Dave Doeren weekly press conference video and transcript

The home opener for NC State is Saturday against Charleston Southern from the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS). Prior to the matchup, head coach Dave Doeren met with the media to discuss the program’s season-opening win over East Carolina, health update and more.

Video and transcript highlights of Doeren’s weekly press conference are provided below.

Watch Dave Doeren’s press conference

Dave Doeren press conference opening statement transcript

Dave Doeren: “Starting with the recap of the ECU game.

“Definitely excited we came out of the game with the win and 50 percent of the country is now sitting there with 1 loss. And I’m happy that we’re not one of those teams.

“In a lot of ways it didn’t feel like a win, obviously because of our second half performance. I do think it’s a blessing in my opinion to have a chance to learn such a great lesson but not have a loss next year your record to do it. Definitely a lesson in humility for our players and to not have to suffer a loss.

“I thought ECU competed their butts off and their staff and coach [Mike] Houston and their players deserve a lot of credit for how they played in the second half, and just programmatically how he’s developed their roster. It’s a good football team, and you have to give them credit.

“I thought for us, the game couldn’t have started any better. You’re on the road. You’re dealing with crowd noise, we win the toss. Go out there on defense on the second play the game Tyler Baker-Williams has a great interception, but we didn’t play complementary football. It’s something I preach and something our players understand, but we played uncomplementary football, really for the entire game.

“What I mean by that is every time we swung momentum in our favor — we had two takeaways on defense we got zero points after the takeaways with the two interceptions by Shy Battle and Tyler Baker-Williams. Had a fourth down stop, which led to no points. Special teams punt return by Thayer [Thomas] that got across the 50 and led to no points. We punted the ball inside the one-yard line and let them off the goal line with a missed tackle and then they flip the field to the 15. Offensively, we get down to the goal line twice and get zero points.

“So, we just didn’t play off of each other and as many times as we tried to set the other side of the ball up, we didn’t capitalize and it’s very difficult to win a game when you play that way. And to me, we won the game for a couple of reasons. I think our special teams, I’m not going to say it was exceptional in every phase, it wasn’t, but it was exceptional in the punt return, punt block area and that was a huge part of winning that football game.

“The field position, we had 177 yards of hidden field position in that game. We started our field position in plus 30 range from the goal line so you know with about 67 yards of field position to score. A lot of their drives, as you saw in the game, started inside the 20, whether it was us tackling them inside the 20 or punting them inside the 10. And so the field position was a factor in the game and big factor.

“I think the goal line stand was probably, the goal line series back to back, were the most frustrating things to me. Felt like we had two plays called that would have scored and the ball was stopped by the official on both of them, which was kind of weird in its own right with neither of them being a penalty. So we had to run nine plays, but there’s really seven plays. Those of you guys that know football you really don’t have that many. You don’t get that many people down there that close to the line of scrimmage. So that’s an area that we got to grow and learn from and be better.

“Bright side is we won that football game and a lot of things happened that were positive. I can tell you this. I’ve been on the other side of that. We played South Carolina in one of our openers. We had 500 yards to their 250 yards, and it felt like we killed them and lost the game. Lost at Clemson on the missed field goal where we forced five turnovers in the game and felt like we manhandled them on the field and lost the game. It’s a bad feeling, and I’ve been there. So, to be on the other side of that, I’m not going to apologize for winning a game on the road.

“And there’s no such thing as an ugly win. Nobody discredits you for winning a football game at the end of the season in any form or fashion. And I will say that ECU is a really good program, and those guys are going to be an exceptional team this year in their league. And I think it’s a great experience that will help our team and our staff. Playing from the ranked position, playing from the favored position, something that’s new to our guys, something that they’re going to have to learn to embrace and be better, understanding we’ve been the team that’s kind of, ‘Hey, we got nothing to lose. Nobody thinks we can win,’ all that.

“Now it’s the other way around, and you do get your opponent’s best shot each week, and saying that was a very valuable lesson. It’s nothing that we hadn’t already discussed and talked about. But as you guys know, some of you are parents, sometimes things just have to happen to the younger people for them to believe what you’re saying, and in this case, that was what it was.

