TRANSCRIPT: Dave Doeren’s Weekly Press Conference Before NC State vs. #16 Miami

Head Coach Dave Doeren met with the media for his weekly press conference yesterday leading up to NC State’s matchup at #16 Miami this Saturday. You can watch the video above, and read the transcript below.

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Going back to the Georgia Tech game. I’m really proud of our team, staff, our fans and our students. It was an awesome night, great environment. Just a bunch of guys that went out there and played together. What we’ve been trying to get for four quarters, we finally got, and it was a really fun night.

The rooms that needed to step up because of the players that were out, obviously, Duke Scott, with Hollywood (Smothers) being out, we needed him to really play well, and he did. He played a tremendous football game at running back. CJ (Bailey) played great with Justin (Joly) out at tight end.

I thought that room did more than they’ve had to do, and did it well. Cody (Hardy) continues to block well, but has become a bigger and bigger part of the pass game. Dante Daniels has really grown as a player, a leader. Really happy about Dante and what he’s brought to the offense.

Defensively, Tristan Teasdell started his first game and had some really good tackles. I thought Assad Brown had three or four open field tackles on Haynes King that were touchdown-saving tackles.

Caden Fordham played his best football game for us. Brandon Cleveland really stepped up and played well.

It was a team effort, and we played well off of each other. We knew that they’d score points, and we had to stop them enough and play really well offensively, and we did. We’d get touchdowns and hold them to a field goal. We had some really good red zone stops and obviously a big interception to close the game out.

Our special teams did what we asked them to do. Kanoah (Vinesett) made both field goal attempts and was perfect on his PATs. Operation time was good.

So it was just really good growth by the football team with all the things we’ve been through that are well-documented. It was great to see them step up and play that way in a game of that magnitude, in a game we needed to win.

So now coming off a bye week, it was good timing, having two byes later in the season with our health, definitely going to help us at certain positions. Whether it’s a starter that we get back or a backup that’s back into rotation, as you know, I’m not going to speak on that until the end of the week. But the bye week did give us that opportunity not only to get healthier, but to have a little bit of time to get a head start on a really good Miami team coming off a very well-played game against Syracuse, firing on all cylinders in that game.

You just look at them statistically averaging 33 points a game, holding teams to 15, stopping the run, 88 yards a game they’re giving up. A bunch of weapons. Can’t say enough about their freshman receiver, #10, (Malachi) Toney, what a good football player he is.

Quarterback’s got a lot of weapons around him. Offensive line’s big and does a really good job in pass protection, clean pockets.

Defensively, probably the best defensive line we’ll see all year when you look at all four starters, four NFL guys. I think they’re nickel, (Keionte) Scott, #0, really good football player, leading tackler, good blitzer, good man-to-man guy, drops well in zone coverage, does a lot for them as a football team. Their boundary safety does a lot for them in the run game. They kind of interchange who’s blitzing and who’s fitting the runs out of their secondary, but you see #0 and #8 (Jakobe Thomas) a lot making plays in the box.

Rueben Bain Jr. and (Akheem) Mesidor, the two ends, they do a good job moving them around on third down and creating some protection things.

We’re going to have to play like we did last week, play a really good football game, play together, not beat ourselves, and we need to play better on the road. As a team, we’ve played much better at home this season than we have on the road, so we need to be able to take what we did last week on the road and play against a really good football team.

You mentioned their defensive ends, but from your perspective, what has been the play like for Teague Andersen and Jacarrius Peak? What has their play been like? What have your tackles been like this year?

Yeah, I mean, they’ve played the whole season. They’ve been really consistent. I think Jaccarius has had a really good season for us. Really one game that, you know, he probably could have played better in, Virginia Tech. Outside of that, I think he’s been really good, and, you know, Teague battled some injuries early, played through them. He’s a tough kid, and he’s gotten better and better and better as the season’s gone on. I think there’s a lot of confidence right now with those guys, and they know what they’ve not done well. They’ve worked hard at it in these bye weeks that we’ve had, and I think early on there’s a lot of different guys in and out of the game at guard, and those guys have gotten better, which helps your tackles. You know, when there’s chemistry with who you’re playing next to. So, you know, it’s going to be a great matchup.

I mean, those are two great defensive ends, and I love how hard our tackles play, how invested they are, how coachable they are. So I know they’re excited about the opportunity to play against those two guys. They’re really good players for them.

When you started recruiting CJ (Bailey) out of high school, what did you see in him, and what did you hope he could do for this program, and how has he lived up to those hopes?

