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

Defensive coordinator/linebackers coach Tony Gibson noted that they have not given up many deep balls on offense because the corners have gotten better each week. The depth at safety though has been hurting them, and Gibson said that they were out of defensive backs to put into the game against Pittsburgh. It was a similar situation against Duke.

• Third downs were obviously a huge problem against UNC.

“The sad thing about it was we did it to ourselves,” Gibson added.

He recalled a play where they lost containment, and another when a corner inexplicably played nine yards off the receiver on a third and six when the defense was bringing pressure. Gibson wonders if it might have had something to do with playing UNC, but stresses they will get that fixed.

• The linebackers are a special group, and he noted he has never in his career had three linebackers as productive as sophomore Drake Thomas, redshirt junior Isaiah Moore and redshirt sophomore Payton Wilson have been at times.

He has told the linebackers, while trying not to be too much pressure on them, they have to be dominant for the defense to be at its best.

• In the 3-3-5, you have to be very strong at nose tackle, middle linebacker and strong safety. The productivity tends to go to the weakside linebacker, free safety and nickel. If you are not good at those spots, “You’re going to struggle.”

He adds that about 70 percent of the NFL are in three-down because of the spread out offenses. Gibson joked that he does read all the emails from the fans about how you cannot stop the run with a three-man down front. Gibson contends that when you hit on all cylinders, you can stop the run.

• He noted that when he looked at the stat line after the Duke game, it hit him how productive Wilson had been because it’s hard to notice that sometimes when coaching.

• Gibson’s son Cody is the defensive quality control coach. Last year his son was the quality control coach on offense at Illinois, because Tony Gibson (jokingly) told him whatever you do in coaching don’t go defense.

His son is a newlywed and about to make Tony a grandfather. They had to cut about 100 people off the wedding guest list due to COVID-19.

• Junior nose tackle Alim McNeill gets double-teamed about 90 percent of the snaps. There have even been times where he has been triple-teamed. McNeill has been “very unselfish” with that. Gibson called him a “very strong point” in the defense.

• Before the Virginia game, they emphasized getting the hands up because Cavalier QB Brennan Armstrong because he throws a sidearm, low pass. They thought they could get some interceptions (and they did).

• Against Duke, they had more takeaways in that game than they did in all 12 games last year. Gibson added with a laugh that sophomore safety Jakeen Harris has probably dropped 12 more interceptions himself.

Doeren noted that it has been a grind playing six straight games, most of them on the road. The coaches spent Sunday putting the UNC game to bed, and Monday doing a self-scout. They were able to get out of the office at a good hour to see the family.

Having all five of his family together, wife and three sons (two of which are in college), during the quarantine was a silver lining in the pandemic.

• Took Sunday and Monday as recovery days for the players. They did a lift on Tuesday and also a few meetings. Wednesday will be spent mainly on themselves and some special teams work.

Thursday will be the intro on Miami. Friday will be a good lift before Saturday is off, and then Sunday begin the full game week prep for Miami.

• They are looking forward to getting some of the injured and banged up guys back. Also, they wanted to rest up some of the players that have getting all the snaps. They won’t be tackling full speed Wednesday, but there is a lot of fundamental work that needs to be improved.

• He noted how crazy it’s been this season. Players are going out two weeks in quarantine and then jump right back in.

• Doeren feels they are in a good spot. They would love to have some of the players that are injured to come back, but regardless they have four of five at home and are in as good as position as they can be from a schedule standpoint.

• The plan was to put freshman quarterback Ben Finley in the game in the fourth series against UNC, and that was understood by redshirt junior Bailey Hockman. It just happened that Finley had an 80-yard drive, and then he did it again. After that it started to change and you could see it get a little faster for Finley.

They were still able to see though Finley’s skillset and how good he might become.

• Finley needs to develop physically, and knowing Finley he is going to work really hard at it. Finley was one of the guys that really lost out when they had to be sent home over the summer.

• Finley is actually a really good kicker and has made 50-yard field goals on his own in practice.

• Hockman’s success in the fourth quarter with true freshmen receivers like Christopher Scott Jr. and Anthony Smith was good to see. Doeren stresses Hockman was not taken out of the game because he wasn’t playing well. It was planned, and then they rolled with Finley while he was hot. Hockman handled it well.

• Against UNC, NC State freshman safety Devan Boykin found out what he is going to be like in three years trying to tackle the older UNC running backs. It was an unfortunate matchup at times, yet other missed tackles were just not the right technique.

A lot of things played into missing so many tackles. It was not necessarily UNC out-scheming NC State.

• The two picks for UNC ended up being huge momentum plays. One was a Pack touchdown and the other was to an open receiver but was tipped at the line. Who knows what the game would have been like had they not happened.

• This team sticks together. In the four wins, it was very complementary football. Until the UNC game, Doeren was pleased with how physical they had been. He did not see that against the Heels, and they need to get back to that.

• They’ve always talked about what the identity of the football team was, but when Philip Rivers spoke to the team and said the Pack means being hard, tough and together, Doeren felt that summarized what he views the team to be about perfectly.

• Recruiting is currently calling players on the phone, Zoom, FaceTime, etc. He really feels for the young men trying to make college decisions, which Doeren noted are very adult decisions. Also tough for the coaches who would like to get to know the players better.

Doeren always enjoys going to high school games because it’s a better evaluation in person.

• The current receivers have the same work ethic as the past wideouts like Kelvin Harmon, Stephen Louis and Jakobi Meyers. Emake Emezie and Thayer Thomas are not necessarily the most vocal however. Redshirt sophomore Devin Carter may be the most vocal in the room.

• There were a lot of dropped passes a year ago that were drive killers. They need wide receivers to make contact catches, and they have really improved in that area thus far this season.

• Having a target like the 6-foot-7 Cary Angeline is a nice thing to have in the red zone, and Doeren also notes that offensive coordinator Tim Beck has some nice play calls for him down there.

——

• Talk about it inside The Wolves' Den

• Subscribe to our podcast on iTunes

• Learn more about our print and digital publication, The Wolfpacker

• Follow us on Twitter: @TheWolfpacker

• Like us on Facebook