At his weekly news conference Monday, NC State football head coach Dave Doeren addressed the media on a number of topics including the win over Virginia, Saturday’s game against Boston College, and the team’s No. 23 ranking in the AP poll. Here are some of the highlights.
On the win over Virginia: “I was proud of our football team last week. That was a very good team we played in Virginia. Just going back to that game, it felt like we won the line of scrimmage. It was hard fought. To create 13 plays in their backfield by our defensive front, very disruptive in that game. And they were a disruptive defense. To limit them to only three plays in our [backfield], our four sacks to their zero I thought was a big storyline in the game.
“Obviously the ability to be balanced on offense, averaging 4.5 yards a carry. Limiting them to less than 100 yards rushing, again goes back to the line of scrimmage, our ability to tackle well and our ability to make people miss. … Our backs ran hard, and obviously [freshman running back Ricky Person] created some explosive runs, which we needed. I thought our receiver group really did a good job on some contact catches coming back to the ball and catching some balls that were well contested by their DBs. [Graduate quarterback Ryan Finley] played well, made some clutch throws, got a way with a couple as well that his receivers helped him out on.”
On Boston College: “This team we’re playing this week, Boston College, will be the best team we’ve played. There’s no doubt. Statistically, they’re a very impressive team. And they have great players. They’re very experienced. The nation’s best running back [AJ Dillon]. I think their two defensive ends, [Zach Allen] and [Wyatt Ray] are forces. As a tandem, they’ve got to be one of the best in the country. Watching those two guys disrupt up front, they’re very, very good football players.
“Offensively, they’re scoring 45 points a game and they’re physical. They test your rules and do a lot of things, like they’ve always done, with surface areas, motions and edges. Their quarterback the ball better; their receivers are averaging 17 and 19 yards a catch. They have an excellent returner in their kickoff return and punt return game. It’s going to be a great opportunity and a great challenge.”
On the crowd: “We do need our fan support in this game. We’re playing an offense that’s an up-tempo offense. They rely on their ability to communicate. For us to have crowd noise would be huge for our defense in this game. Asking for that. From our student section, I know it’s fall break, but like I said in my press conference after the game, you guys do make a difference for our football team. We feed off your energy and when we have our stadium the way that it can be it’s a force.”
On freshman running back Ricky Person and the offensive line: “I thought the line and the tight ends did a nice job for all the backs. But there was a lot of yards after contact that Ricky deserves too. We’ve got to continue to get better with our receivers down the field. I know coach McDonald was disappointed with a couple opportunities we had to finish blocks. I think as an offense, that’s one area that we have to continue to work on. We’re getting on people; we’re moving people, but sustaining those blocks where a guy can’t fall off and drag a guy down. Let those 10-yard runs become huge, huge plays. Obviously Ricky was a huge part of that win, that one drive where he had three straight explosive runs was a great momentum drive for us.”
On the defense’s performance: “I think typically, at least in my career, the unit that gets the least talk is the one that’s the most hungry. I think that happened with our defense. I think they listened to everybody talking about the other side of the ball all summer. It made them mad. They wanted to prove something. All they heard about was who’s leaving instead of who’s back. So that’s good for them. You never know how fast things are going to come together.”
On the impact of Nyheim Hines’ NFL production on in-state recruits: “I think anytime you have a player from your team that’s doing well at the next level, and they remember him, that’s going to help you in those conversations.”
On the team’s third-down conversion rate: “There’s a lot of things that go into it. I think coach McDonald and [offensive coordinator Eliah Drinkwitz] sit down and look at our route concepts versus the coverages we expect to come up with a better plan for that game. Our offensive line and running backs, coach Kitchings, coach Ledford sit down and look at the protections in the best way.
“That’s going to be a huge challenge in this one. The best way to make sure we can execute against all the pressure looks we see. They sit down together and go through it. Some of the stuff sticks; some of it doesn’t. In the end, you end up with a handful of things that we think we can really protect and execute against what we’re going to see. Ryan just looks at it, knows what’s coming and delivers the ball in time. That’s really it. The nice part of it is we don’t have a single receiver you can cover. We’ve got a multitude of guys. That makes it hard defensively, because there isn’t a go-to guy on third down.”
On the health of freshman running back Trent Pennix: “He was sore going into the game. And Ricky obviously got hot early and just felt like it was best just to get [Pennix] right. He practiced all week but we didn’t hit him. When you’re playing a team like Virginia that’s very physical, you want to make sure your backs are fresh.”
On entering the AP Top 25: “I think it’ll be more important at the end of the year than it is right now. To me, I don’t even know where they put us, but there’s a bunch of people in front of us still. Our job is to just go earn another opportunity to move up. It doesn’t matter at this point in time what people think about it. We just have to go out there and play against a really good football team, earn where we fit.”
On how the team may respond to the Top 25: “I hope they have a chip on their shoulder. That’s what we need to be about, in my opinion. What people say, whether it’s good or bad, again, after 12 weeks, that’s when it’s going to count. We’ve got to earn where we end up. Where we are right now is because we’re 4-0, and we earned the right to be 4-0. Now let’s go earn the right to be 5-0. That’s all we talk about. That stuff doesn’t matter right now to us.”
On experience being in the Top 25: “It’s not like I sit in there and talk, ‘How do you guys feel today about being this?’ I don’t talk like that with our guys. We talk about winning; we talk about what you’ve got to do to win. We talk about being better at what we do. … All that peripheral stuff, we’ll celebrate it at the end of the year or we won’t. We don’t sit around the table, drink coffee and talk about where we’re ranked.”
On if NC State brings out the best version of Boston College: “You watch BC, year in and out, I think they give a lot of people tough days. They’re averaging 240-some yards rushing a game. It wasn’t like they didn’t play good those years. They’re No. 1 in scoring offense. You have to play pretty good to get to that point. Do we see a good BC team every year? Yeah. So does everybody else. We haven’t seen them play down on film yet. They’re a very good football team; I don’t think they get enough credit for whatever reason. They lead the ACC in explosive plays. Pretty good team.”
On Eagles running back AJ Dillon: “He’s super talented. He’s big; he’s fast. He’s patient. He runs with an attitude. The linemen, obviously, tight ends and receivers create run lanes for him. They feed him. He gets the ball a lot. He gets a lot of opportunities.”