“Offensively, just breaking down the game. The positives: our offensive line protected well. We had zero sacks given up. We performed well on third and long, which is not easy to do against a defense like that. I thought our tailbacks ran hard and protected well. Obviously, you’d like to not turn the ball over with Jordan [Houston’s] fumble. But Demie Sumo for his first game really showed.

“You’ve heard me talk a lot about him. Showed why we’re excited about him and his future. He’s a hard guy to tackle. He’s tough. Both him and Jordan I thought ran hard and had between the two of them had over 70 yards after contact gained.

“I love the end the half, first half drive, went down and scored with Thayer [Thomas]. A lot of guys played for the first time really significant time on offense with Demie Sum, Cedric Seabrough, Kam Walker, Darryl Jones first time for us, Julian Gray, Jalen Coit on special teams, Keyon Lesane and that film is going to be so valuable for them, getting out there and playing.

“I thought Darryl Jones really did some good things. It’s good to see him out there. He’s a very complete player. I think Thayer had one of his, another just kind of ho-hum game maybe for people out there, but I thought he played exceptionally well. He’s worked hard on becoming a blocker as well as a route runner and catcher returner and he’s improved so much in that area.

“I thought Tim McKay on the offensive line shined some physical things, led us in pancakes in the game, it was good to see this good rotation going on between him and [Bryson] Speas at tackle and Derrick Eason also came in and provided some good depth and played well at right guard.

“With Trent Pennix’s injury, it’s a nonsurgical injury. He will be out four to six weeks. He’ll be back this season. Just depends on the healing process, but I’m not going to get into the details of what it is. It is good news that he’s not out for the season and he will be back with us and it’s nonsurgical, so thankful for that.

“The negatives on offense, we had five penalties. Four of them were pre-snap, preventable penalties. I thought we started slow. Very disappointed that we didn’t take advantage of the first interception of the game and the first drive of the second half. I think we wasted two opportunities to build the scoreboard a little bit there, not to mention the two goal line drives.

“I think we’re better at finishing blocks than we were in that game on the perimeter. We need to do a better job. We’re getting bodies on bodies but not finishing. I think Devin Leary did some really good things at times and then forced some things that he didn’t need to and just needs to get back to taking what the defense gives him and letting his guys make plays for him.

“On defense, very positive to get two interceptions. Thought we responded well twice. We had three what we call sudden changes were the other teams coming on the field with some momentum due to a turnover or special teams play and twice we forced punts out of those three.

“Really liked the way Savion [Jackson] and Davin Vann played. I thought they were physical. I thought they knocked the line of scrimmage back and made it hard to run the football. CJ Clark being back out there is a positive. That game is going to build a lot of confidence for him. And we had four three and outs. We had no pre snap penalties on defense. We worked hard they were big hard count team, got a lot of teams last year to jump offsides on defense, so that was a positive.

“Our negatives, I don’t think we handled the quarterback run game with scrambles and the draw the way we could have. We missed way too many tackles. Maybe a record for us for miss tackles in the game, and I take the blame for that. We didn’t tackle enough in training camp, obviously.

“Trying to get these guys to get to the first game healthy, and that was a success. But at the same time, it didn’t feel like we did the things that we routinely do as tacklers. It is a defense that was top five in the nation for fewest missed tackles a year ago, and a lot of those kids are playing. So, they’re capable. We need to get back to that, the fundamentals of that. Very important fundamentals for that side of the football. Are probably the most important fundamental.

“I think the busted red zone coverage on Derrek Pitts was disappointing. Experienced player, had his eyes in the backfield on play action.

“Payton [Wilson’s] MRI came back completely clean. That’s just going to be time. He’s sore, but there’s nothing that’s damaged as far as the shoulder goes other than he’s sore. Hasn’t played football in over a year that way. So, we’re going to give him a chance and it’s a day-to-day recovery. I don’t know more than that. Time is really the biggest thing but the positive is it’s not a season ending. It’s not a surgical type repair. He just needs time to kind of rest up on it a little bit.

“On special teams the bright spot of the game to me was the punt return, punt blocks unit. Jasiah Provillon getting out there and blocking a punt that Sean Brown scores on was a huge play. Awesome play by him. Good design by Coach [Todd] Goebbel. We’ve now scored a touchdown on special teams in five straight games, which is remarkable. And Todd Goebbel has done an incredible job with these units and getting these guys to play that way.

