NC State Wolfpack football head coach Dave Doeren held his postgame press conference following the Pack's 23-13 win over Georiga Tech Saturday.
The Wolfpack (8-3, 7-3 ACC) will now wait to learn of its bowl game destination in late December.
Here is a full transcript of Doeren after the Georgia Tech win:
Opening statement
"I'm very proud of our team. Once again, we showed resiliency. The defense played out of their mind tonight. They were able to put down stops in key plays in key moments, and they're continuing to have to see other guys step in.
"Aydan White played the entire game, Shyheim Battle went down and Taiyon Palmer came in. Tanner [Ingle] got disqualified again, and Duffy had to go in. Payton went out, and Calvin went in. It's just unbelievable.
"To hold them to 13 points I think says a lot. It's been a crazy year, but to break a record these guys are very proud of.
"For Chris Dunn to have his record tonight on a clutch kick to give us a two-possession lead I thought was outstanding.
"I'm just proud to be a part of this football team and these young men and this coaching staff. Looking at where we came from a year ago, we had one ACC win and now we have seven. That's quite a year when you talk about improvement. The beauty of it is, a lot of these guys are back, so it's going to be a fun offseason.
"We look forward to the bowl. I don't have stats, so I can't tell you what's going on that way, but obviously, Emeka Emezie had a big game. Bailey Hockman threw the ball well. To be able to have a playmaker like him come up with the catches that he did and be able to have guys trying to rip his jersey off when they can't cover on, it was pretty awesome for us in the fourth quarter."
After the way last year went, you set out into this offseason with some goals of what you wanted to do in terms of making changes and making additions to your staff and you did all that. How exciting and how gratifying is it for that all to kind of come together the way it has this season?
"The hardest thing you do as a coach is fire somebody on your staff. I went through some tough times last offseason and all the decisions I made weren't because they weren't good coaches.
"I wanted to get a different type of feel in our building, and I wanted the power of positivity to take over. Not just with our kids but with our coaches. The camaraderie and the chemistry, it's what we do for a living, and I wanted to have fun doing it every day. I wanted these players to have fun.
"That doesn't mean we don't work hard here, we do. At the end of it all, it's because we love the game and we love being around each other. That made this year really special to see it all come together the way it did. Particularly when we had to get segregated from each other during the quarantine in the spirng, and the guys just took over.
"Our players with accountability to each other and to their coaches. so we couldn't have done it with without these young men and particularly the leaders on this football team."
On that final drive, a lot of teams in that situation may run the ball just to try to run clock. You guys threw six times on that final drive. What went into that discussion beforehand? Was it just how things have been progressing throughout the game?
"Yeah. We rushed for 88 yards on the night, and we needed to get some first downs. They couldn't cover 86. Bailey was throwing good balls, and we needed to get first downs. It's really just trusting that we were going to make the plays.
"Devin Carter made a couple plays there on the slant route, and we were catching the ball well all night so we trust our wideouts. There was no reason not to trust what was going on in the passing game.
"At that point, we had not run the ball well for a while and just glad we're able to run one at the end to kind of put it away. We had to go with what was working at that point.
Were they doing anything specific to take the run away today?
"I'll need to watch the film, to be honest. They blitzed almost every play. Without seeing how we got plays made on us, I don't want to be wrong. There was a lot of pressure.
"The D-line was slanting and angling with a backer, a safety or a corner. It's why we were able to throw the football. They were in one on one coverage in the back end almost all night."
Would you consider this, considering all the things that went into the season, your best coaching job?
"That's for you guys to decide. I'm just blessed to be here. I'm very proud to coach these young men. I haven't evaluated myself, and I'm just trying to do everything I can to be better every day. So we'll see how that plays out."
You've always talked about their resiliency in close games. Is that a sign of their growth from last season to this season and one of the biggest leaps they've made that late in games when it's tight they found a way and they believe they will find a way pull it out?
"This team has grit, and that's the sixth game that we've now won a one-possession game in this year. There's no flinch. There's no soft. They're hard, they're tough, together.
"There's some things I'd like to say about people faking injuries, but I won't. Our team just finds a way to win."
You've mentioned a few times just how proud you are of this team. Some would have said just playing this season, getting to this point, would have been a win. Considering what happened to Devin, and some of the adversity you guys face, what satisfies you most right now?
"The way that these guys pla and how coachable they are and how much fun they are to be around. It's a joy to coach this football team. There's very few distractions.
"I think we just had our highest team GPA since I've been here as well. It's just a great group of people to be with.
"They truly want to be better. You can coach them hard, you can tell them the truth, and they give you everything they got. It's just fun to be around guys like that."
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