BOSTON COLLEGE FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 16, 2021

Dave Doeren

Postgame Press Conference

NC State 33, Boston College 7

DAVE DOEREN: Very proud of our football team, our coaching staff. That was a great win. We knew it was going to be a physical game. We are playing a team that we respected. It was a really physical first half. I thought we made some very good adjustments at halftime and the guys had resolve and came out and really just exploded in the third quarter.

And it was great to see Emeka break the record for catches. Thayer, a hundred-yard game and took care of the football in the rain and the wind and didn't turn the football over on the road; blocked a punt for a touchdown; the things you have to do on the road, you know, win the turnover margin, and didn't give up explosive plays on defense. Really the only things that hurt us why are defensive penalties and we were able to overcome those obviously.

So just really proud of our team, and, you know, just keep working and look forward to getting home.

Q. What adjustments specifically did you guys do? They had a hundred yards rushing at the half?

DAVE DOEREN: They were doing a lot of motioning out of condensed sets, bunches-and-snugs, we call them and that wasn't something they had done a lot going into our game. So we just had to clean up where we needed to align after the motions and how we were fitting those runs.

So they did some things we weren't ready for. The kids didn't really understand it at first, and once we were able to draw it up and kind of settle them down, the guys did a much better job after that.

Q. The third quarter, you get the special teams play, you get defense, you get the big offensive touchdown. What's it like to see it all come together for a quarter?

DAVE DOEREN: It's a great feeling. Complementary football. The offense is doing their part, defense is doing their sport and special teams is doing their part. We challenged our special teams, they had made some comments not us but about how good they were on special teams last week and we took that as a challenge and told our players if we don't out-play their special teams, we won't win and the guys did. They played well across the board.

Chris Dunn know did a tremendous job tonight for protection for everybody, the coverage, the punts by Trent Gill. The special teams were a major impact in the game and you know it's just fun to see guys, blood in the water and not let them back in the game. That to me is what championship football teams do is they don't let people back in when you have them on the ropes like that.

So guys took advantage of our momentum and never gave them any back.

Q. Was that third quarter, the fourth quarter, the second half, was that really kind of a statement to maybe the rest of the league?

DAVE DOEREN: I hope so. I mean, look, I can't control the lack of respect that we seem to get publically. We know about it. Our team recognizes that people don't think we're good and we're just going to take care of what we can. We are going to focus on us.

We are going to take the next week and try to get better again and just keep trying to get better and keep trying to win games and we're going to end up where we're supposed to be at the end of the year and people will think what they want to think.

Q. Did you feel like we took their best punch --

DAVE DOEREN: I was hoping we could get the adjustments made we needed to. I knew we were coming right back out on defense. It was great to get the may-day field goal right before the half. We told Devan we can't take a sack.

So the guys were ready and that was awesome to get those three points right before the half but then getting the ball to start the third. I knew we took -- I told them, if you're going to get punched in the mouth before this game that's who BC is, but that doesn't mean they won the game. That means they hit you and you're just going to have to hit them more. And we did, we hit them a lot more in the third quarter.

Q. I don't know if you had a good look at it but can you talk about that crazy, flukey play, Devin Carter, the catch he made on the defender's back?

DAVE DOEREN: I didn't get to see that. I look forward to watching that. One of the things I did with the team on Friday is I showed them contact catches that we need it make that we've made before in other games. Devin has made several this year. I showed him plays from the Clemson game against BC where they didn't make contact catches and could have made that a lot bigger win for them. Because they play tight man-to-man coverage. You have to be able to make contact catches against BC so Devin took that to heart and made a great play for us.

Q. You've been around this game long enough, can you tell this is a night where the ball is bouncing your way?

DAVE DOEREN: I don't know, I'll have to look at that. There were some things called officially that I'm not allowed to say bad things about, but I wouldn't say those things went our way at times.

But we were able to overcome some of that stuff and you know there was a play over turned in the game that hurt us. Our guys just made plays, and the bottom line is, we executed really well in the second half. That was enough to separate the two teams and they are not built to watch up in a game like that with that kind of weather.

Q. How satisfying was it to put together the combination of offense, defense and special teams?

DAVE DOEREN: That's all we've been talking about all season and really if you go back to last year, we found different ways to wind last year. It was a blocked field goal against liberty, blocked punt against UVA for a touchdown, blocked punt against Duke, offensive scores, defensive stops. Last year we did that really well, and this year we've been trying to continue that trend and tonight I thought we were really good in that fashion.

Q. How good is Devin Leary playing right now, 12 touchdowns, no interceptions the last four games?

DAVE DOEREN: Knock-on-wood, he's playing good ball for us. There are some things he can do better but he's playing confident. He's executing offense. He's protect the defense and not turning the ball over. He's giving our receivers chances to make plays. Proud of did he have in. He does a lot of things for us that help us win games.

Q. Devin got a lot of attention for the interception, but the play before the half, where he tracked down the half and they missed a field goal, how big was that play?

DAVE DOEREN: Devin has practiced really well the last three weeks. He has earned more playing time and he capitalized on it. It doesn't surprise me. He's a coach's son. He takes practice very seriously; as does Betty, goes in and makes a safety at the end of the game. The guy doesn't know he's going to play so he practices like he's going to start and that's awesome to see.

Q. I know he's obviously not playing the rest of the season but before the game, you see Cyrus running, and from the moment he's hyped, man. What does he bring to the team that obviously he can't do on the field?

DAVE DOEREN: You know, he is definitely a leader. He loves the game. He loves his teammates. He loves the journey we're on together. He knows that he can only control what he can right now and the best thing he can do is help his brothers and he's doing that. He's doing it with a lot of flare, man.

The sideline we have, I told the team this, like when we line up in the opening kickoff, their sideline should be jealous of the energy that we have on ours, and we had great energy to start the game. That made me feel good because I think that's important for these guys. You know you're in a sold-out stadium, their fans were screaming at us, MF'ing us, everything, that's great, coming out of the tunnel, calling us this, that and the other; and then we have more energy, and showed our cohesion and brotherhood, and Cyrus leads that group over there.

Q. Can you talked on Emeka's breaking the record for catches, but about his career, the great receivers who have come through NC State?

DAVE DOEREN: Yeah, we've been playing football at NC State a long time, 138, 139 years, something like that and he's the all-time catch reception leader in school history. That's a big deal. As you mentioned, there's so many good receivers that have played here. So I'm proud of him. It's not about how you start your career, it's how you finish it, and he's finishing it with style and he's being a great leader and teammate.

Q. Did you look down and say, hey, we're going to get one more kick?

DAVE DOEREN: We did. We did. We had to get him one. Even though it was a negative gain, it doesn't matter. It still counts, right.