Dave Doeren radio show recap

Here is a recap from this week's Dave Doeren radio show, recorded live on Tuesday on NC State Wolfpack football's Facebook page.

Jeff Gravely brings up how Garrison started his career on the defensive side of the line and how the Wolfpack O-Line coach has been quoted as saying "playing defensive line is like listening to Metallica, offensive line is like listening to elevator music."

•Derrick Eason is transitioning from D-Line to O-Line and Garrison likes what he sees. "He's doing a phenomenal job. I'm really excited about him. He is strong, he's physical, he's got great twitch. It's simple things. I say it's simple, it's really not because as a defensive lineman, you're playing on your toes a lot and as offensive lineman you got to have a functional base that can allow you to run block, pass block, to be able to kick slide, to be able to come off the ball and do all those things. The thing that you can't coach a lot of times is that quick Twitch. They either have it or they don't.

"I'm not looking for those high school linemen that are the big jug butt guys that kind of just push on people. I want people that are quick, get to the second level, can get out and pull. Get out on screens, and he is certainly that guy."

•Grant Gibson has also done a great job of transitioning over from the D-Line said the coach. "It takes some time and he's in the incubator right now, he's getting better. I'm excited to see him play.

•"We're playing seven or eight guys in the game right now and I'd like to play more. That's taken over from what we did in Nebraska, we always played seven or eight guys. We had those guys that were ready to play and we're getting to that point now here."

•Garrison said it was difficult preparing for Virginia Tech in its first game with a new defensive coordinator. "You didn't know what you're going to see. If you had a list of 14-15 run plays that you're going into the game and you got to make sure all those run plays are going to be able to block various fronts, you're guessing a little bit.

•"I thought in the run game we did a nice job with that at times. That was the highlight part of it. And then

•"Unfortunately, fundamentally, we just didn't do a good enough job upfront in pass protection. Fundamentally, just lost some one-on-one matchups and we got to do a better job and it starts with me."

•"We didn't protect the quarterback well and they got hit. We got to protect them. Their decision making and company have to feel comfortable in the pocket and making the right decisions and being able to finish throws. You got to protect the quarterback and we didn't do that, we failed there, we did not accomplish our mission. That was disappointing.

•"When we did run the ball, I thought we were efficient. I thought their strength was their interior for from there Mike linebacker, Will linebacker, their two inside guys. I thought in the run game we matched up really well. We did some good things, we did move some people off the ball. But again we just didn't hold on the pass protection and we got behind early. When you're trying to catch up, obviously we're going to be throwing the ball a little bit more and we didn't protect the quarterback well enough.

•"We just finished goal line today and they do a great job. Pittsburgh defensively gets after it and they have a great pass rush so it's gonna be a great challenge for us. We're looking forward to it. Our guys are excited about it. and we're excited to see how they respond. They responded really well today in practice and looking forward to seeing the matchup."

•"A bus ride after a loss is not much fun." said Doeren.

"When we played the way we did, coached the way we did. Watched the game on the bus ride back, special teams, offense, defense, call back and drove home. Before we even got on the bus we changed our schedule for a return because I knew that the guys wouldn't be worth a lot on Sunday win or lose, so just let them sleep in and get treatment. Academics on Sunday that was it, and then Monday when we brought them all in in the morning watch the film with them and moved on."

•Changed up schedule after late arrival post-game Saturday

•The team took it to heart, not who they want to be. Different than in the past by focusing more oncorrecting the wrong from Saturday.

"Normally we would put the game to bed. The next day, win or lose, celebrate it, critique it or don't celebrate it, and critique it. Typically when we leave the building here on Sunday, it's over and we move on. In this case, it was a 48 hour period of being pissed off. I think the guys really took it to heart and that's not the team that they want to be.

"There's a lot of things that we've got to do better and players and coaches alike thought they came out on the field and coached hard and played hard today, and it's a fun team I'm I've said that all time it is. We've got some things we've got to clean up and fix and get going with but it's a fun group of guys and I really enjoy being one of them."

•The uncertainty impacted the preparation, but Doeren doesn't think that's excusable for the performance.

"All the information or misinformation about who might play or might not play or who might coach or might not coach, I think played into some of the psyche of this game in a bad way for us. I don't think any of that stuff matters. We needed to show up and do what we were supposed to do and didn't. Whether or not our guys read into that, like this isn't going to be the same Virginia Tech, they're not going to be good and that made us not come out and be sharp, I don't know. There was a lot of things flying around like are we even going to play the game. So lesson learned on that deal for our guys.

"We knew going into the game because they hadn't played yet regardless of who showed up on the field that we would have to feel them out with a new defensive coordinator. They were quite a bit different coverage-wise in this game than they had been. They've been a corners team. It's been a lot of cover two, in our game it was a lot of cover one, man free. So a lot of different things there for the quarterback and we just didn't handle it very well."

•Coach admits Virginia Tech came out as electric as the Pack did in its first game. He told the team to expect it.

