NC State coach Dave Doeren: ‘We need to practice like we just lost the game’
NC State coach Dave Doeren was “embarrassed” after the Wolfpack’s 24-3 loss at Duke earlier this month. His team had two weeks to learn from it with the bye week before they came out to knock off Clemson 24-17 this past Saturday.
So with Miami on the horizon, Doeren wants his team to prepare the same as they did after the game against the Blue Devils — like they lost.
“I’d like to just learn from what just happened,” Doeren said Monday afternoon. “We need to play like we lost the game. We need to practice like we just lost the game. I think just learning from the outcomes of the weeks that we’ve had, taking the information that we’ve gained through wins and losses, through adversity and success, and building on it. You shouldn’t have to suffer to always learn the right way to do something.”
NC State has had a roller coaster of a season to this point. It won at UConn to open the season before it lost to Notre Dame in Week 2. The Pack followed that with back-to-back wins over VMI and Virginia before it lost to Louisville.
Then came the back-and-forth of the Wolfpack’s results.
NC State posted its most points since 2018 in its 48-41 win over Marshall, but then scored its fewest since 2014 when it lost in Durham.
While Doeren wants the Pack to prepare as if it lost against the Tigers, he did not think the team had a bad week of practices ahead of its “humiliating” loss at Duke. Though that is the case, he is still preaching for them to do what they did after the bye week ahead of the final four games of the season.
“To me, that’s the biggest area, them to look at, ‘Man, I really played well in this game. I played better, I played hard. What happened? I had to go through a humiliating loss and practice a certain way,’” Doeren said. “Well OK, let’s repeat that with a win. That’s the growth. Sometimes it’s hard to get them to strain the way they need to all the time until you get them in a really adverse situation like we were in.”
Doeren said the growth of his team will be taking success and failure and treating it the same when it comes to preparation for each game.
That is not limited to just in game preparation, though. Doeren said he wanted his team to take that mentality into the Clemson contest. If something goes well, do it again. If it does not, move on and not let it affect the team throughout the game.
Top 10
- 1Breaking
Second CFP Top 25
Newest CFP rankings are out
- 2New
Updated CFP Bracket
12-Team playoff bracket after 2nd CFP Top 25
- 3Trending
Diego Pavia
Court denies Vandy QB temporary restraining order against the NCAA
- 4
Nico Iamaleava
Tennessee QB dealing with concussion ahead of Georgia game
- 5
Governor slams LSU
Live tiger defended, LSU Tigers ripped
“Breathe, next play. Let everything else go until you get to the sideline, and just focus on what you can do and not let things compound,” Doeren said. “That’s where it gets hard. You start having negative talk, you start thinking negatively because something might have happened.”
He noted that the Wolfpack will play talented teams, but winning the individual battle will lead to team success.
It worked against Clemson, and now Doeren hopes it works again when the Hurricanes visit Raleigh on Saturday night.
“If you do that more times than they do it, usually the scoreboard is a collection of your wins individually over time. That’s been our focus and it worked for us. I think we’ll stay in that process getting ready for another great team with Miami.”
But as he has looked at his squad, there has been a consistent factor when it comes to adversity: the Pack bounces back. And it does it rather quickly.
Now, he wants NC State to be able to stack wins down the stretch.
“The thing I like about them man, they’re resilient,” Doeren said. “They learn a lot. … We’ve got four games left. I told them it was a five game season. We’re 1-0, and we’re going to put everything we’ve got into this next one.”
