Full transcript: Dave Doeren's weekly press conference

NC State Wolfpack football head coach Dave Doeren held his weekly press conference Monday, recapping Saturday's 15-14 win over Liberty plus previewing Saturday's scheduled game at Syracuse, a noon kickoff on ACC Network.

Here is the full transcript:

(Note transcript joins opening statement in progress)

“A lot of that stuff happens every play and doesn’t get called, but the things that we can control, the pre-snap type things we have to eliminate. Then the post-snap penalties, we had three at receiver where guys just lost their cool, we got to get rid of those plays. Those are things that we got to do better. If we do then we were scoring points and that game is a lot easier to win.

“We were poor in third down, and tht was again because of the number of third and longs that we put ourselves in. Only 50 percent in the red zone. We had a missed field goal down there. One that I know Chris will rebound from.

On defense, it was a great performance. It was a powerful offense that had scored a lot of points on everyone they played. They were the 12th best rushing offense in the country. We held them to 2.8 yards per carry. The three takeaways against a quarterback that had only thrown one interception, to get three interceptions. Jakeen’s play, Aydan’s play and Isaac Duffy-Webb’s play were all great plays by our guys. They weren’t poorly thrown balls. Those were good plays by our players.

The fourth down red zone stop which took points off the board turned out to be a huge stop for us on defense in that game, and the blocked field goal by Levi to win it.

:I think we frustrated and contained a very agile and talented quarterback. I think the d-line deserves a lot of credit. I thought Alim played his best game in that football game. Daniel Joseph probably played his best game, he was very physical. Savion Jackson was very physical. He made a huge stop. The last third down before the field goal block was a huge play by him.

“C.J. Clark and Terrell Dawkins and Val Martin all played really hard and physical, so it was great job our front. When we asked them to really power rush and try to keep him in the pocket, and except for two or three plays we were able to do that.

“I thought all three of our linebackers affected the game, really all four of them affected the game, in different ways. Isaiah was the most productive he's been in a game. Payton, I thought, fit the run really well, played hard. Drake was very physical on the edge. Levi came in and did some things in pass rush to affect their quarterback and did some nice things in coverage and then obviously blocked the kick and forced two average punts by a really good punter with his punt rush.

“Probably the most improved area was our safety play. I thought Jakeen rebounded from a game that he did not play well in two weeks ago, really improved himself in the deep middle. Made a great play on the sideline, breaking up a pass where we were beat at corner and then had the interception.

“Isaac Duffy-Webb came in. It's great to have Tanner, and then when we lost Tanner to the targeting call, Isaac came in and played really well. It's good to have Tanner back. Obviously, he's got to learn the strike zone. I thought it is a challenging play as a defender when you're hitting an offensive player that's going from a vertical position to the ground, because sometimes you leave the ground as they're lowering the strike zone. That's a tough play, but we've got to be better at where we're aiming and how we're hitting with our head, for him. Obviously he's a physical player, but he needs to play in a way that keeps him in the game.

“I thought our nickel play, Tyler Baker-Williams had three huge pass breakups in the game, which were big plays, one in the red zone, one at the end of the game, when they were an empty.

“Negatives on defense — the seven penalties that were all penalties due to focus and technique. We had three PIs, and all three we hooked them. On the one targeting I've spoke about and then the three hard count plays where our D-line jump offsides in the neutral zone. And those are all things we need to correct. And again, we're just helping them.

“The one most disappointing play in the game, I would say, is they ran a bootleg in the red zone. We practiced it every day. We covered exactly how we wanted to cover it every day, and we busted. We had an eye violation and then giving up a touchdown before the half.

“Our special teams were good in the game. It was a field position game and it was a defensive game. We pinned them inside the 20 two different times, or inside the 10 two different times. I thought Bailey had a great punt with our fourth down punt we used him on, which resulted in the safety the next play by Isaiah.

“I thought Trent Gill was great, with his hangtime direction and operation time and Joe Shimko really snapped the ball well so that we could do that because they did a nice job on one of their punt blocks. It was close. Our operation time got it off.

