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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

November 8, 2017

Dave Doeren

Greensboro, North Carolina

DAVE DOEREN: Looking forward to playing a very good Boston College team. I know they're coming off a bye week, Senior Day, so they're going to be revved up and ready to play us. A very physical team that's running the ball really well. I think their quarterback has gotten better and better.

Defensively, as they always are, they're a very sound, physical bunch of players that play hard, kind of show you what they're going to do, just do it really well.

From our standpoint, I feel like we're a little healthier than we were a week ago. All of our guys have practiced this week. Thought we played really hard. Great football game against Clemson. Came up short. But looking forward to what we have in front of us. These last three games are very important to our program. Looking forward to this next one.

Questions.

Q. Have you heard Clemson's head coach yesterday regarding the laptop event that happened Saturday night, that he feels an investigation needs to be ran on your side, the players, management, that kind of stuff?
DAVE DOEREN: Yeah, I did. I think college football is a lot of fun, I really do. But we don't have a drum, but I am going to send some towels over to Dabo. We're good. It is in the past. Looking forward to playing Boston College.

Q. In hindsight do you wish you handled the laptop thing a little bit differently?
DAVE DOEREN: No. I mean, look, I'm not a politically correct guy. I coach with a lot of passion. Our kids play with it. He does the same thing. At the end of the game, when you lose a game that has conference championship implications on it, sometimes things are going to be said.

I don't think it's a big deal. I really don't. I'm going to move on, and I'm sure he will, too. He's got a big game this week.

Q. As far as the back-to-back losses you're coming off of, how much is that running into two of the top four teams in the country? Are there things you're asking your defense to improve upon this week?
DAVE DOEREN: Yeah, I don't know, has anyone else played the No. 4 and 3 ranked team back-to-back besides us? I think we played a pretty challenging schedule. I think our guys played their butts off this week, did that coming off of a game where we lost five guys in the middle of it.

I'm pretty proud of these guys. Wish we could have made a couple more plays, had a few more ticks on the clock, but we didn't. Clemson is a good football team. So is Notre Dame.

These kids practiced really hard this week. They're excited to play Boston College. Look forward to the next challenge. BC is a great opponent. We got our hands full again. They just beat Florida State 35-3. He don't get a rest in this league. You got to jump up off the canvas and start swinging again. That's what we got to do.

Q. Based on where you were two weeks ago, is it kind of hard to fight that feeling of 'what if', maybe if things had gone a little bit different in the Clemson game and in the Notre Dame game?
DAVE DOEREN: No. That's for you guys, I guess. I don't get the luxury of that. I got to focus on today. I got to get this team ready to play. Looking at things that have zero to do with where going to go don't help us. Everything in our program is about what can we do better, how can we learn from what happened, put or best product, our best players, coaches, game plans to use.

We always study the past, but we have to dwell on today and how can we get the most out of these kids every day, and that's what we're going to do.

Q. BC, another good opponent. I might know the answer, but when does the preparation start for BC, when do you have to move on from that Clemson game?
DAVE DOEREN: Yeah, we always come in the day after the game and watch our game from Saturday with the guys, go through the things we did well, the things we didn't, our formula for what we think we need to do to win, where we met the standard, where we didn't, how can we learn from it.

Then we start watching Boston College or that next opponent that day. By the time we go to dinner, we're on to the next game. It's a 24-hour rule in our program. That's how we do it.

Q. The BC offense has really come to life the last three weeks in particular. What do you see the ways they've improved, moving and scoring the ball?
DAVE DOEREN: Yeah, they're averaging over 35 points in the last three games. I think they just settled in on their identity. Redshirt freshman quarterback, freshman tailback. It just takes time when you got young guys to not only get them to where you want them, but understand what they're really good at.

Steve is really good coach. He's always been good at blocking people up, getting his guys to play hard. Their tailback is stud. That guy is 240 pounds. The guys up front fight for him. Their quarterback has done a better job as the year has gone at not turn the football over, which obviously protects a team that is going to run the football.

Q. After they gave up 42 to Louisville, they put the clamps on Virginia and Florida State. What are the strengths of their defense?
DAVE DOEREN: Their secondary is playing at a high level. They're tied with Miami for interceptions in the conference at 13. Any time you're creating takeaways with your defensive unit, giving the ball over to an offense that can run the football, that's a pretty good formula for winning. That's what they've been able to do the last three weeks.

Ball security is a big deal in a game like this for both teams.

Q. You said at the beginning these three games are very important for the program. Elaborate a little bit more on that, specifically why you feel that way.
DAVE DOEREN: Well, just the history, NC State, if we could win out, which we got to win the next one to do it, obviously we'd finish 7-1 in the ACC, which has never been done here. A chance for our senior class to say they were the best team in NC State history in conference play. If we could get to 10 wins, that's only been done one time in program history. There's a ton on the table for us when you talk about the legacy of your senior class. That's what these guys are playing for right now. They want to be remembered as the best senior class in the history of the program. That's on the table if they win out.

The challenge is great. Two road games and a rivalry game. The first one against a team I think is playing as good as anybody in the league right now. There's a lot to play for for those guys, and they're excited about it.

Q. Is that something you have talked about?
DAVE DOEREN: Absolutely, absolutely.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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