Well, he was a winner in high school, two-time state champion, had great control of their offense, accurate passer. Obviously, with his size, you knew he’d be able to build a bigger frame than he had at that time, but we knew he would develop, and he’s a winner. Bringing that kind of spirit and belief about who he is and the players that we thought would want to play with him.

I think he’s doing a great job. He’s a 19-year-old kid that plays his butt off. The scramble he had at the end of that game shows his heart, how tough he is, jumping over the top of some guys on a critical third down to extend our possession there and keep the ball away from them in the final five minutes. He’s just going to keep getting better and better and better because of how he is, how he lets us coach him and how he works day in and day out.

A few guys told us last week that the win over Georgia Tech really helped to improve the mood around the facility and the building and give everybody an extra pep in their step. Wondering if you’ve seen the same thing, and if that can also translate to practice before another big game and if you can see the level of play raised because of that.

Yeah, I think proof of concept is what last week was. We’ve had quarters and halves this year where we’ve played really good, complimentary football, and we played well. The second half of the Virginia game, the second half of the Wake Forest game. There’s been spurts where we’ve really played well off of each other, set up our offense or our defense with special-teams play. We hadn’t done it for four quarters, and then you get into a game like that and do it.

So proof of concept is a big thing, and it’s what we talked about today in the team meeting. You know what it takes. You know how hard you worked. You know the chip you had on your shoulder, and you can’t let the attaboys and all those things change the process that created the outcome.

That’s really what practice is. It’s a prequel to what Saturday will be. You earn the plays in practice that you’re going to get on Saturday with your work ethic, your precision, your attention to detail, when you make a mistake, correcting it, not repeating it. So I think the way we practiced that whole week and since that week, no question about it, getting a win like that helps.

It helps with the messaging that you’re giving them because the things that we’ve been preaching finally came together. I’m proud of the guys for continuing to believe and fight, and that was a big moment.

I think winning does a lot of things. It improves your mood. You tell the staff and the team that the water even tastes better when you win.

Coming into a bye week off a win like that’s great for their mood, their mental health, and all those things, but football is a what-have-you-done- for-me-lately business, and we understand that. We’ve got another opportunity to go play another ranked opponent, really good team, really good personnel.

You’ve got to lean into the process that gave us that win, and the trick is trying to replicate that when our back was up against the wall going into that game. There wasn’t anybody saying a nice word about anybody around here for weeks, and then all of a sudden, we’re everybody’s favorite coach, favorite friend, player of the week, coach of the week, all that stuff. It’s temporary. It’s what it is, and you’ve got to remember that.

You’ve got to get back to what got you into that position to get the reward, not the accolades. It’s execution. It’s doing the things that are necessary in practice during the week, having player ownership, and getting your teammates to do those things.

The keys to victory are big things. When you look at them on a Monday and a Tuesday and a Wednesday and a Thursday and a Friday and Saturday morning, they need to come to life on game day, and that’s what it is.

It’s a living resume, and it’s a forever record of a performance that you put together based on your work ethic and your attention to detail through the week. So I’m excited for them that they got that taste, and now I’m also on edge with them about, ‘Hey, you’ve got to let the win go just like you let a loss go. We’ve got to get back to how you win a game and remembering what it took to make that happen.

You mentioned the offensive line. Rico Jackson’s played at guard the last two weeks. What’s it been like seeing him step into that spot, and how much have you seen him grow since he showed up a few years ago?

I’m proud of Rico, proud of Kamen Smith. I think those two guys really did a nice job stepping in the last two games, and both of them started and played every snap in two games, and it’s given us a chance to get Anthony Carter and Spike (Sowells Jr.) healthy during that time period, and now you’ve got not just depth, but you’ve got guys you can trust to put in the game.

They’re going to play really well. I know Rico being a Florida native, this is a game that’s meaningful to him, and so really proud of him. He’s grown a ton since he’s gotten here and worked really hard. So it’s great when you see a guy get an opportunity, whether it’s from an injury or because he earned the opportunity by beating somebody out, maximize the opportunity, and I think Rico definitely did that in this last game against Georgia Tech.

Your teams have had a lot of success in November over the past few years. I was wondering if you’ve seen some of the similar traits from those successful teams in this group, and if so, what are those?

Well, I think finish is a big thing in our program, and I’m sure everybody talks about it, but the way we train, the way that we look at our schedule with the guys and how many reps they take. I mean, you can burn them out pretty quick. It’s a long season.

We had eight games without a bye week two years ago. We had seven without a bye week this year, and so you’ve got to be calculated in your volume because it’s a long season. I said what I did multiple times throughout the year, like, there’s a lot of football left, and the month of November is really important. I mean, it’s really important.