“But those units have continued to do good things. We're covering punts well. We're covering kickoffs well, and our specialists have done a great job this year. I know Chris will respond. He's a clutch kicker, and I know how mad he was at himself after that one.

“The health of our team is good. We're in a good place, probably better than we were last week at this time. Came out of the game feeling pretty good about that, and again for the fans that came to the game we appreciate the ones that are screaming and cheering us on. Can't thank you enough for the ones that are screaming and being positive and yelling and pulling for our guys. Again, they work really hard.

“I know we all look forward to the day when the stadium is packed again. But until that time, we have one more home game after this one which will be our senior night, and we'd love to get the best crowd we can for that game supporting our kids.

“Now on to our final road game of the year with Syracuse, and a team that's had a lot of injuries. They play fast tempo offense, very multiple. They made the change to the 3-3-5 on defense and running on a lot of blitzes. A lot of movement with their defensive front. They lead the ACC in takeaways with 20 takeaways on defense.

“Offensively, they've had issues a quarterback with the different injuries and guys in and out, so we're going to have to see who plays for them at that spot. They played a lot of different guys there, but their receivers are really impressive. Really good speed, number three and number four, number 14. Their tailback, 34, averages five yards a carry. They have three starters back on the o-line.

“Defensively, you watch the film and there's four or five plays a game where they give up an explosive play that really hurts them. Outside of that, they're playing really well. We've got to do a good job of handling the disruption and the movement. There's a lot of one-on-one coverage, and I really think their corner, number two, is one of the better corners in the ACC. I think he's a really good football player. He's 6-3, doesn't get a lot of balls caught on him, breaks up a lot of passes, and the other corner got a lot of action because of that. He's done a nice job.

“They're playing three safeties that are freshmen, and we're going through that on our team as well. I know how that is, and they're going to continue to get better, but it's tough at times when you're playing young guys like that, and you see that they're athletic.

“We have to do a good job with their front. I think their d-linemen are big, and they're three seniors on their front, so they're experienced players there. I know Coach Babers will have them playing hard. They're always a tough team, when we play them up there, and it's a team that will play hard and have an edge to him.

“Questions.”

You mentioned Tyler Baker-Williams. I know in the preseason you talked a lot about cross training guys. He's played nickel. He's played safety in the absence of Tanner, came here played running back a little bit last year. Can you talk about his role last couple of games and how well he's played, no matter where you guys have asked him to play in secondary?

“He's playing at a really high level. He probably in our training camp was one of the most impressive players on our team. Then he got contact traced twice. We lost him for really 30 days, which hurt him.

“He came back playing the nickel position. And then we had the variety of injuries that we had and through his absence, Josh Pierre-Louis, did some good things for us. We felt like moving Tyler to free safety while we waited on Tanner to return would allow us to get a better lineup, and we did that, as you saw in the Florida State game, the entire game.

“Getting Tanner back has allowed us to move Tyler back into the slot, where he plays the nickel position. He's a versatile guy. He's worked hard at not just building up his size to be a 200-pound kid, but he's very athletic, he's smart. He can do a lot. He can set the edge in a run game. He can blitz. He can play man-to-man. He doesn't panic when the ball gets there, as you see in some of our players where there's some DPIs where we're grabbing guys and we've got them covered. We don't need to do that.

“He's just has come a long way, and I think we recruited him as an athlete. We knew that he was a really good player in high school, didn't know exactly where he would fit. But as he got here and we had him on offense and we obviously had talent in the backfield. We felt like he had a better career and earlier path on the defensive side of the ball.”

Do you think he's coming back around and getting back in shape and into the swing of things?

“Yeah, I think obviously 30 days is a lot. You're going to be rusty and you're not going to be in condition the way you need to be. He needed to get back out there and play, and he's getting better each week and he's practicing well. He competes in practice every day. So all those things are a part of why he's playing the way he is now.”

I'm sure it's a lot more fun to look at what didn't go well and what you can improve after a win than a loss. But specifically with the offense, with Bailey he'd been on such a roll the previous couple games, what did you guys see on film that maybe didn't stand out that night that you said, 'This is not what was, this was what was not working and what we can tweak for this week.'?

