NC State coach Dave Doeren has made no secret that the formula for success in the 30-29 road win over No. 24 Pittsburgh Saturday started with the way the team practiced in the week leading up to the game.
Following the Pack's 45-42 win over Wake Forest in the season opener, Doeren felt his team may have gotten ahead of itself in the following week of practice leading up to the 45-24 loss at Virginia Tech in game two. Instead of sulking, the team used the drubbing in Blacksburg as a wakeup call which led to the program's first road victory against a ranked opponent since 2017.
"They've tried to take that same plan, that same approach and we had a good week of practice," Doeren said. "Is it good enough to win? I guess we'll find out this weekend but there definitely wasn't a day where I didn't feel like we weren't competing the way we need to.
"There are things we got to get better at, there are fundamentals, there's technique, there's execution, but the effort, the intensity and understanding of what we're trying to get done out there has been excellent."
Another key factor in arguably one of the biggest wins in the Dave Doeren era was the performance at the quarterback position. In his first start of 2020, redshirt sophomore Devin Leary completed 28 of 44 passes for 336 yards, four touchdowns and no interceptions.
While NC State established in the first two games that its stable of running backs is a clear strength of the offense, the head coach was happy to see the passing game take a step forward as it will make it more challenging for opposing defenses to scheme as long as the Pack can stay multi-dimensional.
"It does give us confidence knowing that we have that ability," Doeren said. "I know our receivers have been waiting for that opportunity because in the first game we were able to run the ball basically whenever we wanted. The balance that we want to have, the ability to use their numbers against them defensively is important for us as this year continues because you don't want to be a team where they're just going to pack the box and say you can't throw and then you can't. It's not going to be a successful team if that's who we are."
In Doeren's Monday press conference, the eighth-year Wolfpack coach mentioned the height of two of Virginia's primary pass-catchers as something the team would be preparing for this week. Virginia's features two 6-foot-7 pass-catchers that rank one and two on the team in yards per reception: freshman wide receiver Lavel Davis Jr. (26.5 YPR) and fifth-year senior tight end Tony Poljan (9.9 YPR).
"Cary Angeline is 6-7, so that's the closest we got," Doeren said. "Chris Toudle, C.J. Riley, when we get one-on-ones against our offense every day, those matchups become very critical. When the game starts, 6-7 is 6-7, you got to do your best and find your ability to jump and be physical with guys like that at the line of scrimmage. That's the one thing when you're playing a longer guy, there is a lot of surface area for you to get your hands on them early."
Doeren added that the height of redshirt sophomore corner Malik Dunlap, who is 6-foot-4, and redshirt freshman corner Shyheim Battle, who is 6-foot-2, should help the Pack contain Virginia's big targets.
"On the perimeter, we're pretty good when it comes to height matchups," Doeren said. "It's more when the safeties are covering that big tight end, which is pretty much how it is every week for a safety. Most of the tight ends in this league are 6-5 so it's kind of what you deal with there. You have to be physical and try to get them off the routes and make quarterbacks make really accurate throws by not just letting people run free."
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