“It’s the first time on the field returning kicks for Julian Gray and we’re excited about what he can do. I think he’ll play better and will start slowing down for him. I thought he handled the ball well back there. He made good decisions. Thayer had a great punt return. The blocking was really good. There was opportunities to clip guys and guys make good decisions.

“First game for Shane McDonough. I thought he held very well. His punts were good, not great. I think his hangtime can get better. He knows that. But his pin punt was exceptional in the game, and I thought he got better as the game went on. And our coverage will only improve as our hangtime does and it was great to have Joe Shimko and Chris Dunn in the way they are.

“Moving on to this week. It’s great to come home to Carter-Finley and 12;30 kick. We haven’t had a noon game in a long time. So, asking folks to start their day early. Get up and get the tailgate set up the night before if they need to, come into the parking lots fired up and ready to watch these young men compete. This game is all about us. We play Charleston Southern, but to me it’s a game regardless of who our opponent is, we need to focus on improving not just as offense, defense or special teams, as I just talked, but more importantly individually and collectively. There’s no way to get better that I know of than actually playing a game and having video to watch yourself as a player. Your resume’s your film as a player.

“And having that opportunity now to study what you did, know that your opponents are studying what you did, and doing everything you can to take your mistakes off of film and improve on the things that you want to improve on. It’s going be a great week. I can’t wait to get on the field and help these guys work with our coaches and give the kids the best chance they can to go play a better football game for four quarters.

“I know Charleston Southern will come in here with nothing to lose and give us a great game and play hard and look forward to getting our team better and moving forward with another opportunity to grow and learn. It’s a long season.

“As you saw in the first week of college football a lot of crazy stuff happening. Every game seems like drama, and last night’s game of Florida State and LSU is no different. Incredible football games happening. The highs and lows and the road that goes it’s million things happen in a short period of time. It’s awesome to be on this journey with this team and the staff. So look forward to the next step.”

Q&A transcript

That the first week of the season. You guys weren’t the only ones that had tough time. Is it just the nature of that first game of the season that can get things going a little bit sideways?

Dave Doeren: “Thinking about it obviously a lot since the game, and I didn’t count the days, but we hadn’t played a real football game since UNC because of the bowl. It’s been a long time and some of the guys that were playing are returning from injuries and had been out five months longer than that, some of them. Obviously, there’s going to be some growing pains with that much of a break between that game and the last game.

“I don’t know if it’s necessarily the first game, or it is. I think for us it was. For some other teams that had the opportunity to play a bowl, everyone’s teams are a little different. But there’s new faces every year and new teams and you have for us a new place in college football, being ranked in the preseason, having expectations, how to handle them, playing a team that has gotten a lot better that we hadn’t played in a while. Hadn’t played an environment like that against them and had a lot of things that were positive about what was happening down there.

“I think for our team, if it’s a place you play every year, every other year, like when we go play in a loud stadium like at Florida State or at Clemson, you’re ready for it.

“We can talk about it all we want but like I said earlier, I think that’s the youth that you deal with. I mean the 18- to 22-year-old mind sometimes doesn’t see things the way that a 50, 60-year old mind can see things. They got to experience it. It was a great experience. There’s lots of positives and lots of negatives and great opportunity to grow from both.”

Payton’s been through so much adversity with injuries. Although he’s a little banged up, just how thrilled are you that his season is still intact? And then, I know it is day to day, but do you feel good about him playing week two? Or do you think it’s gonna be more of a rest week for him? 

Dave Doeren: “Well, to start with your comments, yeah, I mean, the guy’s been through so much— the knees, the shoulders. And he is one of the most elite competitive spirits that I’ve ever coached, the way that he looks at the game, and the warriors mentality he has for playing the game, the physicality that he likes to play the game with. He’s a lot different, more different than other people, and not to say other people don’t compete hard and all that, they do, but he’s a warrior, so it hurts him not to be able to play the game the way he wants to play it, I think, too. 

“And so as far as when he’ll be back, I don’t know. I’m not going to rush that. I want him to be at peace and ready and feel like he’s not worried, let him tell me when he’s ready to go and the doctors and the trainers. But the good news is it’s not a surgical injury, it’s not a long term thing probably. He was in my office a little bit ago, and he’s not in a sling, he’s walking around normal, all that kind of good stuff, so it makes your heart feel good that way for him. But we’ll just have to be patient and not rush the process.”