“I think you got to give Liberty some credit. They did a nice job in coverage. Our primary reads a lot of times were not there. Were times where he was pressured. Number 11, nice job rushing the passer. Number 10 on some blitzes. So there were times where it was because of them not him. And I think some of that got him a little bit out of rhythm, in the pocket, where he wasn't able to do what he was doing in the previous games.

“He did some good things scrambling, but there's times where he didn't need to, and he could have let some things maybe progress.

“It'll be a good learning opportunity for him. He played against a good defense that, in my opinion, did some good things schematically, and their kids played well. And we didn't respond, obviously by putting ourselves in third and 15. We were in a third and extra a lot in that game, and that's hard for Tim to call plays. It's hard for the quarterback. You're not going to get a play against the defenses that you practiced playing against when it's third and 15, and there was a lot of that in that game that played into what happened.

“We need to do a better job you know as coaches, obviously, to get our players to play more focused in those situations, and as players they got to own that and get it done. I think Bailey will play a lot better. I think our offense is going to be angry this week, to be honest with you. I don't think they played to their ability. They're going to be upset, they're going to practice hard, and I look for them to respond the right way.

Does that help confidence at all? They didn't play the way you want to play offensively, but you still won. They still did enough to win. Can their confidence come from that?

“I think that's the fun part about this team. We've, and I said that to the guys, we still haven't played a game yet we're all three phases clicked the same night or day. We've had games where we've outscored people in one.

“We've had games where special teams kind of carried us and helped both sides of the ball. We've had games where the defense won it for us.

“I think there's confidence now in all three phases that they can do those things, and now it's about putting it all together, and more than anything, eliminating helping the other team. I think that's the one area that we need the most growth in. Because statistically, we're getting better in some areas that are very important areas to win games — turnover margin is a huge area, our special teams is in the top three in almost every category.

“But when you're last in the ACC in penalties, you're making it hard. You're helping the other team. We don't need to help the other team. I think that's an area that it's preached, it's talked about, but on game day we've got to do a better job focusing in those areas and cleaning that up and giving ourselves every opportunity to be the best team we can be.

There's an inspirational quote, the kind of stuff you see on home decor that sold a Bed Bath and Beyond that goes, 'He believed he could, so they did.' That Saturday, along with games like Pitt and Wake Forest your team's made plays at the end that maybe they might not have in previous seasons. Just curious if you're a believer in the power of positivity? And if you think that has been a difference maker down the stretch at times for this team this year?

“Yeah. The power of positivity is something we preach here. I'm not a fan of negativity. I'm not a fan of people that bring up problems without solutions. I don't like guys that sit around and complain. I don't like working with people that do that either.

“I think our job is to try to make the environment we work in fun and a competitive environment, and you do that by hiring people that like being around each other, that love working with kids and we've done that.

“Our players’ jobs is, it's hard because everyone wants to play, and so you have to embrace the role of a teammate. Until you can play you need to help the team win. I think our guys have done a great job of that, and I think the leadership, from me to the coaches, from the coaches to the players and the players to the players has been really good this year.

“We went through a lot in January and February, I've talked about it many times, to help build chemistry and build connection and we did it through competing and connecting with positivity. It's something I really believe in. I've seen it work on this football team, and it's been fun to help instigate the change in that part of our program and help these guys really enjoy the process of developing and getting better.”

I want to ask you about the 3-3-5. Obviously Syracuse is going to be bringing the same base defense as you guys. How does that prepare your offense differently in this game week? Are you more prepared because Hockman and the guys get a better look and have a better idea of what they're going to see?

“I think all the practices we've had against each other, and we do good-on-good work every day, definitely helps our offensive line. I think going into a game like this, had they not seen all the stuff we've shown them, it'd be a much tougher prep.

“There are differences in how Syracuse does things and we do things but the front, and how the things get ID, the pictures that you can see a quarterback with multiple looks in the back end, those things help the offense for sure in preparation, and I'm sure, flip side, will be for Syracuse.

“They get to see that stuff in practice and so maybe we're not as difficult a challenge for them as far as the preparation with it being an unknown. I think both teams have a little bit of an advantage, but it's shared.”

