After starting the season 5-0, NC State football has lost two games in a row, to Clemson and Syracuse. The team will look to get back on track against Florida State in its homecoming game this week. Head coach Dave Doeren addressed the media Monday at his weekly news conference to break down the upcoming matchup. Here are some of the highlights.
On the loss to Syracuse: “Obviously disappointed with the outcome of a football game that had a lot of offense in it from both teams. We dug a hole early in the game. I was proud of how our guys battled and fought ourselves out of it. We had the ball with a chance to win the game. Didn’t get it done. I’m proud of the players’ grit and their resolve, the way they continued to fight and show heart. Because of that I know we can win a lot of football games. That’s the one thing that I’m proud of our guys about.”
“I thought [graduate linebacker Germaine Pratt], [junior receiver Kelvin Harmon] and [graduate quarterback Ryan Finley had huge games. They had a lot of big plays. Definitely career bests for Kelvin and Germaine. Two offenses, two senior quarterbacks that were on fire and two defenses that struggled. Obviously we didn’t get off the field on third down and had some pass interference calls that put us in a position of playing catch-up quite a bit in the second half. You get them in three third and 11 plus situations and not getting off the field was hard to overcome.”
On injuries: “We expect all those guys except for [graduate receiver Stephen Louis] to be back. I’m not sure when. I think [redshirt sophomore offensive tackle Justin Witt] and [junior corner Nick McCloud] will be back this week. [Redshirt freshman running back Ricky Person], we’re still waiting to see where he’s at as the week continues but he is progressing and looks good.”
“[Louis] unfortunately will be out for the season. He’s going to have a small surgery to repair a high-ankle sprain. Same thing that James Smith-Williams had and he’s doing great now, so nothing that will limit him for his future but will obviously keep him out for the next six weeks. He’ll remain with our team as a captain and a leader. I know he’ll do everything in his power to return at full strength and I expect him to.”
On Florida State: “Very, very athletic offense when you look at their skill players. It’s what you would expect to see. [Deondre Francois] is a very good quarterback. He has a great deep ball. Their tailbacks are experienced guys; [Cam Akers] is a very good running back. I think the receiver, [Tamorrion Terry], No. 15 is a very good player, very explosive, big, causes concerns. Their tight end, [Tre’ McKitty] is doing a really good job. Their slot receiver, [Nyqwan Murray] makes a lot of players after the catch with their quick plays, their screens and their up-tempo offense.
“Defensively, [they have], without a doubt the best pass-rushing defensive end, with his production, in the league right now in [Brian Burns]. 11.5 TFLs and nine sacks, so you’ve got to know where he is. He’s a really good pass rusher. They’ve got big guys inside, they’ve got quite a few guys they rotate in the middle. They’re athletic in the secondary. They play a lot of man-to-man coverage, a lot of corners coverage. They’re a disruptive front; they’ve forced 11 turnovers. They’ve got 25 sacks, which is three a game. Like every week, you’re playing against a different type of defense, but a good defense for our offense to compete against.”
On the pass defense against Clemson and Syracuse: “I think you have to look at all of it. Any time you lose, you’re going to look at every single thing like ‘Oh my God, that happened.’ And then you look at the game and you’re like, ‘If we get one more stop, don’t have a pass interference, get off the field on third and 11 and we win the game.’ The line of questioning, the line of thinking is different. I look at it like there’s a lot of plays that we’ve got to make and why aren’t we making them, whether you win or lose.”
“We had three freshmen playing in the secondary at one time in that game. And that was a little bit of it. You’ve got Tanner Ingle, true freshman. I guess one of them’s a sophomore in Chris Ingram. So you’re really young against a really good passing offense. That’s part of it. The pass game fundamentals have to improve and that’s something that we have to continue to work hard with the guys. We’re in really good position on some plays. And I think that’s something that happens with young players, instead of playing the ball, they get nervous and they grab an arm of a receiver. That’s something that you see a lot in young defensive backs. As they play more and they get more and more confidence, they start playing the ball better. So we’ve just got to keep working on those techniques and those fundamentals.”
On a possible medical redshirt for Louis: “We’ve called compliance about that. I don’t know if it’s real or not. We won’t for awhile. What I told him was let’s get you healthy. He won’t play this year. This is going to keep him out for the year. He’ll be 100 percent probably sometime in January or February. Whether we get a sixth year for him or not, no idea. We just found out today that he’s having surgery. We just have to see how that goes. And he may not want that; he may be ready to move on. We haven’t had that discussion. I just wanted to make sure that he was ok mentally and that he felt good about his plan, which doctors he’s going to go to. All those kind of things for him.”
On getting a lead and running a balanced offense: “It helps because you can be balanced. The last two games we were down by a bunch in the first quarter. I thought [offensive coordinator Eliah Drinkwitz] did a good job of not getting in the two-minute offense too early. He kept running our offense, moving the ball down the field in different schemes. We weren’t just all of the sudden in four-wides throwing it every snap. But to be a balanced team, to have play actions and boots that can come off your run game, it’s hard when you’re down 21 to be in that mood.”
“Throwing the football 40 to 50 times isn’t ideal but we had a chance to win that football game doing that. We were scoring points. A couple drives we settled for field goals. Those were drives that you look and if we could have got a touchdown here, obviously that changes the outcome of the game.”
On senior leadership after two losses: “The guys are good. This is a great group of guys. That’s the first thing. And I told the guys that after the game and again when we met yesterday. They deserve to win the game; they’re such good guys. And they care so much about the school and this football team. Let’s get back to what we do. It’s a 1-0 [mentality]. This is the first of five that we have left. Let’s focus on in on that mentality.”
“What can we do to make a few more plays and what can we do to score a few more touchdowns. What can we do to get a little bit more pressure; what can we do to help in coverage. Taking it that as coaches it’s our job to help them and as players it’s their job to execute. That’s one of the things that we do. I think our guys understand it. They all understood that they battled themselves back from a tough spot to a winning position and didn’t finish the game. All of them would have loved to have had that comeback win, there’s no doubt. But I don’t think there’s anything but leadership going on right now in our locker room.”
On graduate linebacker Germaine Pratt’s performance: “I thought he was everywhere. His tackling, his pressure when he did rush, his coverage; it’s unfortunate that he had an interception called back too because that was a great play and that would have helped us. But he really had a great game.”
On playing good teams in ACC play: “I told them the other day, and I didn’t mention top 25, I just said I think we’ve beaten two really good ACC teams and we’ve lost to two good ACC teams. And we’ve got five games left. Where we go from here is how we handle each week of the season. At the end of the year you can look back and be proud of what you’ve accomplished or disappointed. You don’t want regret as a football player as the window to play, whether you’re a senior or a freshman and you’re one play all the time from not having this game.”
“So that’s what we talked about, and I think they understand they’ve played some good football teams, but we expect to win every game. That’s our mentality. We want to prepare to win; we want to practice the right way so we have the opportunity to win. And then go out there and make the plays. So that’s the approach and guys have done a good job being resilient.”
