Full Transcript: NC State coach Dave Doeren post-Syracuse

NC State defeated Syracuse 41-17 Saturday in Carter-Finley Stadium to advance to 8-3 (5-2 ACC) this season.

Wolfpack head coach Dave Doeren answered questions following the game.

Here is the full transcript from his availability:

Opening Statment:

“I’d like to start off just thanking the game ops folks and how special it was to have a Military Appreciation game. All the stuff that went into that tonight. It’s a great shout out to our military, active and retired. Seeing them all there was special.

“Also want to give Coach Hennis and our women’s cross country team a shout out for winning a national championship. Pretty awesome for them to be able to do that.

“As far as the game goes, it’s pretty cool to be in a game where you score all three phases of the game. Obviously, on offense, we’re going to score, but a defensive touchdown with Drake, a special teams touchdown in back-to-back games now for Bam. To see the Thomas brothers both score touchdowns in a game was pretty cool. A lot of really good stuff.

“Defending them is a challenge with all the different run things they do. My hat’s off to Sean Tucker and Garrett Schrader, I think they’re both good runners, tough kids.

“As far as our guys go, in the first quarter, we wanted to start fast and didn’t. So that was disappointing. Defense, we did and then we settled in. We just started getting on a roll.

“I thought it was good to see our run game get better and improve. Even though the total yards weren’t what we want, but there were some really positive runs. There were some time-consuming drives that ended with points on the board. So all those things together and offensively took care of the football, no turnovers.

“A lot of things we wanted to do tonight we were able to do. A lot of guys playing with some pain out there and playing a physical game, so proud of our guys for that.

“Obviously, now a chance to move forward and have a championship week. Senior Day, we play our rival, all those things. We don’t control what happens with Wake Forest, but on our end, we have a chance to put ourselves in a position where if they lose and we win, we’re in. So, there’s a lot to play for coming up and looking forward to that opportunity. And with that I’ll open it up.”

You guys had 14 TFLs today. How important was it to make plays in their backfield and how did you do it?

“Well, it looked like the guys did a good job of setting the line of scrimmage shedding blocks and playing downhill. Particularly in the first half, I thought we were really, really good.

“We tackled well, for the most part. There are a couple of schemes that they ran that we didn’t practice that they put in that got outside on the edge on us a couple of times, and one turned into a big play for them. But overall, we were trying to get him behind the chains and see if they could throw the ball down the field to win, which we didn’t think they could and that proved to be right.

“I thought it was a really good game plan, and there’s a lot of adjusting going on. There are probably 25 unbalanced formations Syracuse was in that game, so a lot more of that than we expected.”

Any concern going forward that teams will stop kicking to Zonovan Knight?

“Yeah, I mean, it could happen. I think some people trust their kicker to kick touchbacks. I guess you can start skying it, and if you do that, there’s potential we can get returns to the field.

“We’ve got Jordan Houston set up over there, and we’re not just going to fair catch the ball and let you do that. It’s something that they could do week-to-week, it just depends on the strength of the leg of the kicker.

“We knew going into this game, he was about one out of three for touchbacks. So, we thought we would get 66 percent of the time a chance at a return. I was happy to see the guys execute and obviously it was a great run by Bam.”

Did the locker room know that Wake lost before the game started?

“I think our guys were watching that game. We were in pregame meal and I saw everybody looking at their phone. So that was right when their game was going on. Obviously, we didn’t see the second half because we were in warmups at that time. But our guys I think assumed that, I’m sure they knew.

“Tried to keep more of our attention on the game we were playing than the one that was being played somewhere else. But I think our guys had a pretty good idea what was going to be the outcome of that game after they saw the first half.

“So, again, we put ourselves in a position where we don’t control the finish, unfortunately, last week. But we do control what happens if we can get a win here at home next week on senior day against our rival, and that’s what we’ll focus on. Obviously, we’ll be Boston College fans this week, pulling for them too.”

What does it say about the team’s maturity to bounce back after last week’s heartbreaking result?

“They were disappointed, upset, mad, all the above losing last week’s game. They knew that there were plays we left on the field. They’re also a smart bunch of guys that know that Wake has to play back-to-back road games against two good teams, so we weren’t out of it. It was just a matter of getting back to what we could control, and that’s winning out at home.

“One of our goals is to be undefeated in the Carter, and right now we’re one game away from pulling that where we want it to be. That means a lot to our team.

“I know this coming week is going to mean a ton to them on senior day. There’s a bunch of really good guys on this football team that deserve to go out their last time at home winners, and that’s going to be very meaningful for this team this week.”

How good was it to see the complementary football, seeing all three units find the endzone?

“Yeah, it’s huge. I think that’s what complementary football is. It’s setting up either side of the ball. It’s gaining momentum for either side of the ball, with a special teams play. We’ve talked so much about it, the guys have embraced it.

“It’s one of the things in our leadership council meeting, Bryson Speas talked about it. It’s not just playing complementary football, but it’s doing it at the right times and having sequential plays and drives off of each other and feeding each other. That quarter was as good as it could be.”