NC State coach Dave Doeren had the ability to reflect back on the 51-10 loss to Tennessee the last two days.
Doeren and the team know the goals of winning an ACC title, which in turn would secure a spot in the college football playoff, and win 10-plus games all are still attainable.
The key is to clean up the areas where the Wolfpack suffered in that the players can control.
Opening statement:
“My favorite thing to do is come to one of these afternoons where I don't play well. We'll start with recognizing 9/11 this week. For those of us that were alive and remember that day, that was a tough week, you know.
“The first responders who acted and served and suffered and so much was lost in that terrific, horrible act. That morning and the day of it, a lot of things in our country changed after that. Also, my father's birthday, passed two years ago. A heavy week of reflection and remembrance, and I want to recognize that.
“In regard to our game with Tennessee, first I want to thank our fan base. You guys were awesome. It was a great showing by our fans. It was an amazing atmosphere, our team and leadership, staff, appreciate your support, and the Duke's Mayo leadership team did a tremendous job. It was a great game-day environment.
“As far as the game, we didn't get it done. You know, it was bottom line. The game plan was to possess the ball, keep their offense on the sideline. Have long, clock-eating drives that ended with a kick, obviously preferably with points. On defense, get off the field on third down, have success in that area and get takeaways. Win the field position battle with special teams and create a four-quarter game.
“You know, 3:54 left in the half, it's 10-3. We intercept the ball. [Safety] Bishop Fitzgerald makes a great play. Kicked the ball on our side of the 50, moved the ball down to the 16-yard line and have a chance to tie the game before half. That play was a huge momentum swing, the pick six by them. We did a poor job responding after that play. From that point on, the game just snowballed. You have to give Tennessee credit where credit is due. They played better than we did, coached better than we did. Our game plan was effective until that play. They did so much to take from the game.
“When you get in a game like that against a team that can score, you can't put your defense on the field on that side of the 50 like we did the entire second half. Too many turnovers, penalties, poor field position, special teams had a part in that as well. Were better than we showed, and that's disappointing. At the same time, it's a great opportunity for our team to grow and use it as an opportunity for that.
“It's definitely a loss in the record books for sure. I was happy with how our team responded yesterday. You could feel their disappointment, staff's disappointment, and at the same time feel their openness for growth and improvement.
“When you have a game like that, it's a loss that you want to use to prevent further losses in the same manner. There's a ton of opportunity to do that. When we win, we all win. When we lose, we all lose. There's no finger-pointing, blaming. Everybody's at fault and it always starts with me.
“I look forward to the opportunity, you know, to grow and to come back and respond the appropriate way with resiliency and grit, which is something that we've always done. The best way to do that is to get back to work. The formula is us. It's improving in a lot of areas. I'm looking forward to fighting the adversity and overcoming the things that we need to overcome as a football team. It's an early loss in the season. There's a lot to play, a lot of football in front of us, 10 games with all of our goals still intact. I look forward to that.
“Our DNA has always been to continue to fight at this University and overcome things. We've got a lot to focus on. It starts with a great week of practice, meetings, game planning, fundamentals, and getting things the way we need to get them before we start conference play. We do that with Louisiana Tech, kind of an interesting game.
“It's our third game. It's only their second. They had a bye week, so we only have one film from the 2024 season of their team [a win over Nicholls].
“They have a lot of new parts. Eight new starters on defense that are transfers. Hired a new defense coordinator that has done a good job in his career at getting the ball back on defense.
“Created a lot of takeaways in their system. It's a 3-3-5 like ours, but very different in their alignments and a lot more zone defense. Keep the ball in front, tackle well, create turnovers.
“Offensively, Coach [Sonny] Combie from the Air Raid tree and spent a lot of time at Texas Tech. Very, very good offensive coach. They've got good personnel.
“I think their running back really jumps off the films, a good runner. We've got to get back to playing our brand of football, and I look forward to that. Our team did come out of the game healthy, and so, you know, we'll have some growth in that way when you're playing the same guys over and over and over, you can get better.
“That's one thing we're going to be able to do. So, look forward to this week.”
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