You get on a run here at the end of the season, do some really good things, and I definitely see the characteristics. It starts with leadership. You’ve got to have players that want that. They want to finish. It matters to them and it’s said all the time. You’re going to remember what happens in November, and it’s really a month that can change a lot of seats in bowl games and playoff contention, in rankings.

This team’s built for that. They’re built to be finishers. It’s a part of our DNA. We’ve got a tough finishing schedule. You look at Georgia Tech, then Miami, then Florida State and then UNC. It’s a big month for us, big month, big four games and competitive games coming up, and so we need to make sure the team understood that. It’s talked about in everything we do. It’s finish, not to the line, through the line.

If you’re going to run 10 yards, run 11. If you’ve got to do 10 reps, do 11 reps, and everything’s about trying to get one more better than the opponent and what you did the day before.

You’ve played a lot of teams in the ACC. You’ve played nine ACC games here before the season’s over. It seems like the league comes down to one play here, one play there. It’s very balanced across the league. What does that do as a player, as a coach, when you’re in games, knowing going in that one play, one mistake, or one properly executed play could be the difference week after week after week?

Yeah, I mean, it’s a well-coached conference. There’s a lot of parity. The rosters aren’t that different. When you look at us at the beginning of the year, obviously, at the end of the year, the health changes and your rosters are different than when you started the season.

But you’re right, the margin of error for victory is very small, and it’s not just plays you make. It’s mistakes you make in games, and every play matters. Everyone makes this huge deal out of the last play of the game. Sometimes that play is the winning play, and obviously it is. I mean, you’ve seen it across college football, but there’s a lot of plays in the game that can make that ending different, too.

So it’s understanding the value of, you know, the Iowa-Oregon game. There was a punt snapped over the punter’s head early in that football game that cost him two points and ended up losing by one. There’s a lot of plays in the game, man, and every single play that you have right now in the ACC, it’s anybody’s game any Saturday you line it up. You’ve just got to do a really diligent job as coaches and as leaders in the locker room making sure they understand that. I told them that today. We had a shorter practice today, but a chance to get ahead with an install. Their attention to detail, their focus, their demeanor, even though we’re five days out from playing, it matters.

They’re going to earn the opportunity to make plays in practice, and practice doesn’t make perfect, it makes permanent. It makes all these habits that you have, winning habits and losing habits, real through repetition, repetition, repetition, because that’s what football is.

As a coach, you say the same thing to them a hundred times, hoping that finally sinks in, and you run the same plays, the same coverages, the same blitzes until you get it to where it needs to be from a timing standpoint. If they’re going through at half speed or going through the motions, that’s what it’s going to look like on game day. So it takes a mature football player to practice like they’re going to play on Saturday, and you’ve got to really work that.

Does it feel like sometimes the league doesn’t get credit because maybe you guys beat yourselves up a little bit and doesn’t get credit for the kind of football that’s being played in the league?

Yeah, I think there’s this, and I’m not going to get into all the reasons behind that, but there’s a lot of reasons for that. This is a very competitive league from top to bottom. There are no easy outs in this conference, and there hasn’t been since I’ve been in this league. It’s been a long time. You’ve got to show up every week, and you better have your guys ready to play.

For people that know college football, if they studied our league and saw that over the years, how many of these games, top-ranked teams coming in here, going to Wake Forest. I mean, when Clawson’s teams were rolling, they were hard. You know, it’s a tough place to win at.

It’s very competitive, well-balanced, and there is no bottom. These teams that are at the lower half of our conference from a win-loss standpoint, a lot of their losses are one-possession games, and they’re fighting until the end. It’s not a blowout deal like you see in some of these leagues where teams are getting beat by 30 points in the league. You don’t see that in our conference. Very rarely, I should say.

I know you’ll have your word of the week, and this week’s on the graphic, it was Faith. I just wanted to know why that one has significance for this specific matchup or this specific week.

Yeah, it’s going on the road. We knew they’d be a highly-ranked team going into the year. Faith obviously has a lot of meaning in the football world for us. It’s believing in the journey and never flinching in the face of adversity. We know playing on the road in an NFL stadium against a team that has all these accolades, you can’t achieve anything you don’t believe can happen. So, for us, it’s faith in the journey, faith in the plays that are being called, faith in the player, the teammate, the brother that you’re playing with, you know, faith in your key progression, faith in your eye discipline.

There’s so many different places, and then it’s how you handle adversity, you know, the tests that you have in this sport as a coach, as a player. You’re constantly tested.

