Head Coach Dave Doeren met with the media today for his weekly press conference before NC State’s Homecoming matchup vs. Clemson. You can watch the video here, or check out a bulleted breakdown below.

• Looking forward to playing a home game.
  • It’s been a month
• Excited for homecoming night.
• Night game opportunity against a tremendous football team.
  • It’s what you play for, to play against such well-coached good team, and to do it at home in a night environment at the Carter.
  • It’s been awesome to have those types of games. Look forward to having one.
  • I know will have a tremendous crowd.
• Excited just to get back on the grass with the guys.
• As everyone knows we’re injured and we’re young.
• Going through some challenges, but I love the challenge, and love when my back’s up against the wall.
• Our guys aren’t going to flinch. They’re going to fight, and we’re going to fight as a program to get better.
  • That’s the biggest thing for us.
  • It’s not who we play. It’s what we do to get better every day. That’s what we have to focus on regardless of where we’re at with our injury report.
• It’s really fundamentals. It’s executing 11 guys at the same time.
• You turn on the film, there’s lots of plays where you’re 1 guy away.
  • It’s catching. It’s blocking. It’s finishing 1 more step on a block. Getting your hand inside vs. outside. How you leverage the football. How you tackle. Basic football fundamentals.

Clemson…

• When you’re playing a team that’s done what Clemson’s done.
• I can go through their statistics, but you all know where they’re at.
• Really good job on both sides of football.
• Well-coached…good players.
• We just got to go out there and be the best that we can be with what we do.

Young Linebackers…

• Early in the season, fatigue was an issue for Payton Wilson, but as the season’s gone on, his production has increased.
  • So he’s a guy that’s making a lot more plays than other guys, and his stamina has improved.
  • That’s allowed us to play him more.
• Wilson and Drake Thomas, played their best game last week (Wake Forest). Both very active, physical, good spirit about them.
• Also thought C.J. Hart did some good things when he had his opportunity.
• The young linebacker corps has banked reps.
  • They have been able to play in every game.
  • You see growth when that happens.
  • That’s the value of that of staying healthy.

Devin Leary…

• The thing you like, other than how well he can throw football, is just how competitive, how into it, how coachable, the conversations that you’re able to have with him.
• The mistakes that he makes are going to happen. You don’t want them to happen, but this was his first start.
• He made some really good throws.
  • He had a great corner ball throw to Cary Angeline on the sideline.
• He missed an easy out route throw, which he’s thrown a million times in practice.
• Just need to get him consistent.
• They did a good job sitting on some routes, which probably made him a little bit nervous on some throws.
  • He’s just got to learn how to get through that.
• I think that game is going to be a huge piece for him to grow from.
• I just like how he comes to work every day. He’s not ever in a panic.
• There’s a lot of things to be excited about.
  • Obviously, not excited that you throw a deep ball down the middle of the field with the post safety there.
  • Things that he can’t do.
  • The receivers got to try to break that up for him when that happens, but he’s going to grow a lot from that game.
• He’s going to get another team that wants to blitz every snap this week. So another opportunity.

On if the plan is for Leary to start the rest of the year…

• I can’t give you 100% on anything in life right now.
  • I would love to say that he’s going to grow and get better and better and better.
  • I think he’s worked himself into the place that he’s at for a reason, and he’s our starting quarterback right now and look forward to helping them continue to get better.

Optimism about the future…

• We’re playing the 2nd most number of freshmen in the country.
  • Drake Thomas is getting better.
  • You’re seeing Peyton Wilson get better.
  • You’re seeing Josh Harris, Savion Jackson…you’re seeing Bam Knight.
  • I thought Jordan Houston ran as hard as he’s ran in that game that we just played.
  • That’s exciting.
• It’s painful right now, because we’re not getting to enjoy the improvement, but it’s exciting.
• I’ve been through this. We went through it here when Bradley Chubb and Jerod Fernandez and all those guys were freshmen.
  • It was painful. It was a pain. They all ended up being really good players for us because they went through it.
• You don’t walk on hot coals and come out of it with nothing burned on your feet.
  • It’s going to hurt for a while, but I’m very optimistic. I’m going to remain that way.
• We recruited 2 really good classes back-to-back that are being forced into not just playing time, but very important roles on our football team.
  • We have 4 seniors listed on the 2-deep on our entire roster, so they’re being asked to lead and play.
  • That’s unique, but it’s awesome for the future of our program.

Creating 0 turnovers in ACC play…

• Thanks for bringing that up.
• I wish I could tell you why.
• When you watch the film, you’re seeing some really good hits.
  • Seeing guys put their face on the football.
  • You’re seeing guys punching, ripping at the football.
• We had a couple balls batted in the air Saturday, that didn’t bounce to us.
• We practice that skill set daily.
  • We work it…preach it…talk about it.
• I don’t know what else to say other than it just hasn’t happened yet.
• Some of it is we’re not making enough plays on the ball.
  • Not just picks, but PBUs. We need to have more of those as well.
  • It’ll come eventually. It’s how it works.

Similarities between this team and 2016, when almost beat Clemson…

• That team was a lot different than this team.
• We were playing with a bunch of Sophomores that were really good players.
  • Chubb and those guys.
• We didn’t have 11 starters injured for the season that year.
  • We were able to get better and better, and finished winning three of four games that year.
• I’ve had a different starting lineup for 8 straight weeks.
• So it’s not even close to that type of team. It’s not.
• The thing that’s similar is that we had a very talented young group of guys on that roster.

Did the running game improve against Wake…

• In some ways it did.
• It’s really hard when you’re down 21-0 to all of a sudden just run for 200 yards, but when we ran the ball we ran efficiently.
• Were 4.5 yards a carry in the game.
• There were some explosive runs, and I thought Jordan Houston did some really good things.
• Bam Knight was only in there for 9 snaps, so he didn’t get a chance.
  • Houston and Trent Pennix both had some good runs in the game.