When you went back and looked at the game video, the goal line offense in the fourth quarter, what were the biggest issues that you saw there? I know those whistles that happened that disjointed things, but what were some of the issues you spotted in not being able to push the ball in?

Dave Doeren: “There’s a lot of issues. They put a lot of people at the line of scrimmage, we had to block. At times, you’ve got to run over a guy to get in. We didn’t do that. We didn’t get enough movement. There wasn’t one person, there were different plays, each play somebody different. It’s tough, because the quarterback sneak we called would have scored and they blew it dead, so that changes things a little bit. The one play action pass we ran, I think Devin could have thrown to Jordan Houston. I think we would have scored on that, and he chose to throw it away because he didn’t want to create a turnover, possibly. But, I think, if he would have gotten that off, we probably would have scored on that play, just comes down to executing. 

“We were under center and in the shotgun, we did both. But clearly, as coaches, we can do a better job. I mean, you can second guess every call that doesn’t work as a coach just like you guys second guess us. We do the same thing. What could we have done differently? What could we do better? It’s going to be really good film, and we’ve got to make sure that we’re putting ourselves in the best position to get points on the board. You get to the one, in my career, I’ve never had something like that, where I had seven plays on two different drives and not gotten any points, so definitely was disappointing.” 

Dave, can you elaborate a little bit more on the missed tackles? I mean, obviously, you guys have a veteran team. Camp, I imagine that’s probably one of the reasons maybe you didn’t tackle as much because you have a veteran team, and how will this maybe change your thinking moving forward?

Dave Doeren: We did tackle. We had two full scrimmages like we always do. Some of the guys that had played a lot of reps, like the Isaiah Moore’s and the Tanner Ingle’s, we didn’t play the entire scrimmages for obvious reasons. We wanted to get guys more reps that hadn’t gotten game reps. And I do think that that hurt Tanner. Watching him tackle, he was not himself. He’s a much better tackler than he showed in that game, and I think he’s inspired to show everybody that too. I think he’ll tell you he was as embarrassed as anybody watching himself miss those tackles. He’s one of the best tacklers in college football when he’s doing things like he normally does. Yeah, I think it’s just time between this competition and the last.

“It’s a balancing act, man. I mean, you guys know how many players I’ve had hurt in the last couple of years, and so we were very cautious and probably too cautious, like I said, to make sure that we had everybody healthy for game one, and we did, so it was mission accomplished. The price we paid maybe was not having enough contact that you know, would have made us a little better. I think I would still go with what happened. I think I’d still rather have a healthy team in the opener, you know, I just need to study it getting into next year, a year from now, and maybe some ways we can be a little better there going into the opener with our tackling obviously. 

“[We] maybe missed more tackles in game one than we did in three games last year combined. So it’s an area we’ve got to improve. And you guys remember how we played a year ago and we played against Louisville and teams like that. They had great athletes in open spaces, and we were capable of making a lot of the plays we didn’t make Saturday. So that won’t sit well with our D-staff. It won’t sit well with our defensive kids, and they will get out and fix it.”

Coach, you mentioned earlier how great Demie played. I mean, he had 14 carries. It’s not like he didn’t touch the ball or anything. But, with the way he played and the elusiveness that he shows, I mean, plans to get him the ball even more to kind of show what he can do?

Dave Doeren: “Yeah, I think so. I think him and Jordan will still rotate in there. I think both of them played well, other than Jordans fumble. Both averaged over four yards-per-carry, both ran hard, both broke tackles, both made people miss, both caught the football. And as you know, it’s a long season, and it’s not a one-player position anymore. Those guys need to have a rotation to stay healthy. But yeah, I think, last week, it was probably two to one and [it will] probably be a little more balanced on reps between those two guys. 

“But we like both of them, and we think both of them are really good football players, and they’re well-rounded guys, and they’re tough. And so [I am] excited about that room. I know, there were a lot of questions about who our running backs were going to be and how they were going to play, and I think there’s probably a little bit of excitement about that position now coming out of that first game.”

Dave, you’ve mentioned in the past analytics playing a role in some decisions you’ve made. I know, you went for the touchdown right there at the goal line with 10 minutes to go. Is that a gut feel, analytics? What led to that decision for you?

