NC State coach Dave Doeren is willing to shake up the lineup against Northern Illinois at 12 p.m. Saturday at Carter-Finley Stadium.
That is the response to the Wolfpack losing 59-35 at Clemson this past Saturday, in a game that was essentially over after the first quarter.
Opening statement:
“So recapping the game with Clemson. Frustrating performance to say the least. Not much you can say when you're out-played and out-coached the way that we were. As I said after the game, I take everything that happens on that football field personally, and I feel the same frustration that I know a lot of our fans do and our players do.
"When you watch the film, there's several guys that are playing really hard, and there's several guys that aren't. So, a lot of positions are being evaluated. A lot of people are being challenged. It's going to be a competitive week. There's going to be positions that are going to change, and that's what competitive depth does.
“Guys have to understand the value and the honor that it is to be out there in the red and white. It's going to be a fun week of practice. I'm excited about going out, challenging guys, challenging each other, not throwing anyone away. Our job is to get players better and get them to play at a high level. So far, we haven't done that as well as we'd like, obviously, with a 2-2 record.
“I do believe in the grit of this University, believe in the grit of our staff, the discipline and the toughness that it takes to go through, you know, humiliating loss. It is what it is. You get up and you fight. And that's what you have is a coach that's going to fight. And as long as I'm breathing, I'm going to fight my [butt] off, and I'm going to get these kids to do the same.
“When you lose the turnover margin in a football game, bad things happen. We were minus-three, two turnovers in the first quarter, which is the opposite of how you play well at Clemson or at any good team stadium.
“We needed to stop the run. We did not. We did not set edges. We did not turn the ball back the way that we need to, which puts other players in bad positions. We didn't tackle well. We didn't make plays on the ball, period, you know, on that side of the football. That's not what we're used to doing on defense. That's been a calling card for us. Nobody's more frustrated and upset about it than [defensive coordinator] Coach [Tony] Gibson and his staff. I know they'll get it fixed.
"The players on that side of the ball need to do what it takes to get it fixed as well. It's an us thing. It's not a them. It's us. When you win, team wins. When you lose, your team loses. It always will be with me, we, us, and ours. It is something you can fix, and you can fix it two ways. You go out on the field and you work really hard at the fundamentals of what it's supposed to look like on both sides of the football and special teams. Defensively, it's setting edges. It's executing calls.
"It's communicating at a high level. It's destroying blocks and tackling and executing with technique and playing with confidence, playing competitive coverage, coverage and pass rush working together. Defensive players' responsibility and value to the team is always how close they are to the football at the end of the play.
"It's playing with maximum effort and urgency to get there like you're the only guy on the field that could make that play. For years, I've seen that, and we didn't see it Saturday. We got to get back to playing that kind of ball on that side.
"Offensively, we can't put our defense at risk. When you give them a short field to play on, it's tough to play good defense. We did that twice in the first quarter, once on a fumble, well, two fumbles — once on a pass rush fumble and once on a play where [sophomore wide receiver] KC [Kevin Concepcion] was straining to get extra yards and needs to protect the ball.
“I am encouraged by our run game. It's the fourth game in a row that our offensive line, tight ends and backs have gotten better in the run game. We created rushing lanes. Our guys blocked hard on the perimeter. We averaged 4.8 yards a carry, 4.1 in the first half when they were playing their starters, but 4.8 on the game. Up front, we did a good job, picking up blitzes and stunts in the run game and creating lanes. I thought our perimeter blocking was exceptional at times.
"C.J. [Bailey] couldn't ask for a tougher start for a freshman quarterback on the road with the crowd noise against a good football team that traditionally blitzes and stunts and changes coverage like Clemson does. I thought C.J. handled himself very well in his first start. It was a tough assignment. He managed the crowd noise.
