NC State Wolfpack College Football Pregame Quote, 09/09/2019

It was fun to see our guys back on the field. 17 guys played their first snaps for us in the game, which was a lot, and 10 were true freshmen. Quite a few guys took the field, and I thought the product was pretty good. There are things we want to do better, but those guys played hard. There was a lot of great effort, there was a lot of great contact and a lot of physical blocks and tackles. There was pursuit, energy and passion—all the things you look for.

The things that really stick out to me: we were +2 in turnover margin, we won the line of scrimmage, which was a challenge to our guys in an in-state game like that, particularly when there’s so much said between the hiring of their new coach and how much they wanted to make it different.

For us, to have 6.1 yards per carry and 191 yards rushing to the 41 yards rushing, speaks to the demeanor of our football team. That’s something that really important for us culture-wise‚Äîthe be a physical group of guys that can win on the line of scrimmage. We had nine explosive plays, and two were for touchdowns. They had three and no touchdowns, which was one of our keys to victory on defense. We had 11 plays in their backfield: three sacks, eight TFLs, and ECU had no sacks. To not have any sacks in a game with that many offensive linemen rotating in is a credit to those guys up front.

On first down, we averaged eight yards per play. If we can keep doing that, obviously good things are ahead. In terms of negatives, I thought on third down offensively we were not crisp, whether it was a dropped pass or a route depth being short or a missed read at quarterback, it just wasn’t a lot of what the game went to me. That affected our ability to stay on the field. In the first three quarters we could have scored a lot more points, and we could have had a lot more time of possession. It’s something that we’ve got to get better at and will.

The two pre-snap penalties, jumping offsides on defense on a third and short, which is something that we preach a lot, and then on offense a false start by Emanuel McGirt, Jr., were two of the six penalties that we can control. Our late integrity on our kickoff coverage, with a lot of young guys on that unit‚Äîthey’ll learn from that experience.

I thought Trenton Gill kicked the ball well on that unit for us. We’ve got to do a better job pinning people inside the 20-yard line.

I was impressed by our rotation, and like I said, the ability to start building depth through game reps is something we need to be able to do because a lot of our two deep is young players. Getting them in the heat of the battle and letting them make plays, and also learning from mistakes is really important.

We came out of the game relatively healthy. I will tell you C.J. Riley is out for the season. He tore his ACL in his other knee. There weren’t a lot of other things going on in there. He’ll have surgery and he’ll be back. He’s gone through this before in his other knee. He is very upbeat. Prayers for him from our fanbase would be awesome.

Moving on to our next opponent, Western Carolina, another in-state game: it’s a team that has six starters on offense and five starters on defense back. They have a very athletic quarterback. He was their leading rusher a year ago. He’s played a lot of football for them. They have a true freshman tailback that we know from Scotland County High School. They have Shyheam McQueen, who we think is a good player. It’s a spread option, zone-read option, stretch option, RPO offense, so it’ll be a really good fundamental game for our defense. It’ll be a lot of formations.

Defensively, they’re very multiple. They’re a lot different than last week’s defense. These guys run a lot of different looks. They’re in three-down, they’re in four-down. They’re a multiple-coverage team. I think their nose tackle is a really good player. He plays hard and he’s a big kid sat 6’4, 295 lbs. He plays hard on their field goal block unit as well. Their two leading tacklers return with their nickel and middle linebacker.

I always feel like getting into that second game gives a lot of guys visuals of the things they have to do better. Whether you get better or not is obviously up to your preparation in the product. That’s our goal‚Äîto be better in week two than we were in week one. Each player has a different role when it comes to that, and our coaching staff has to do a good job of focusing on us. I think it’s really important in this game that we really look at ourselves, what we just put on tape and what we can do better in our second version.

On NC State not turning the ball over:

I can tell you it was very much emphasized, but I think we got lucky. We did fumble twice, but we got both of them back. To have perfect snaps the whole game between our center and quarterback, and I thought Joe Shimko, who was our special teams player of the week in his first college start, was outstanding—punt snaps, short snaps, he had a solo tackle in our punt coverage. He did some good things.

On personnel filling C.J. Riley’s position:

Devin Carter is a guy that needs to step up and seize this opportunity for us. He’s a big body and he’s strong. He’s been in that room with those guys and understands by watching last year’s crew what’s expected, so he needs to seize that moment because he has really good ability and size.