"I told the team that you know on Wednesday, I said you remember how excited you were last week to finally play, that's how they're going to be so you need to be ready to stand through, fight through that period when it gets back to normal. Unfortunately it just didn't. The first quarter got away from us. From that point on we didn't play great but we fought and got back in the game at 17-7 and then the second half, we played better than we did in the first but wasn't enough."

•Doeren agreed with the hosts that the 23 Hokies players absent may have been overblown as many were not starters, particularly on the line where the biggest difference was Saturday. Mentioned NC State had their own notable absences, particularly on defense.

•Doeren lists stopping the run on defense as his top priority this Saturday against Pitt.

"It starts with stopping the run. 300 yards rushing from the opponent is not going to ever win you a game defensively. I think we've done a nice job with down the field passes, corner position. We had a lot more disruptive plays in game one than game two that we need as a three-three defense. It's all about pressure and angles and disruption and creating takeaways and we did not have that. [Defensive Coordinator] Tony [Gibson] will tell you he needs to mix it up more to help the guys and they need to be more violent in what they're doing and create the disruption that's required in the scheme.

•Agrees that he felt the Pack defense was too reactionary and didn't attack enough.

•"Tanner's a captain. You don't get voted captain if you're not a good player."

•Doeren lists the major absences the defense has missed in the first two games: Payton Wilson, Tanner Ingle, Louis Acceus, Val Martin, Teshaun Smith.

•Notes that it provides opportunities for young guys like Devan Boykin, Joshua Pierre-Louis to step up and get game reps. "There's some young guys that are going through some learning curve right now. And we're gonna feel it while we go through it until we get these other guys back. In some cases we won't." Mentions Acceus and Smith as guys that won't be returning.

•Mentions that Jakeen Harris is improving at safety.

•Adds that it's nice to have Dylan Autenrieth, Dylan Parham, Tyrone Riley and C.J. Riley back from the injury-plagued roster of last season.

•We need both quarterbacks to get better and be confident. Mentions Devin Leary, Bailey Hockman and Ryan Finley. "Whoever is most ready to play will be the starter Saturday."

"There's going to be days no different than a great pitcher that goes out and has a bad day on the mound because he doesn't play well, or he gets sick or he gets hurt. I fully expect in this season to have to play different guys at different positions because of COVID. Look at Notre Dame right now. I mean you just don't know and that's going to be your team. I'm not dodging the question but we need our quarterbacks to all get better and whoever's most ready to play this week will be our starter."

•Coach says he sees the similarities from Ben to his NFL QB brother Ryan Finley. He says the biggest similarity is intelligence, "He's brilliant like his brother, he's got a quick release, he's accurate." Mentioned the biggest difference was in personality.

•Assessing Devin Leary this week:

"I was happy for him, I thought he did a good job in the game, watching what was going on, and taking advantage of his opportunity. That's kind of where it went. When he was clear coming out of the four days that he practiced after the quarantining, he wasn't ready yet. You got to be ready and when the time come show us you're ready and thought he did a good job. He did you some things that he needs to do better that didn't get exposed that could have been had the right defense been called. But he went out and ripped it. I thought he was confident and he moved us up and down the field and got us some touchdowns."

•On how the quarterback change decision was made Saturday

"I talked to the offensive coordinator first. He threw that pick and you could tell he was really down on himself.

"Coming out of that play, I asked Tim Beck, 'What do you want to do' and he said 'Let's give him another drive and see if he can get out of it.' We went three and out the next drive and he's like 'We need to make a change now and give the guys a chance to have a spark here. Had he came out in the next series and got it going, we would have started with him. It's like anything, you want to give a kid a chance to bounce back and if you feel like it's not going to happen today, then you take them out of their misery a little bit and let them kind of regroup and come back when they're ready."

•On Pittsburgh Saturday

"They have a lot of experience, are all kids have been playing for them for three to four years now. They're really good on defense, they're quick. They're physical, they're aggressive and they've got depth.

"Pat Narduzzi and his staff there have done a nice job of recruiting, developing and retaining guys on that side of the ball and keeping them healthy. Now we got to have a great game and have great matchups, a really big challenge for us. When you look at how they play defense and they're getting after people right now. We got to do a really good job of giving our guys the best opportunities best chances in the run game, pass game protections, you name it.

•Difference between Virginia Tech's defense and Pitt's

"They four-man rush with elite defensive linemen. It's not just two ends, they've got defensive tackles that are quick to edge guys as well. They bring six a lot so you're going to be facing a six-man rush.

"They put their DBs in cover zero, basically, for a lot of the game. It's quarters defense but four wides and three-wide sets, it ends up being one on one, so there's a lot of one on one matchups that you got to be able to win and you got to be able to make them play the ball.

"They are pretty well known for pass interference as well and so we've got to go up and try to get footballs and make them make our guys catch it or make them interfere in the process and kind of do a good job finding some runs because our run game, our backs have been a big part of what we can do right now."

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