NC State head coach Dave Doeren met with the media today for his weekly press conference before this Saturday’s game on the road at West Virginia. You can watch the video here, or check out a BULLETED breakdown below.

Western Carolina thoughts…

• Our guys were physical. Attacked line of scrimmage
• Took care of areas we really emphasized.
• They didn’t cross the 50-yard line
• The way the defense is playing, amount of kids playing, the passion & effort…that’s fun to watch. It’s fun to coach.
• As the game went on we settled down at quarterback.
  • That 2-minute drive at the end of the half was really good by Matt McKay.
• Special Teams improved…besides 2 kicks out of bounds.

West Virginia…

• Get to play in a great stadium.
• Very storied program we know a lot about.
• Know their roster pretty well
• New coaching staff, but played Troy a couple of years ago.
  • I have a lot of respect for Neal, his coaching staff, and what he was able to do at Troy.
• Excited to take this young team on the road and see how our offense can handle the crowd noise.
• They’ve been a successful football team. Last 3 years they’ve been really, really good.
• Lost a lot of talent to the NFL
• Lost their coaching staff.
• Young & inexperienced roster, but a team used to winning.
• They are still trying to feel their way out. It takes some time as a coaching staff and locker room to figure things out
• Doesn’t mean they are a bad football team.
  • They are not. They have good players. They are fast. Their DBs will hit you. Expect a really, really good football team to show up against us.

McKay’s struggle with the deep ball…

• We went through it with Jacoby Brissett in his 1st year. Struggled with down the field accuracy.
• Ryan Finley will tell you his biggest improvements were down the field accuracy over the course of his career.
• That’s just part of it.
• Practice is different than games.
  • How juiced up they are.
  • Ball will go a little too far (example: pass to Thayer Thomas)
• McKay’s also thrown some good deep balls.
  • He hit a wide open guy and sometimes a wide open guy is harder to hit than a covered guy.
  • He hit Cary down the sideline.
  • He’s done a really good job on some of his passes coming off play-action. That’s 1 area I’ve been impressed with him.
  • I thought the throw to Devin Carter was a really good throw.
• Early in the game…threw a fade ball to Emeka Emezie and the ball was out of bounds. Didn’t even get a chance to make a play.
  • Just working on those types of things. It will come. The good thing is it (deep ball) hasn’t been bad in practice. We just have to get it to carry over to the game.

Nick McCloud not on the depth chart…

• Just not ready yet. He’ll be back, he’s just not ready.

Running Back Rotation…

• Don’t think it will be a hot-hand thing.
• They all give us things and are all good players.
• Strengths in different areas. Have to use those strengths.
• That’s our job, to find ways to get them the football, keep them fresh, healthy, and let them play.
• Those guys are playmakers. We have to keep feeding them the football.

Playing in a hostile environment…

• At home, it’s easy as a QB when things don’t go well. You can go to the bench with your fans behind you.
• It won’t be like that.
• I told Matt McKay the other day they’ll probably learn some new words they haven’t heard, and to just smile with people yelling at you.
• Nothing more rewarding than going into another stadium and playing really, really well.
• Big thing is communication and making sure you don’t have a lot of pre-snap penalties.

Cecil Powell playing both ways…

• Had 3 players that played both ways at Kansas. Familiar with doing that.
• Cecil’s another guy who can add things to the offense without having to totally flip him, because he will be a really good defensive back.
  • With Nick McCloud hurt on defense we’re trying to get Cecil ready at corner, as well.
• You saw him on the 1st punt run by their team and get down there 5 yards before everyone else. He can fly. He can really run.
• It gives us another guy who can stretch the field
• After losing C.J. Riley we felt like he could help us there.

Freshman…

• They will grow as their confidence grows. Have really good ability.
• The freshman class isn’t a group I’d call rep guys. They pick football up very fast.
• Most of them come from really good programs where they were well-coached.
  • You’re not starting from scratch like you are in some cases.
• Each time they are out there they get more confident & comfortable. If there are injuries where you have to plug them in as full-time players, they now have their feet wet.

Jordan Houston almost broke it loose twice…

• Shoe-string tackled a couple of times. Something for him to get better at. Has to get better at that, but he plays at a different speed..
• It’s like watching Nyheim Hines sometimes. His acceleration is really, really impressive. He gets to top speed in a hurry.