Quotes from Dave Doeren's ACC Kickoff press conference
Dave Doeren met with the media Wednesday for the 2022 ACC Kickoff. Here is the transcript of his press conference.
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Q. Over your first five games last year you averaged 166 yards per game on the ground. Over the last seven nowhere close to that, four games where you didn’t even break 100. This despite having two running backs who are now good enough to be in the NFL. Was it because of injuries to the offensive line or was it actually by design?
DAVE DOEREN: I don’t know exactly if I can give you that. I think it’s more about winning, and at that time Devin, was throwing the ball pretty good and Emeka and some of the guys making plays.
Our offense is built to take what we get, but there is a mentality about rushing the football. I do think the loss of Chandler Zavala, which happened in conjunction with what you are talking about, was a bigger loss than probably people thought at the time. He is a very good run blocker for us. Having him and Ickey next to each other presented a pretty good challenge to the defense as we were playing.
Definitely an area we want to improve upon. I know that’s something that that room takes a lot of pride in.
Q. I’m curious, for a coach to have a returning quarterback, to have a player with that level of experience, how does that dictate the pace of how quickly you can install and do things in camp and overall just how big an advantage is it to have experience at that position?
DAVE DOEREN: I think if you look at the Atlantic Division all seven teams have their quarterback returning, so all of us have the same blessing right now. It’s different when you know who that guy is and you like what that guy brings to the table and he is a good leader, and he can not just go out and execute your offense, but in Devin’s case, he is doing different things than he was doing last year and the year before. He is studying defenses. He is not worried about what our plays are or how he runs our plays as much as he is what he can do to help teach those plays to other players and how committee get the guys around him to perform.
So he is in a different place, which makes what’s going on our team different. If you don’t know who your quarterback is, it’s a lot different dynamic. For the entire roster, even the defensive guys. The leadership that comes from his position is paramount.
Q. So in looking at the fact that this is the last time we’re going to see divisions in the ACC, how you’re handling that and looking at that 3-5-5 model and if you have been a proponent for wanting those top two teams in the conference to really be the ones that get to vie for that championship.
DAVE DOEREN: Well, I’m excited about it, Dan. I was one of probably many coaches on our side of the division. As a player, and I’ll use Isaiah as an example. He is a Virginia native. We’re going to play the schools from Virginia twice every 12 years, so he will get to play them one time maybe in his career. For us we play Duke one every six years.
I just don’t like that cycle of playing other teams in your league. Particularly teams that are close that you recruit against where players are going to be on your team and would like to go play back against those other teams.
On top of that I think the best two teams should play each other for the championship game. I think that that’s how it ought to end up. It ought to be settled on the grass, even if it’s a rematch. It ought to be settled on the grass. I like the dynamics of that.
I’m excited about it, and excited to get to play the other teams more often. You just think that’s good for the television. It’s good for the fans, and it’s really good for the players.
Q. Coach, we’ve asked the players this, but in the offseason when all the guys started the run it back hashtag and so many key pieces started to return, what were your thoughts and what did it say about the culture and the guys that are building that so many guys wanted to come back from last year and try to do something special?
DAVE DOEREN: I think it speaks volumes that they want to be a part of it. Several of them could have left that were healthy. Cory Durden, guys like that, and some of them needed to come back because of injury. It doesn’t happen if you don’t have that kind of setup. Not just in the locker room, but with player to coach, coach to player.
I’m very proud of that. I think we’re the only staff in the ACC that had all ten assistants return. We had at one time the fewest number of players in the country in the portal leaving our roster. We had a lot of players return, as you mentioned.
I think all of those things are indicators that it’s a great place not just to play, but to work. I’m very proud of that. It’s not always been that way. It’s taken time not just on my behalf, on the players’ behalf, the coaches’ behalf, the chemistry, getting it right. It’s fun to be a part of that transformation, and very proud of it.
Q. NC State Athletics has been interesting lately: The baseball team in 2021 got removed from the College World Series. The 2022 team was the last team in. The women’s basketball team had their struggles with some things. Last year the football team day before the bowl game got the rug pulled out from playing a bowl out west. Is there more of a chip on the shoulder of this roster just more of an attitude of ready to take control just than other seasons that you’ve had before, and maybe that plays into some of the players coming back, but is this roster particularly looking forward to getting revenge on maybe not playing a bowl last year?
DAVE DOEREN: Yeah. Well, you’re a doom and gloom guy, huh? (Laughter) I mean, damn. That was day of the bowl game, by the way. Not day before. I wish it was day before. We might have found a team to play us.
Yeah, we’ve had some tough things happen, and I think adversity creates opportunities. Nobody likes feeling like you got the raw deal, which several of our teams have probably felt that way.
It’s going to come full circle, and we’re going to be smiling at the end of it, and I believe that whole-heartedly. It’s about how you act and how you respond and who you are with. I’m with three incredible people today that I get to go to work with a great staff and a great locker room, and that’s going to come full circle. It will. I believe that. This is going to be a great time for that to happen.
I know our fan base feels the same way that you talked, that there’s been some bad things for whatever reason. I would love to set the record straight that we want to get that right and see the right things happen. I believe when you do the right things over and over and over, eventually it comes back to you. That’s what we’re going to try to do.