The rest of the crew, whether it’s Max Fisher, Jasiah Provillon, Tabari Hines or Thayer Thomas, they’re all going to have to know different things. Obviously Emeka Emezie’s our guy, but we need to do a good job of using what everybody has to make up for what we lost. That’s their opportunity, and I am excited for Devin, because I think that’s what we recruited him to be‚Äîthe next big receiver here. He has all those tools.

On Emanuel McGirt Jr.:

I’m proud of Emanuel on many levels and excited that he got a chance to be a starter here, to get a chance to go out and play. There’s a lot of things he did well, and he played hard. He played left and right tackle. We ask a lot of him‚Äîto be able to flip flop like that.

He played hard. That play he had on Tabari Hines’s reverse out in space was a great block. There’s a lot of film now for him to get better. I think that’s the thing, he’s excited. I know he’s probably mad at himself on some things, but that’s what you want, a guy who is critical. It’s great having him out there. I know he’s worked really hard to get to that place.

On the running game:

We need to run the ball better. Whether we have a 1,000 yd. rusher or not, we need to rush for more per carry, and we need to have more explosive runs. If it’s four guys rushing for 2,000 yards, that’d be great.

Continuing the 1,000-yard rusher thing is always a thing for offensive line. To me, it’s more about efficiency in the run game, explosive plays in the run game and yards per carry in the run game. As you saw, four of our backs have good ability, so we have a chance to be really dynamic there if we can stay healthy.

On LB Payton Wilson:

He did a good job. He was aggressive. Dave Huxtable blitzed him a lot, which I think was good, just to let him play like that and not have to diagnose a whole lot. It was fun to see him make those tackles for loss in the backfield. He was productive and had a lot of spirit about him. I think him and all those guys now will play with more confidence.

C.J. Hart got in there and played well for his first time at linebacker. Drake Thomas got in there and played well for his first time in a game, and they’ll play even better next time because of that experience they had.

On the linebackers:

It just depends on how they prepare. They all earned that rotation through training camp because they played really well in practice. As long as they can continue to practice that way and stay healthy, Dave Huxtable will reward them with playing time. They can’t have a bad week of practice and expect to get equal rotation. That’s not going to happen.

On the new-look defense:

When the season ended, Dave Huxtable and I sat down and talked to look at what we have with this linebacker group. We need to be able to think about two things. The whole plan was to be able to have what we used to do with what you saw this weekend. We used to have a defensive front where you wouldn’t want to take one of those guys off the field. Going into the season, we didn’t know that Joshua Harris would get hurt in training camp, but we knew C.J. Clark would be out. We didn’t know when Deonte Holden would return. There were some question marks.

We wanted to see how it played out and have both available. We got into camp and we lost three or four defensive tackles within a week of camp for an extended period of time, and it forced us to be more one-dimensional from a three-man front, so that grew throughout camp. The linebackers can get up on the line and create four- and five-man fronts, and as we get healthier and healthier we have the ability to get back into some four-down. I

I think the biggest thing with Dave Huxtable is that he wants his best 11 players on the field, so when you have injuries to the front and the linebackers are healthy, it’s pretty obvious what you need to do. I’ve always felt, and Dave Huxtable is right in line with that, that you do the best with what you are. You try to recruit your butt off to make sure we don’t have these things, but we can’t control injuries unfortunately. Some of that stuff is out of our control.

On the linebackers:

It’s unique because one play they’re playing linebacker, and the next they’re playing defensive line. They have to have a little hybrid to them. It can be a longer guy that can really run. I think we have two guys there that really fit‚ÄîLevi Jones, when he’s eligible, will be really good in that position. That’s what you want is a guy over 6’3 that’s a linebacker and can really run. Brock Miller was an edge player in high school, and Payton Wilson was a great wrestler in high school. You want that guy that has length and core strength that can play against a front guy.

On the play of younger personnel:

I’m not going to tell you I knew that was going to happen. I was excited to see them play because they had all shown the ability and made electric plays in practice enough to where you’re hoping that’s what happens on game day.

My fear was: is game day going to be too big for some of them? You just don’t know that. That’s why I said at the beginning that I was really proud at how they handled the moment. I thought those guys really did a good job. I didn’t really see anybody nervous; I’m sure they probably were, but it wasn’t obvious. They just went out there and did what they did in practice, which I thought was outstanding.