You mentioned that the explosive play has been trouble for them but also run defense has been pretty weak. They have one of the worst run defenses in the conference. So how do you balance that? Saying okay, 'Maybe we should be looking for that big play that they occasionally give up, but also get some reps for Bam and Ricky?'

“We just got to run our system. The explosive plays are going to come if you just do what you're supposed to do.

“For them, there's times where they're stopping a run play over and over and over, and then it pops for 80. I think that skews your statistics. Like I said, if there's two or three explosive runs in the game, and there's 30 runs total, it's probably going to look like you didn’t stop the run all day, well you didn't stop it on three plays. I think you know the explosive piece is a skewing statistic at times when you look at people's statistics overall.

“There's a lot of guys in the box for them. We've got to do a good job of managing the movement and picking up the pressure and breaking tackles that end up being explosive runs. Our receivers have to do a really good job in the perimeter blocking for each other on screens, blocking for the backs to create that second level opportunity, and then in the pass game as well.

“I think their corners are really good. I think those that are two guys that are hard to expose a lot of the explosive pass game has been on the inside against them, but you got to be able to block them to get it off and there's a lot of pressure in the backfield.”

With Aydan's play last week and also his improvement in practice, should we expect to see him on the field more than the next couple games?

“I think that's something that Brian will decide on, Coach Mitchell, through the week, but he's obviously showing us that game day is not too big for him. We're going to practice hard this week. The guys that play the best in practice will play the most in the game, and we'll see how Aydan does.

“I think there's a developmental piece that goes with this with the way that Shy Battle has played. He's been very consistent for us this year. And I think Cecil Powell has gotten better. I think his two PI calls in the game were plays that a lot of times don't get called, but plays he can prevent also just with just hand placement was on the receiver. He's going to get better from that game. He's still a young player in his second year, and Aydan is going to be good.

“We just got to be smart about how we rotate those guys. Syracuse has got some speed. The best part of their offense in my opinion is their skill of wide receiver. I think they've got number three and number four can really run.”

I'm kind of curious, it's been such a crazy year for everybody but we're entering Thanksgiving, you know, what are you most thankful for this year?

“My family first of all. I got a great family, and what Sara does through the season and my sons and how they're working, definitely thankful for them and what I have at home.

“From a work standpoint, just the chemistry of this team. It's been so fun. As hard as it's been with everything that we've dealt with to be with these guys, they're really, really neat group. They're very close, they're fun to be around. They care about each other, they care about their coaches, and it's been, as hard as this year has been, it's been one of the most rewarding years with a group of guys.

“Appreciate the question.

Saturday's game really had a big game feel to it. There was an edge it seemed for both teams and I'm sure Liberty trying to go for a special season had something to do with that. This week's game you're playing a team in which it's not going to be quite as intense or, they've had a difficult season. How do you maintain that edge, and that intensity that you had last week in a game that may set up a little bit differently this week?

“I think our players want to be on a team that they say is a great team. I think it doesn't matter who you play, you need to show up with an edge. It doesn't matter whether we're playing a team with a winning record or losing record, it doesn't matter. If you say you want to be elite, then you want to be better than you were the week before.

“Like I said before, we did a lot of bad stuff in that game. There's things we got to fix. There are things we got to do better. And we need to go out there and do that. Defensively, can we repeat what we did and be better? Offensively, can we get back to what we were doing and finish drives and score touchdowns? Can we as a football team not have penalties that we can prevent?

“There's a lot that should keep us on edge, and trust me I'm going to be all over these guys this week when it comes to that because I see a lot of stuff on film that we can do better. ... We've won some games, because we play really hard, and our kids find a way to win. We've made a lot of those challenging. That's going to be our focus. It doesn't matter what the other team is or who they are, it's how we play when we go on that field.”

What will Thanksgiving Day look like? You guys practice or as the team getting together? Can you maybe explain what's going on on Thanksgiving Day for you guys?

“We'll practice in the morning. We'll have a catered Thanksgiving meal that we bring in. We can't sit in one room and all eat at the same time, unfortunately, due to the way we eat with COVID restrictions, but we will have a meal that these guys can call a Thanksgiving meal. Then we'll cut them loose for the rest of the day. We'll be done around one o'clock, and the kids that are local, that have families they can go home to will, and then we'll be back here 6:30 Friday morning to do our third COVID test before we leave for Syracuse.

