At his weekly news conference Monday, NC State football head coach Dave Doeren spoke to the media about a number of topics, including last week’s game against Marshall, the upcoming matchup with Virginia, and the former NC State football players playing in the NFL. Here are some of the highlights.
On the win over Marshall: “Just going back to last week, I’m proud of our football team for going on the road and playing well in a tough environment, the crowd noise, the rain, being away from home, the week we had prior team-wise. I thought the guys did a really nice job of getting great focus. I thought our communication on both sides of the football was excellent. To play a football game on the road against a good team on the road like that and do the things that we really preached, winning the turnover margin plus-two. We really played well on first down on both sides of the football. We averaged over six yards per first-down attempt and they averaged three yards. Both sides of the ball set them up for good third downs. Obviously the conversion rate showed that.
“… We were able to limit [Tyre Brady], who’s a really good football player. Obviously I think Nick McCloud played a really good football game, but we also had some good scheme where I thought we changed up coverages well throughout the game on him. We were helping him underneath or over the top. We had 15 explosive plays offensively, three in the run game, 12 in the pass game. Defensively, they had two red zone opportunities and both of them they held them to field goals or less. … Probably the most glaring thing we’ve got to fix is some of the coverage, I thought the hang time on some of the kickoffs was really good. We need to do a better job beating one-on-one blocks with our kickoff coverage.”
On the upcoming game against Virginia: “Offensively, they’ve got a very athletic quarterback. They do a lot of stuff with him in the run game. There’s a lot of window dressing, tight end shifts, motions, personnel all over the field, outside end motions, cross motion, ground motions. A lot of things to try to get your eyes in bad places, our guys have got to be very disciplined defending them with all the formations. I think [Bryce Perkins] is really an electric player at quarterback. [Olamide Zaccheaus] at receiver is a big-play guy, 16 yards per touch. Their running back, [Jordan Ellis] runs really hard. Really good opportunity, really good challenge for us defensively.
“On offense, odd front team. They’ll give you a lot of different looks, they’re unique in how they defend. They’ve got long edge players. I think both of their outside linebackers, [Chris Peace] and [Charles Snowden] are excellent football players for them. They run to the ball well. They’ve done a nice job keeping people out of the end zone; they’re a top-20 defense in total defensive scoring. It’s going to be a great football game. I think you’ve got two teams playing a conference game that are playing good ball. They’re a much-improved football team. I think [head coach Bronco Mendenhall] deserves a lot of credit for what he’s done up there.
“It’s another noon kickoff, so we’ll get our fans up early and just remind them it’s 5 o’clock somewhere. … We don’t get to choose what time the game is, but we get to choose how loud we are and how much fun we have. Hopefully they’ll do that for us; I’m expecting them to. It should be a great day in the stadium.”
On if facing Lamar Jackson prepared NC State for Bryce Perkins: “He’s dynamic like Lamar. Not only with him being able to hurdle people as everybody’s seen but just how fast he gets to top gear. He’s aggressive as a runner. He’s not one of those quarterbacks that just tries to slide. He’s going to get what he can get. He’s a good football player. And they run tough schemes. A lot of the plays are plus-one schemes where they’ve got one more blocker in.
“It’s going to be a great challenge for our guys. We have done well in the past against Lamar and we have not done well in the past against Lamar. We need to put our best plan together. It really comes down to tackling. You’ve got to tackle and you’ve got to get off blocks so that you have extra hats there in case you miss.”
On former NC State defensive linemen getting their first NFL sacks: “I’m excited for them. … I’m really happy for [B.J. Hill and Bradley Chubb]. I’m not surprised at all. They’re going to be very successful, the way they approach the game, the way they work, the way they prepare. And I think it’s a great roadmap for young players. Because that’s what they did, they were owners of the process and being great. They worked hard at it. It was important to them. That’s why they’re successful. That’s something we talk about a lot here. Anytime those guys that have been through this and done it the right way, and they’re continuing to have success. So I think it just adds to it.”
On injured receivers Thayer Thomas and C.J. Riley: “They feel good today but we’re not practicing today. Our trainer said they’re looking good. A lot of it depends on how they progress. In protocol you have to go through all the steps. But today they looked really good.”
On the run game: “I think it was a lot better. I thought we were getting off and knocking the line of scrimmage 3 and 4 yards down the field. I thought our tight ends helped us. [Redshirt sophomore Cary Angeline] was in there straining, [redshirt sophomore Dylan Autenrieth] in there straining. [Senior Reggie Gallaspy] and [freshman Trent Pennix] run hard. We don’t have [Nyheim Hines]. We don’t have that guy that’s going to turn a 5-yard run into a 50-yard run, which helps your stats a lot. It’s going to be more of a slugfest in the run game, which hurts your numbers, but that doesn’t mean it’s not good. I thought we were very effective running the football in that game.”
On the defense going into ACC play: “I’m excited that the kids are just playing the way they are together. The energy that they have is fun to see. I think our back end is playing at a higher level than it did last year. I think our D-line is not as flashy but is doing a really nice job with gap integrity, and they’re playing hard. I do think [graduate linebacker Germaine Pratt] being as healthy as he is has helped us; [freshman linebacker Isaiah Moore] and [sophomore linebacker Louis Acceus] have helped us with their athleticism.
“We have to tackle better in space. I think that’s shown up a couple times outside. We missed three tackles at corner in the game and we missed one at nickel the game before that. That’s always going to be like that, and those are the hardest plays. These space plays against spread offenses, against really good athletes. Anytime you tackle well in space on defense and don’t give up explosive plays you usually play a really good game.”
On keeping everyone happy with so many mouths to feed on offense: “The happiness is in winning. That’s the message. So whatever we’ve got to do to win. It’s one thing if you go out there and lose and your good playmakers don’t touch the ball. That’s a problem. When you’re winning games and scoring points like we are, if it’s Thayer, if it’s Jakobi, if it’s Kelvin and Steph. Nobody cares; let’s win. Not say good players don’t want to touch it; they do. But they understand that if they just do their job, those plays will come.”