"We didn't have any penalties. I've been down there with veteran quarterbacks that, you had delay of games. You had false starts. The line couldn't hear the quarterback, and none of that happened. He did a great job from that standpoint. He managed the clock. He had poise, and when things didn't go well, he responded and came right back in with confidence and made some good throws. A throw he made on the deep out, on the sprint out over the top of coverage was a beautiful pass.
"He gave us some chances on some deep balls where we ended up getting three DPIs [defensive pass interference], and he'll get a lot better from that game. I'm proud of C.J. Also, he's got areas he's got to clean up, and there's things that he can do better, and those are the things we'll work on with him.
"I was really disappointed in [senior left tackle] Anthony Belton's response. You know, things happen on the piles, and all kinds of things happen in piles. We all know as players, and Anthony knows as a player, the guy that responds and retaliates is always the one that gets penalized, and a tough lesson for him.
"He put strain on our team and got ejected from the game for it, and he's learning a tough lesson. He won't start in this football game [against Northern Illinois], and that's just not what we do. He'll learn from that, and he'll grow from that, and choices have consequences. That's something that he'll have to learn from and prove himself and come back from it and be better for it. That's not a representation of him. He's a great young man that made a bad mistake, and he'll pay for it.
"Our hope is he'll grow from it and get better. Things get heated, and you've got to respond, not react. Take that second. Take a breath.
"On special teams, I felt like we're better in some areas. I thought our return game, [redshirt junior] Jalen Coit averaged 13 yards per return, did some great things catching the football.
"Their punter sprayed it around, and none of those punts hit the ground, saved us a lot of field position. [Redshirt sophomore kicker] Kanoah [Vinesett] missed a field goal that we had a high snap on. Our long snapper has to put it on the money every time, so that our operation is smooth. I thought our punts were inconsistent. We can be better there. Our coverage units did a nice job. The one punt return they had, we had 3.2-second hang time, and we're trying to have four-plus second hang time. That puts your coverage at risk, and so all these things tie together.
“Now on to Northern Illinois, obviously, a team I have history with and great respect for. Had two great seasons there. I have a lot of fond memories of DeKalb [Illinois] and the folks there, and some of them still work there. It's a great place, and I think [coach] Thomas Hammock, their head coach, has done a really good job building a tough football team.
"They're going to come in here and run the football. That's what they do. A lot of long-edge runs, multiple tight end sets, motions. They got a really good running back. Obviously, they went to Notre Dame and won two games ago. They had a bye week after that, but it was an impressive win on the road.
"It's a program that takes a lot of pride in beating Power Four football teams, and I was a part of that experience while I was there. Obviously, we'll spend time educating our team on that. This game is a lot about us. We have to respond the right way. We have eight games in this season remaining, a lot of football on the table. A lot of things that we can do better, and I look forward to the opportunity to do that. It's time, in NC State fashion come together and fight. We understand what we need to do and how we need to do it, and that's where our focus will go.
“Our team leaders have to do a great job, and the players under them have to support them and play hard with them, take strain off of them. It's an opportunity to face adversity and fight harder as a team, and it's a challenge I'm excited to face.
"I told the team this. I'm built for stuff like this. Man, I love adversity. I love obstacles, and I'm going to battle and fight, and your team's going to fight. I would ask our fans, as frustrated as they are, to fight with us. And there's a lot of fair-weather people and bandwagon people out there in the world these days, and the Wolfpack needs to be the version that's not that way.
"I watched it last year with our team, and then it came back the right way. I watched it with our basketball team. Like, this needs to be a group of people that supports these kids because they're going to fight. Having people behind you cheering for you helps. Trust me, all that enthusiasm, passion and spirit makes our stadium a hard place to play. We share your frustration in a big way when we don't play well and know that nobody's more disappointed than I am when that happens. You're going to get our best, and it's going to be a dogfight and that's a good football team coming here to play us this week.
“Challenge laid, challenge accepted. I look forward to the challenge and the opportunity to help these young men become better, and our staff needs to do a great job making that happen.”
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