Q. What gets this team over the hump to win an ACC Championship?
DAVE DOEREN: It’s another play. I think any time — we lost two games last year that kept us out of that game to win it. It’s one more play that you have to make. That’s it.
Whether it’s a defensive play, an offensive play, or a special teams play, we lost two one-possession games and had we won either one of those, Wake Forest game we recover an on-side kick right on the 10-yard mark, and replay says we didn’t get it. We make that play, then we probably go score and win that game.
Miami game, there were several plays that prevented us from winning. If any of those plays change, we win that game.
It’s really no different than how we beat Clemson. Devin threw a pass to Devin Carter in the corner of the end zone, and we made a play. That’s how we won that game.
UNC game, Emeka makes a play from Devin. Chris makes an on-side kick recovery, Chris Dunn. Emeka makes another play. That’s how you win football games.
There’s a lot of mistakes that happen on both sides. At the end it’s going to come down to one player making sometimes a routine play that changes the outcome of the game. For us it’s just doing that repetitively. You have to do it in every game you play in the conference.
Q. What do you think about the depth of talent at the quarterback position in this division? Can you also speak to your own quarterback and what your expectations are with Devin?
DAVE DOEREN: I have never seen it. As a head coach in this league where all the seven coaches in the Atlantic had all their starting quarterbacks returning. I think you’re going to see a slugfest. We know. You ask our players, when you play ACC football every week, you’ve got to show up.
It’s a very well-coached league. It’s a tough league. The kids play hard.
Every time you go out there, you have got to earn a victory. And if you are playing a team whose quarterback is not savvy and doesn’t have experience and yours is, you have a great advantage. We don’t have that in any game as far as playing against a nonstarter.
As far as our guy goes, I think his stats speak for themselves as a player. The things he did, taking care of the football, the clutch drives, the two-minute drives, the red zone performances. On top of that, as you get to know Devin, the human being that he is, the teammate that he is, the coachable player that he is, the family person that he is, that’s what makes it fun to coach him.
God blessed him with arm ability, but the family that raised him gave him the opportunity to be the young man that he is. So I’m privileged to coach people like that. It’s not always like that. You don’t always get people that you get to coach that are humble. With him it’s been a great journey, and just look forward to extending it.
Q. Last year you held opponents on third down to a very low success rate. Going into the season, how excited are you knowing that you have some really solid defensive starters coming back? How can you then utilize this to improve what was already a really good opponent third-down percentage?
DAVE DOEREN: Yeah, I think Coach Gibson and the defensive staff present different things that are unique, and our scheme of the 3-3-5 allows us to do a lot of things, to hide things, to bring pressure from different places. It’s simple. It doesn’t seem simple to the teams we’re playing, but to the kids, they can play really fast in that scheme.
How do we get better? To me it’s about creating more fumbles on defense. If we can continue to do what we’ve been doing, stopping people on third down, intercepting the football, the takeaways. When you get more sacks, you usually get more fumbles, and I think just creating more short fields for our offense and that’s the one area, if you look at us statistically, would be getting the ball back through the fumble category more, and that to me happens when you sack the quarterback more. I think that’s where the ball gets fumbled most probably.
We’re going to work hard in this training camp coming up and every single facet of what we do. I know if you asked Isaiah and all the guys, it’s always about getting better. It’s always about raising the bar on our program.
Q. You’ve got all-conference defenders up and down every level, especially in the second level. Got two all-conference linebackers right here. Is this the best defense you’ve had in your time in Raleigh?
DAVE DOEREN: It could be. Last year’s was statistically, and now these guys and all of us have a goal of being better. Like I just said, it’s always about raising the bar. So last year’s defense statistically did a lot of things that we haven’t done, and so now it’s about improving upon those statistics.
Last year’s stats don’t win this year’s games, so we need to go do it and go out there and I think these guys understand that it’s not easy. I mean, every time you go out there, you’re going to have to prove it. You have a circle on you on the calendar now. You know you’re in a little different position. With the notoriety and the stats comes people’s best efforts, right? That’s what we’re up against right now.
Q. You lost Payton Wilson early with an injury. Still had one of the two best defenses in the league. How is Payton? What impact do you expect him to have? With so many players returning, I think you have 10 out of 11, how high is the ceiling for this team defensively?
DAVE DOEREN: It’s interesting because last year there was one towards the end that might have been the bowl game, but we had eight starters out going into the bowl. We played UNC with seven starters out on defense. That says a lot about the guys that stepped in. What Levi did playing for us last year, the way Josh Pierre-Louis stepped up at nickel. Devan Boykin comes in at safety. Each week a new guy came in and just elevated play. C.J. Clark goes down, and we move Cory Durden to nose, and he is all conference. A lot of cool things happened that way.
What that did is create depth for this year because now the guys are back, like Payton, that you mentioned, along with the guys that played all season, like Drake. It built that depth in your roster. Now we can rotate, or if you have a guy out, you feel better about what’s coming in the game.
Payton is 100%. He feels great. He is excited. I’m happy for him. I thought last year would be the last time I coached him, and so I think he’ll tell you that it wasn’t fun going into what he did, but he is in as good of a place as he has been mentally right now, so I’m excited for what he can bring to the field for us this year.
