NC State football wraps up its regular season slate this week with a home tilt against East Carolina at Carter-Finley Stadium, replacing the previously scheduled home game against West Virginia that was cancelled due to Hurricane Florence. Head coach Dave Doeren spoke to the media about the upcoming game Monday.
Here are some of the highlights:
On the win over UNC-Chapel Hill: “It was great to get another win in a rivalry game. Really proud of our players and coaches. It means a lot when you win your in-state rivalry. To do it three straight and nine of the last 11 is very meaningful for our guys and for our program. I’m very happy for our seniors for them to get that win. I’m proud of how the guys battled and made some really marquee plays in key moments. When we needed to make a play, whether it was offense, defense or special teams, guys rose to the occasion.”
On the last home game of the season: “Last game in Carter-Finley for our senior class. I’m asking our fans and our students to be here to support them. What they’ve done programmatically to help our program deserves that. They’ve won more ACC games in the last two years than any team in our conference but Clemson. They’ve done a really good job helping us build this program. This will be our fifth straight bowl game with this senior class. So I would love to see an incredible fan support, a bunch of people out there cheering their butts off for a bunch of guys that play their butts off for you. I’m asking for that and our students to be rowdy as ever. It’s a chance to play an in-state game and a game that obviously was scheduled due to the hurricane, so there is some relief going back to that, which is great from the game ops.”
On the matchup with ECU: “Offensively I think Holton Ahlers is a really good football player, their quarterback. I’m really impressed with him and was in high school too, I recruited him and think a lot of him. I think he’s tough and gritty. They have a receiver that’s a 1,000-yard receiver, [Trevon Brown] and I think Tony Petersen, their offensive coordinator, is very creative with what he does. There’s a lot of formations, a lot of motions, bunches and stacks, a lot of good things that they do formationally.
“Defensively, they play hard. They’re not very big but they’re fast and quick. They’ve got a defensive end, [Nate Harvey] that is a force, 24 tackles for loss and 13.5 sacks which is really impressive on the edge of their defense. They’ve had 97 TFLs and 33 sacks this season, so they’ve made a lot of plays in people’s backfields. For us, it’s about finishing for our seniors and playing better than we did a week ago with that same effort.”
On three players, including starting tackles Justin Witt and Tyler Jones, being suspended for a half for the brawl in the UNC game: “It’s not ideal. Obviously losing your left tackle and right tackle is not ideal. But we’ll find a way and fortunately they’re allowing me to split the suspensions up if I want to so it may be a first-half, second-half deal. We don’t have great depth there but I know our staff will put together a good plan and it’s a next man up opportunity for somebody.”
On the 2016 loss to ECU: “It’s already come about the last time we played them. Our guys, a lot of them were in that game. So that’s already been brought up, not just by me but by them. Most of our talk’s going to be about our seniors. We’ll see where it goes after that but all our focus is on beating ECU and playing as good as we can play. The fact that we didn’t play well there last time I think resonates with our guys. But that’s not how we’ll win the game. It’s just a conversation. We need to not beat ourselves, and that’s really what we did down there last time with 13 penalties and a bunch of turnovers. We just didn’t play good football. The last two weeks have been a lot better in those areas, so we can build on it.”
On redshirt sophomore linebacker Brock Miller’s performance against UNC: “I was really proud of Brock, excited for him. To see him cut it loose and make all those plays in space, he really showed some athletic ability that we knew we had. For him to get that stage and take advantage of it, I thought it was awesome for him. I think that boosts his confidence for when he is out there. Whether he’s out there in this game or the next game, I know that he’s going to seize the moment and that’s all that you can ask for from a young man. Just really proud of him,”
On a possible let down after an emotional win: “It’s their last time playing together in Carter-Finley Stadium. What else do you need? We are beat up but we were beat up the last four games. So our guys will find a way and I don’t see let down in our program. I don’t see that. We’re going to rally; we’re going to fight. We’re going to scrap, we’re going to motivate and our guys will be ready Saturday.”
On the team bouncing back from the Wake Forest loss: “I think we handled it the right way. I thought our leadership went in the room and just said ‘Hey, here’s what I did wrong and I’m asking you to do the same. And then let’s move on from it and not let it happen again.’ We got back to the basics of football. I thought our guys bought into that. So sometimes you have to go through those kind of moments. Nobody likes them but you’re going to use that as a teaching opportunity as a coach. I think we did that; I think our players are better for it and hopefully it’ll help us moving forward.”
On a “second chance at senior night”: “Senior night, the thing out there with the parents was awesome. But I didn’t build it up within the building like I will this one just because it wasn’t, for me, the last time coaching them in Carter-Finley Stadium. And I told the guys that during the week. Like I said before, we couldn’t change the date because so many people had travel plans already. But this is going to be different, from a staff standpoint, for sure.”
On the team’s 11-5 ACC record over the last two years: “I didn’t know until someone said it last week; since 2016 when we won at Carolina we’ve won more ACC games than anyone in the league except Clemson. So I told our staff the other day, at times you don’t feel like you’re doing very good. Even when you win you turn the film on and you’re like, ‘God, we’ve got to play better. But we’ve done some great things and I think that’s the beauty of it with our guys is they know they can even do better.
“The last two seasons have been very productive here. We’ve accomplished a lot and we’re not satisfied but we like the results that we’re getting. You always want to improve upon where you’re at. I think to be in that position is just continuing to have upward trends in your program and that’s very visible. When you look at how many players were drafted, you look at how many games we’ve won in the league. I think today the ACC All-Conference team comes out and I think we’re going to be very well-represented on that. So I think it’s just continuing to show, not just talk about, that you’re getting better.”
On bowl positioning: “It’s one of the reasons I wanted a 12th game. I just think if we were 8-3 and someone else was 9-3, that could hurt us. So having an opportunity to get to 9-3, I just think a nine-win team gives you a little bit more than an eight-win team when it comes down to a tiebreaker for who they might take in a bowl game. I wanted our players to have another opportunity to elevate their status as a program and winning nine games at NC State is not something that’s done all the time. And to be able to have back-to-back nine-win teams, maybe 10 if we can win out, there’s a lot to that for the history of this program. I wanted these kids to have every opportunity to reach those goals.”
