NC State head coach Dave Doeren met with the media this afternoon before the Wolfpack hops on a slew of buses at 1pm tomorrow to head to Virginia Tech. Below is a BULLETED breakdown of what he had to say.

• The Game vs. Virginia Tech is full steam ahead.
• Played one game there before, but has never saw the famous entrance with fans. There was lightning pregame.
• Doesn’t know if it’s an advantage with no fans.
  • Obviously not having to deal with crowd noise as an offense is something that helps you.

On pay cuts for coaching staff due to COVID-19…

• No one ever likes losing income that you thought you were going to get, but it’s a time where the school needs us to help, and we understand the pandemic and what it’s created fiscally for NC State.
  • A lot of people out there don’t even have jobs because of their situation.
  • That’s the biggest thing I look at, is that we have a job.
  • We have a great place to work.
  • We’re not going to make what we thought we were, but we still have the same opportunity. It’s a chance for us to help out our university in a time of need.
• There aren’t any layoffs that I’m aware of, but there’s a lot of salary cuts and furloughs. The biggest message we’ve given is just that this is the right thing to do for the school.
• For the people that are getting hit the hardest, it’s hard.
  • We are all just trying to do the best we can right now to encourage each other and get through this thing, and hope that things get better once we get through this fiscal year.

Not knowing who will be out there for VT…

• 2020 has been a year of uncertainty. It is kind of what you’re used to at this point.
• Would it be great to know who is going to be out there? Yeah, it would, but that’s not where we are at.
• We’ve talked a lot about things that they might do, but we also know that there’s going to be things that they do we weren’t ready for.

VT Offensive Scheme…

• They run their Quarterback a lot. A lot of plus-one runs, where there’s one extra blocker involved.
• They have their misdirection to pieces and jets that create things on the edge.
• They have a vertical component
• Can power and counter with their quarterbacks and running backs.
• It’s like option football when it comes to how you defend them.

Drake Thomas…

• Really pleased with how Drake played.
• He’s excited.
• He’s excited about it.

QB’s…

• Both quarterbacks had a good week in practice. Excited for both of them.
• I can’t tell you if both of them will get snaps.
• The game is going to play out the way it plays out.
• They’re both ready to play. I’m pleased with how they’ve both prepared this week

Travel plans…

• Leave tomorrow around 1pm.
• Eight busses.
• 10 players per bus.
  • Normally seats 50.
  • One player in a row of 2 seats, then an empty row in between them.
  • Contact tracing eliminator the way we’re bussing.
    • We test in the morning, and won’t get results until we’re probably already up there.
    • Want to make sure we eliminate the impact of that, if that were to happen.
    •  A couple coaches on each bus, so it’s probably 12 people on each bus.
• 5 a.m. arrival time coming back home.
  • Going to be a long night. Hopefully it’s a bus ride home that we are celebrating on.

Freshmen playing vs. Wake…

• Some that played on special teams.
• On offense and defense, Porter Rooks probably played the most snaps of the true freshmen that we signed.
• Will be more and more as we can continue to practice and develop these guys.
• This year is a zero year for the whole roster, so there isn’t a four-game redshirt thing to worry about right now.
  • Every freshman is going to be a freshman again next year.
  • In this situation we’re just playing the best guys, and you don’t really have to worry about burning a guy’s year because this year doesn’t count on their clock.