Dave Doeren: The analytics tell you to go for it inside the three every time because, if you don’t get it, you’re giving the ball back to them in a position you should be able to hold them in and get the ball back in good field position again. And your odds of scoring on fourth-and-one are very high, so it’s just a position that you don’t take for granted. And, you talked about odds and odds of getting seven points are very high, you’re going to take those odds. I also believe, as a head coach, you have to show trust to your line, man, you may get a fourth and one on the goal line and don’t go for it, I mean, if I was an offensive lineman, and my head coach did that to me, I wouldn’t be very happy. 

“That’s just not how I look at things. I need to give those guys a chance to earn it. We didn’t. So they owe me one, and they know it. And that’s kind of where we are, I think I’m not a cautious guy when it comes to going for things. I didn’t get to be a head coach, as young as I was by being cautious as a coach. We’re going to be aggressive in this program, and sometimes it’s not going to work. Not everything’s a guarantee but, when it comes to trust and who you are, and sticking with your vision and trusting your guys, I’m going to be that kind of coach. And, if it doesn’t work, at least I’m going down swinging.”

The reason I asked is you had the 10-point game against Wake in 2018, Miami 2020. So just getting to 10 was that, I mean, obviously, you’re not playing for 10 at that point, right, too much game left?

Dave Doeren: “You’d love to have a two-possession lead, there’s no doubt about it. And maybe, if the game was in the final three minutes, it would be a little bit different conversation, but, with how much time was on the clock, to say that that’s going to end the game, it’s not. There’s just too much time on the clock. Again, the odds tell you to go for it. I don’t know if any of you guys like to gamble, but you’re gonna take your odds when you have them most times and you’re going to go with who you are. If you’re a cautious guy, you probably make a cautious decision. I’m not.”

Along those lines as well, I mean, do you need to score those points too? Do you need show points? Is it down to that nowadays for you? Obviously, you guys got bigger things down the road, but do you want to see your team have a bigger win? And is that fair in the whole grand scheme of things right now?

Dave Doeren: “I’m not sure what you mean by that.”

Just to have more points scored and have a bigger win against an opponent and look how that will look on your resume as you’re moving forward.

Dave Doeren: “That’s the last thing I was thinking about when I’m making a decision in the middle of a game. Trying to win a game, going with the things that you know, things that you trust, the things that you think are important for your program, so yeah I’m not thinking about what they’re going to decide in November because we scored 20 instead of 22.”

Looking forward to this week, having Jack Chambers on the team, does that offer any competitive advantage?

Dave Doeren: “I could see why you would think that. I’m going to be honest, this week is not about Jack Chambers and his time at that school. It’s not about that school. Because of how we played this week, I don’t care if we’re playing Clemson or Charleston Southern. This week is about us being the best us we can be. We did not showcase that in week one. I think our players will tell you, they’re embarrassed. As coaches, it was not the product we expected. And this game is going to be about getting that done, handling our business and offensively doing the things that we’re capable of doing consistently. And same thing on defense. Same thing on special teams. Same thing with our sideline energy. 

“We need to bring our best to the field, and we need to play the game the way that we know we can play it and that’s what this game is about. The fact that Jack went to school there, it’s a side story I think more than anything, more interested in how we play this football game than any of that.”

Dave, going back to the defensive side of the ball, were you concerned at all about the lack of pressure. I mean, no sacks in this game, did get a few quarterback pressures but didn’t really get into the offensive backfield for ECU quite as much as I’m sure you would like.

Dave Doeren: “We had several opportunities, maybe, not sure. Sacking the quarterback, [is] something what matters as much as forcing him to throw off-time and throw incomplete passes and maybe throw more interceptions because he’s pressured, getting our hands up and tipping more balls. He did get rid of the ball quickly in that game. He did scramble a lot to get away from guys. We did lose contain twice on blitzes that feel like might have been sacks had we not lost contain, so can we be better? Absolutely. 

“I think our rush lane discipline, the distribution we call a pass rush cage, but the distribution of who’s in which lane needs to be more consistent. There’s a lot to get better at when it comes to that. The final getting the sack I know is kind of how you judge pass rush. For us, there’s a lot of other ways pass rush is important, and I completely agree it can be better.”