Dave Doeren discusses Saturday's showdown with Texas Tech

NC State football coach Dave Doeren met with the media Thursday for one last time before Saturday’s primetime kickoff against Texas Tech. Doeren talked about his friendship with his Red Raiders counterpart and why experience and depth is important, plus more.

A transcript is provided below.

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On practice this week:

Dave Doeren: “It’s been great. It’s been awesome weather, too, so that’s helped with the speed we’ve had to practice at because of the no huddle offense. Guys are excited, excited to play a night game at home, excited to play against a Big 12 opponent that has the same record as we do and obviously they’re coming off a very spirited overtime win as well.

“We know we have a great team coming to town.”

On Texas Tech’s defense:

Dave Doeren: “You look at the 11 starters, 10 of them are either seniors or graduates. So they’re very old, they’re experienced, they’re long. Previous coaching staff, who I know as well, I thought they recruited well.

“Coach McGuire’s done a great job with these guys, but he inherited some nice body types. They’re long. Their d-line’s got a lot of guys that they can play and rotate. Their backers are fast. Both corners are over 6-2.

“It’s a formidable bunch. It’s going to be a great challenge.”

On Texas Tech’s experience being an asset for them on the road:
Dave Doeren: “Anytime you’ve got guys that have been there, done that, it’s going to help. The nerves araen’t going to be the same as for a guy that’s never been on the road playing in a hostile environment.

“They got an experienced football team. This is obviously not the first time they’ve played in front of fans.”

On focus for Devin Leary this week:
Dave Doeren: “Every week it’s based on the defense we’re playing on that things that he’s going to have to focus on. I’m not going to tell what our game plan is. Each week there’s little things that you see on tape with every player on our team. No different than the quarterback, the o-line, the d-line and for Devin.

“There’s certain things he wants to do better and he focuses on those things.”

On the benefit of a 3-3-5 defense vs. an offense like Texas Tech:

Dave Doeren: “I think the 3-3-5 allows you do to more things in coverage because when you play some of these up-tempo spread teams, as you know, there’s more plays in space. It allows you to get more bodies there faster to make those plays and still be able to defend the runs as you’ve seen with our statistics and defense.

“I think this type of offense also years prior to the switch we’d be first or second in the league in rushing defense and eighth or ninth in pass defense. Not because we didn’t have good corners, because they were on their own a lot.

“I just feel like in this you have the ability to help outside when there’s matchups that you worry about against the Clemsons and Louisvilles and such. Florida State always has a draft pick at wideout. Gives you the ability to stop somebody not just with a one-on-one matchup.”

On learning the defense from Tony Gibson:

Dave Doeren: “Yeah, I love to learn. I’m always learning. I’m always studying other people. I watch NFL film at least once a week at night just to try to find new things. That was something back when I was a GA at Drake University. I mean we studied football all the time, and have always carried that with me.

“So, when you bring a new coach in, Tony in this case brought 3-3-5 ideas in. We were 4-2-5 at the time. We were all learning from him, and he was learning from us, and we were trying to blend the two things with the sytesm we had.

“Same thing Joker [Phillips] came in, Tim [Beck] came in, Coach John [Garrison]. There’s always just some new ideas. And it’s not just football. Sometimes it’s how you practice or schedule or off season program.”

On experience helping with an unfamiliar opponent:

Dave Doeren: “The only thing that I can’t do them for these players is make them more experienced. I can do everything else. I can help them get stronger. I can do motivational things with them. I can feed them more better. I can get them more rest. I can do all that, but I can’t give them game reps.

“They’ve got to accumulate that through time. We have a lot of that, so it helps. ‘Hey, this was like this game 2 years ago, remember we played so and so and remember that quarterback and how we kept him in the pocket in that game?’

“So we can have some recall with these guys that is very valuable.”

On value of depth in secondary against Texas Tech:

Dave Doeren: “I think our two-deep, Teshaun’s a fifth-year player, so to have a guy like him, but the guys that you listed on our depth chart as a one or two are the guys that we rotate. We were fortunate last week to get the threes in as well. I really don’t look at that like a normal rotation, I look at the guys that we are playing in the 2-deep.

“When you have the ability in the competition at practice like we do wihere Jakeen Harris gets to go in and speel Tanner, Boykin can go in and spell Cyruis.Those things help your defense, and Teshaun can go in at either corner and help us out there.

“The same thing you see on the o-line. You see Tim McKay coming in and he’s playing his butt off right now. He’s helping the offensive line. He’s making Bryson Speas practice harder because he’s playing so well.

“Depth creates multiple things. It gives you rest, but it also creates competition in practice.”

On importance of Power 5 non-conference game:

Dave Doeren: “They help. I think from a perspective of outside. Obviously it’s a non-conference game, so win or lose it’s not going to dictate the ACC championship for us, but it does help you in the eyes of the voters as you’re trying to move up in the rankings. So games like this are valuable, and it’s good for our league.

“We can leave the conference. Duke beat Northwestern, a Big 10 matchup those things are big for our league when we can get things done on the field.”

On communications with Texas Tech head coach Joey McGuire:

Dave Doeren: “When he got promoted to the job or hired into the job, I hit him up right away congratulating him. Earlier this week he texted me: ‘Hey man, looking forward to seeing you,’ and did the same back.

“He’s a great guy, man, and both of us come from the high school football level to start so there’s a lot of mutual respect. I was just fortunate to recruit his high school in the early stages of my college career. I offered his first Division I athlete, and he was one of the first Division I players to commit to me as a full-time coach. Marcus Herford ended up being a great player at Kansas.

“It was a neat relationship and how it formed and the fact that we’ve been able to carry it forward for 25 years.”

On competing against a friend:

Dave Doeren: “When the game starts, you don’t know who’s on the other side. Obviously there’s a competitive spirit as much as we like each other. I promise you he feels the same way I do, he wants his team to win. So, the friendship’s gone when the game starts and when it’s over it’ll be back on.

“But we’re competitive people in this sport, and when you start playing it’s all about your team winning the football game.”

On getting walk-ons in vs. Charleston Southern:

Dave Doeren: “It’s heartwarming. From a team standpoint I think it builds a morale when guys go in that service the team in practice and that’s all they get out of it other than putting on the uni. I think it’s very good for the team morale.

“I think it’s great for the young men that in 4 years may never get more snaps than that. You just don’t know how many types of games you’re going to be able to play 83 players in, right? It was awesome for all those guys to see Ari Bowles go in there and Clay Craddock going in there, you name it. We got about everybody in. It was fun, and it was a lot of fun for them.”