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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 5, 2018

Dave Doeren

Greensboro, North Carolina

DAVE DOEREN: It's good to be 1-0, and played against a really good football team, have a lot of respect for James Madison and their coaching staff, and thought our guys did some good things. I thought our 3rd down offense and red zone defense were really good. We were able to play a bunch of young players and get them their first taste. I thought some of our vets, Ryan Finley and Jacoby Myers, Germaine Pratt really stood out, a lot of areas to improve, which I mentioned in an earlier press conference, but want to run the ball more efficiently, handle the quarterback scrambles obviously a lot better than we did on defense and start the game first and third quarter better than we did just from a scoring standpoint. I thought we moved the ball pretty well throughout the game.

A couple things that obviously in the first game you see and want to work on. I thought we tackled well for our first game, and it was good to see Reggie play the way he did. I thought he ran hard and played behind his pads. A lot of positives and obviously a lot of things that you want to get better at in week 2, and I have a team coming here to Raleigh from Georgia that came back, was down 14-0, in Georgia State, and scored two touchdowns in the final minute of the first half, and then scored again in the final two minutes to win the football game. A well-coached team that doesn't panic and has good poise, and I thought their quarterback transfer really played a good football game in his first game at that level, three touchdowns and no interceptions and led them in rushing. It'll be a good game for us, and looking forward to the opportunity to improve.

Q. Obviously it would be great to blow everybody out by 40 points, but is there a value in being tested a little bit early in the season that maybe reveals some character or maybe some --
DAVE DOEREN: Sure, yeah. I think absolutely. I think being in four-quarter games is good for your football team because we're going to have a lot of them in this conference, as you know. That's one area that you want your guys to feel that, and you don't want them to only feel it in a huge game. James Madison won 28 games in 30 attempts, so they're a team that's used to winning football games, so that was really good for our guys to have to go through that and to play the way they did in key moments. There were some clutch plays that were made, clutch throws, clutch catches, good stops on defense, and big punt return. It was absolutely a great opportunity for our team to grow in that football team.

Q. I've been asking the guys on here, we always hear the saying that teams make their biggest improvement from week 1 to week 2? Do you subscribe to that theory? What are your thoughts on that?
DAVE DOEREN: I think that's very true for young players that are playing in their first college football games because there's so much emotion involved for them. I think for your older players, you expect it each week. I told our team that. I would like to see that we're going to get better every week of the season, not just from week 1 to week 2, but I think the biggest jump would be your younger guys. For us there was a lot of redshirt freshmen and true freshmen that played, so I know they'll be less nervous now that they've set their pads and played and been out there and felt like game day is all about.

Q. Can you talk about the development of your receiver Jacoby Myers and the game he had and earning All-ACC receiver of the week?
DAVE DOEREN: You bet, yeah. He came here, he was about a 165-pound quarterback, and spent a year on the scout team doing that and was great athletically, gave us a great look, and we got into a training camp and had to move him to receiver just to help our team win. I think at first it was very natural, but I'm not sure he was mentally completely bought into that position change. As time went on and he started to have success, he did, and to his credit, I think he matured a ton in the two years that he's been in that room with Coach McDonald and with our strength staff, going from a lightweight to a 200-plus pound guy that can really do some things athletically and has incredible eye-hand coordination, 14 catches and played on a bum ankle for three quarters of the game and just a real tough guy, ultra competitive. So really proud of him.

I still think the best is yet to come. I think that was a hot day, and there was some fatigue setting in on some guys. But when he's got fresher legs, he can continue to make plays for us throughout the game.

Q. What's the one thing or maybe a couple things you're hoping to see you guys do better this weekend?
DAVE DOEREN: You know, I think offensively score more points, and to do that we need to run the ball more effectively. That will help our 3rd down and what we're dealing with there from 3rd and 8s to 3rd and 2s. Defensively it's all about the quarterback and making sure on 3rd down that we can keep him in the cage and get off the field so our offense has the ball quicker. We only had eight offensive possessions. Defense did a great job keeping people out of the end zone. But getting more three-and-outs and takeaway opportunities to give our offense a few more possessions in the game.

Q. Do you think defensively that might have had something to do with just some new players starting and playing extensively for you, or are there other ways to explain maybe a little bit of why they were able to move the ball a little bit?
DAVE DOEREN: Well, I mean, they had 13 points, so at the end of the day, that's what you care about the most. But I think a lot of the yardage, the biggest plays we gave up were on two quarterback scrambles on 3rd down, 3rd and long, and that's not us as coaches doing a good enough job preparing them for the rush lanes. We didn't know who the starting quarterback was going into the game, and that has an impact because obviously if you're building your package around a mobile quarterback it's a little different. So I would hope that that helps us. We had, I don't know, like 15 guys play their first snaps on our defense in that game, so there is some youth, but holding James Madison to 13 points I wouldn't say was a bad day. There's just some things we can do better to make it better for our offense.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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