I said it to them today, who in this room has been through really hard things, and everybody’s hand goes up, you know, all kinds of crazy stuff in their lives, whether it’s injuries or deaths in their family, tragedy, you name it, tough losses. I said, ‘Well, everybody’s still sitting here. You made it through that, and you’re probably tougher and more resilient and a better version of yourself because you faced those adversities and you had faith that you could do so.’ That’s what a football season is. Like, it goes fast, but a billion things happen, and the emotional roller coaster of it all, it’s amazing. These kids are so resilient and tough. It’s that brotherhood, chemistry and that glue that you have as a family that builds that faith.

And it takes time. So I just felt like that was the right place to put it in our 12-game schedule towards the end, and with this being our last road game.

Speaking of road games, sir, I believe this is the fourth one. How do you use Notre Dame, Pittsburgh, and then the good game against Wake Forest, who turns out to be really solid, they’re bowl eligible. How do you use those to your advantage for the Miami game?

Well, each experience is a learning tool and each of those are different games. You take everything you can out of the wins and the losses with the guys. I think the biggest lesson is, you know, you go through Wake Forest, it was two different halves. Notre Dame was two different halves in a different way. We played pretty good on defense in the first half in that game and struggled offensively. I don’t think we played good at all in the Pittsburgh game, so I’m not sure there’s much to take from that one other than don’t do that again, you know. That was about as bad as we could do it as coaches and players, and so that’s one you’d like to forget, not remember.

But I think the beauty of each opportunity you get with each team each week is, what can you take from that? What do you want to repeat, and how did you make that happen? What do you not want to repeat, and how can you fix it? Then go and work together. I mean, that’s what coaching is, is going in there with your guys and, like, ‘This is not good. This is because of me. I didn’t do a good enough job helping you guys here.’ Or, ‘Hey, we coached this. We practiced this 10 times, and then they did it. That should be a dead play, or that should be a big play for us,’ you know. ‘That’s execution, and that’s what you heard me talk about a couple weeks ago like a broken record.’

As a coach, when you design, it’s like a layup. You go in there and shoot layups. The guy probably makes 90 in a row, you know. Layup’s have got to be made, and a layup in football is, ‘Hey, they’re in cover three, and you got a hitch route, you throw the hitch, he’s uncovered, and he drops it.’ These are layup plays. They run a play that we practice over and over and over against the exact front, exact coverage. We’ve got enough guys in the box, and a guy misfits it, doesn’t have his eyes right. Those are plays that shouldn’t happen in a football game, and it’s just eye discipline.

It’s guys taking ownership and doing the right things repetitively, and that happened last week. So you get to take those things you’ve done well and repeat them. You get to really get into the things you have in, and it’s ownership as a coach, as a position coach, a coordinator, and as a player. Trying to get it off the film and create a better version of that the next time out.

You had mentioned that practice going to Georgia Tech was good, and practice last week was good. What was the biggest difference from those two weeks of practice, different than you saw from maybe the previous weeks that didn’t allow it to come together on Saturday?

I think going into Georgia Tech, there was just a lot of anger in this building about playing better, man. Like, people were fed up with it, coaches, players. We wanted to fix it, and we did. What was the magic in that? I’m not sure if I could bottle it up. We’d be undefeated, you know.

But there was a feeling in this building that things got to get fixed, and the players owned it. They talked amongst themselves. They got some things out they needed to about some things they wanted done differently from their teammates and how we were going to proceed, and it happened on the field.

Then you get to take that success and say, ‘Okay, remember what happened, and now we can’t just go back.’ You know, that becomes the standard, and the standard is not going to be lowered because you allow it to. It’s our job to uphold it.

So they took that feeling to the field, and like I told you, we took some time off in there, too, to get some guys back feeling better. They came back from the weekend. Today was our first practice since the bye weekend, and great energy, really, really good enthusiasm.

It was a nice, crisp, cool day. It was the first time we’ve had 40-degree weather for practice, and I was wondering how they’d hold up and how they’d handle that. They were great, guys flying around, having fun. So just keep building off of it.

Before we get done with Georgia Tech, in the postgame, CJ Bailey mentioned the fact that the upcoming game for him against Miami is a big one, but how do you kind of balance the personal feelings that he has about going back home along with trying to keep him in check going into this game, too?

Yeah, I mean, it’ll be some conversations we have, but it’s still, you know, when you put the ball down and that whistle blows, it’s a normal football field in a stadium, and it’s not about where we’re at at that point in time. It’s about how we play.

I get it when you’re from somewhere and you want to play well there, and there’s some personal sauce on that, but he’s a mature kid, and he’s going to understand that the preparation and the practice habits, his eye discipline, understanding what Coach Roper wants him to do, that’s what’s going to make him feel good at the end of that game and give him the results that he wants. You’ve got to take the personal stuff out of it. It’s got to be about how he plays.