“That's kind of how it'll go. Some of the guys probably will just go home and sleep, I would guess.”

Does that kind of worry a little bit, that the facts that the guys will disperse after that you have Thanksgiving?

“No, I mean our guys are, knock on wood, we've been very good at keeping this stuff away since the students left campus. They're around their parents after every game. They see their parents, they go out to dinner. So, not worried about that piece of it as much as we're testing these guys and checking their temperature and talking to them. They understand.

“We're kind of, at this point, in a position of herd immunity, I think, with our team because we've had so many cases and been around each other for so long, but hopefully we can keep it that way.”

PFF had you guys with just five missed tackles against Liberty. How important was that going into that game? Is that something you've noticed as an improvement this year?

“Depends on the game. I think overall yes, it has been improving. And we're not giving up as many explosive plays because of that.

“In that game, yes, it was a huge point of emphasis in the week. They had ton of explosive plays on film and a lot of that are due to a missed tackle somewhere, and it started with their quarterback. Number three the receiver, who's the jitterbug. We worked really hard on that.

“I think it's something that the kids last year, when we came back in January, we showed them how bad we were in some areas. It's a very proud group. They don't want to play certain ways. Obviously in the UNC game we missed enough tackles for the year. We need to continue to get better in our fundamentals and take stuff off a film.”

I hear through the grapevine that the new and improved dome is very loud. What are your expectations might that enter into game?

“I hadn't thought about it without fans being there, I didn't think there'd be much noise so haven't really played into that.

“We'll be in our indoor at times just so we're catching punts with the white roof in there and things like that, but I don't expect crowd noise to be an issue when there's nobody in there. But we'll have to call around and see if it's impacted anybody else.”

It's the music. Have to set up for music blasting.

“Okay. Well our guys liked music so that'll be good.”

On Saturday, Clemson and Florida State got postponed a couple of hours before kickoff and coach Swinney has been pretty vocal about. I was just wondering if you had any close calls season where you went into game day, not sure and as a coach, how do you deal with that reality that you're not sure if a game is going to get played until really the kickoff?

“You know when we flew to Pitt, we didn't have any close calls, but we don't leave town until our results come back. That's why we test so early on Friday. Once we get off our walkthrough we bring the kids in and have lunch and let the guys get rehabbed and then we'll have a position meeting and literally we just hung out until we get a thumbs up. Because I didn't want to get on a plane and find out in flight that we have a problem.

“That's what we've done. We sit around here for a while before we get out of town. And we'll do the same thing this week. We'll sit here until we get the thumbs up to go to Syracuse.

“To answer the second part of your question, it's every day where I have somebody miss. I mean, if a kid has a runny nose they hold him out until he passes the test. This isn't something that all of a sudden on Saturday, you're worried. It's every day that something can happen, and it's just kind of our reality.

“If we were having a run of it on our team, it would probably be a bigger concern, but like I said, since September we've been able to really keep things in house very clean and have no issues, knock on wood. We've been good from that standpoint.”

Had Ickey just been killing it on that play in practice, the throwback on a two-point conversion, and running guys over, has he's scored on it a lot in practice that make you guys want to call that in the situation?

“We've been repping that play for like seven weeks and catches it every time, runs in for a touchdown. It's hard for anyone on defense to think about covering your backside offensive tackle on a sprint out. It was a play we thought we would get.

“Obviously, it was repped, it was worked, but they did a nice job having a guy sitting out there. They were double team in our X-receiver on the two point play, and so when he ran across the field the inside player took it, which hung their cornerback side, and most people don't do that.

“Again, you got to give Liberty credit right there, but yeah it was a play that we thought would work. Ickey looked very athletic on that play. I was looking forward to him scoring and probably worried about a 15-yard celebration penalty after it.”

How did you guys even discover he had the best hands on the team or was the right lineman for that play?

“We've tried it with a couple different people. And he, by far, had the best ball skills of the group, so it's pretty easy decision.”

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