard fought game against a really good coach and a really good group of kids that he has.

So, going to enjoy this one tonight and then enjoy the bye week. Nothing like a bye week after a Top-10 win. Definitely going to enjoy this one.

What does it say about the assistant coaches to have the groups ready and not feel sorry for themselves, with all the guys missing?

Well, we don’t allow that, first of all.

Kids come to this program like they do any program with the hope to have an opportunity to play, and when it’s your opportunity, you have to seize it. Tristan Teasdell, true freshman, starting in his first game against that offense and really proud of him. I mean, that’s asking a lot.

Our DBs, man, I mean, we played a lot of man-to-man in that game for a lot of reasons, but it says a lot about all these guys. It’s funny to me that people think we’re going to quit and we’re going to do this. We don’t do that here. It’s not a part of this program, and it never will be.

So, each kid that gets an opportunity. It’s his moment, and it’s fun to see him seize those moments in a game like this.

It had been reported earlier in the week that your players had a team meeting just with themselves, players only. Talk about what this type of win does, not only for you, but for the locker room moving forward.

When I met with our leadership council on Sunday, there were a lot of things we discussed, and at the end of it, I said, ‘A lot of these things are things you guys need to take care of, and you need to have a meeting with your teammates, and you need to say the things that you said in front of me to them, because they need to know what’s on your heart, and there’s a lot of football left. There’s too many good players in our program that are running out of time that deserve everybody’s best, and you need to let them know that,’ and they did.

Obviously, what they said hit home and those guys delivered, and it wasn’t just the guys playing. The guys on the scout team have to give a better look. It’s everybody, and like I told them, ‘It’s easy to look at problems and point fingers, and blame people and all that.’ We needed solutions, and that’s what I was asking for, is for each guy to be the solution in whatever his role may be on our team. Even injured players can compliment and can coach and can help their teammates better, so it’s just a collective effort.

The assistant coaches, the trainers, the strength coach, it’s on everybody, but it’s got to be team-driven. For things to happen in your locker room, you can tell them all you want. The guys have got to get it done for you, and they’ve got to hold each other accountable when they’re not, and that happened this week in a big way.

I know we talked a lot about Duke in the preseason and about how excited y’all were, but he is the third player from what I can tell in your tenure to have at least 175 rushing yards in a game. Did you expect that kind of breakout performance from him?

I’m not surprised at all. I mean, that was the 16th ranked rushing defense in the ACC. We thought we could run the football on them. They play a lot of cover 2, which gives you an opportunity numbers-wise to hand the ball off and run it, and Duke’s way faster than people know.

That’s why we made him a kickoff returner. Obviously, we didn’t tonight because he had more on his plate in the backfield, but I’m not surprised. I mean, you come to practice every day since he’s been here, and you see what kind of electric player he is, and all through high school the kind of player he was there.

We’ve got a really good tandem in that backfield, and tonight he had to step up and take on the entire load, and obviously did a tremendous job.

I forget the exact score, but I know in the first half you guys trailed maybe by a field goal. You got the lead back, got a stop, got the field goal right before there, and then you kind of kept it at that one-two possession range the rest of the game. You never did allow them to get that thing tied back, and you did some good things in the red zone. Could you just speak to that and how important it was to always address and answer Georgia Tech’s response?

Well, that’s complimentary football. We hold them to a field goal, we answer with a touchdown and it’s just things like that where both sides of the ball have to feed off of each other and when we play complimentary football, 11-man football, guys doing their job and answering the call when they need to, we’re a really good football team and it’s unfortunate it’s taken us a while to play a game that way. We haven’t, other than Campbell, but against a Power Four team, it’s just been halves of football where we played well, and tonight we put it all together. I’ve been telling them that it’d be really fun to see how good we are if we could play four quarters of complimentary football. I don’t think anyone can beat us when we play like that, and tonight it’s nice to have an illustration of what that looks like.

You mentioned Caden and the way he’s played in the middle of the defense. You talk about this being the best game you’ve seen from him this year. What was that like to see him step up against a team that’s going to run the ball a lot with the quarterback?

I told him and Kenny Soares Jr. this week they should have 20 tackles in this game. It’s that type of game, and our game plan, as you saw, there’s a lot of motions and perimeter plays, and it was to take those away and run in the box, and we felt like Caden Fordham, and Kenny at linebacker, and Brandon Cleveland in there, and Sabastian (Harsh) and all those guys could win in the box in the run game enough for us to take away their explosive parts of the run game, and for the most part we did that.

You’re not going to completely stop Haynes King. He’s a really good player and my hat’s off to him. I’ve always enjoyed watching him. He’s a tough kid, but the defense did enough to give our offense possessions and field position where they could go score.