What NC State coach Dave Doeren said after 51-10 loss to Tennessee

CHARLOTTE — Everything No. 24 North Carolina State coach Dave Doeren said after No. 14 Tennessee beat the Wolfpack 51-10 Saturday night in the Duke’s Mayo Classic at Bank of America Stadium:

Opening Statement

“Definitely not what I expected to see from our team. And as the head coach of a team that didn’t play well, I didn’t coach well enough. Obviously we had a really good week of practice, but we needed to play complimentary football in this football game. Which means we possess the ball, we score points. I thought our opening drive was great. Seven-minute drive, eight-minute drive, whatever it was. And we didn’t get points. And then you turn the football over, which we did three times and one of them was a touchdown. You don’t rush the football well, you don’t control the line of scrimmage. You don’t stop people on third and long, it’s hard to win bottom line. And so you give credit to Tennessee. They played a good football game. They were very physical, but we weren’t good enough tonight. 

If this loss to Tennessee makes it feel like the start of last season for NC State

“Yeah, I mean that last season has nothing to do with this season. It’s a different football team. And we just weren’t good enough tonight. Bottom line, we had our chances in that football game, but it got away from us. And in the second half we’re having to go for it all the time, putting our defense in the short field. So it just snowballed as it went. But it’s not last year and we got a lot of work to do. Obviously. Got to get back to it.” 

NC State struggling to run the ball against Tennessee’s defense 

“I’ll have to watch the film to give you details. It looked like we were just getting knocked into the backfield a lot. And I said this all week, their defensive line was our biggest concern, particularly defensive tackles. And we think those guys are really good players and we just did not block them up front the way that we have to, to run the football. And so it was a combination of things and it’s impossible for me to tell you exactly what they were, but I watched the line of scrimmage all night and it wasn’t going our way. It was going their way. 

NC State QB Grayson McCall struggling after the first drive

“Yeah and we were very efficient in the first drive. And that’s what I thought we were going to do was, whether we scored or not, finish every drive with a kick, worst case a punt. Possess the football, keep our defense off the field. I mean, that was our game plan, right? And it was working for a while. We were in the game. And then you know, the pick six and then all of a sudden things just started to kind of unravel and we just never got back into it. Every time we’d make a play, there’d be a penalty. It was really frustrating and not what we expected.”

How he feels they performed against Nico Iamaleava

“He’s a good player. I mean, I thought, you know, against their spread, we defended that very well. I mean, they hurt us on some screens, a little shovel to the running back, on some plays like that. They got into bigger personnel, something they haven’t done a lot on film. There was a lot of 12 personnel, two tight ends, one back tonight with their offense. And so, you know, credit them for changing up. ‘Cause you know, if you watch them, most of their formations you’re gonna see are four-wides or one tight end formations. And so, you know, I thought we did some good things that way, but we did not, as the game went on, stop the run. And we were out there a lot in the second half defensively because of how we played on offense in the second half. 

On Will Brooks’ pick-six

“Yeah, we’re in the red zone, so I mean that flips — we’re gonna get three probably right there at least. Yeah. So it’s a big swing on the scoreboard. It was an RPO and Grayson kept the football, and the tight end was open, but he had a guy in his face, so he jumped over him and just overthrew the ball. He was trying to make a play and just wasn’t accurate on that one.”

On the amount of NC State fans that showed up

“Yeah, it looked good. I mean, there was a lot of red in the stadium and there was a lot of noise for us. I was very happy with our fans. I appreciate them. They sold all our tickets out and we obviously didn’t deliver the game they wanted to watch, but credit to them for showing up and supporting the football team.”

On Grayson McCall being disappointed in his performance

“Oh yeah, he’s very competitive, mad at himself right now. Get back, study it, flush it and move on and he’ll be excited to play the next game. I have great confidence in Grayson and just, you know, sometimes you have games like that as a quarterback and as a head coach. I completely believe in him.”

On how difficult it is to get anything going when you’re constantly backed up on the other side of the field

“No, it’s impossible. I mean, we have a long field on offense and a short field on defense. I mean, against a team like that, that scores like they do. I mean, you can’t win. I mean, you have to play field position football and you have to have sustained drives and you have to get off the field on third and long. Like, that’s how you have a chance to win against teams like that. And we did the opposite. We gave our defense short fields to defend and our offense had long fields and our special teams weren’t good enough. It was a three-phase loss when you look at the game, all the stats, offense, defense, special teams, we lost that game as a team and it’s a lot to improve. I look forward to the opportunity to do it.”

On his message to the team following the game

“I told ’em the same thing I told you. I mean, it wasn’t what I expected to see. They won the line of scrimmage. We weren’t physical enough, we turned the ball over too much, we didn’t get it done. Then it starts with me. I’m the one that sits in there and leads the staff and our game planning and all that. But this is a really good bunch of guys and they will go back to work. I know that. And they’ll stick together. There’ll be a lot of people telling ’em that they’re no good and that’s fine. And inside the building, we gotta do a great job leading and our captains, our leadership council, all that. So it’s a lot of football in front of us.”