Coach Dave Doeren Postgame Press Conference

NC State played arguably its worst half of football this season over the first 30 minutes of its game against Duke on Saturday.

It had a punt blocked for a touchdown, turned the ball over and committed 106 yards in penalties while falling behind its Triangle rival by double digits. 

And yet, the Wolfpack still found a way to overcome the deficit, the ejection of safety Jakeen Harris and injuries to quarterback Devil Leary and safety Tanner Ingle to rally for a 31-20 win against the Blue Devils that improved its better-than-expected start to 4-1.

Here's what coach Dave Doeren said about the win and the resiliency his team showed in it during his postgame virtual conference with the media:

"It’s great to be 4-1. I’m proud of the fight in our team and the resiliency. I think we shot ourselves in the foot, penalty wise, in the first half. We made it really hard. We settled in. The defense in the second half was outstanding. Losing both our starting safeties, one to the ejection and the other to an injury, I was so proud of Isaac Duffy, a walk-on safety from Clayton High School that’s earned a scholarship here, the way he came in and played. He played well. (So did) Devan Boykin coming in and breaking up a pass in the end zone in the end. "Guys (were) being resilient. Payton (Wilson) obviously stood out. Jaylon Scott (with) the takeaways on defense.

"Offensively, we didn’t have a great game. We turned the ball over twice. I thought we were physical in the second half in particular, especially in the fourth quarter. I thought our run game picked up towards the end. We did some nice things. We made some tough catches. Thayer (Thomas’) catch was unbelievable in the end zone. Bailey [Hockman] stepped in and did some things well and didn’t do some things well. It’ll be a great opportunity for him.

"We probably won’t have Devin for a while. I don’t know the exact injury, a lower leg injury. But it doesn’t look like we’ll have him for a while. Once I know, probably Monday, I’ll be able to give you the specifics. He’s a tough kid. I hate it for him to get injured like that because I know how much this game means to him, how much this team means to him. So, next man up. Bailey and Ben Finley and Ty Evans will have to be ready to roll for us at quarterback. 

"It was a great comeback win and guys just kept responding. The blocked punt for a touchdown by Levi Jones and Max Fisher was a huge play in the game. Give Duke credit. They had a good game plan. They attacked us and did some good things early in the game that had us behind."

How tough was it to see Leary get hurt? What does it say about him that he came back out to the sideline on crutches to watch the rest of the game?

"He loves his teammates. He’s a great young man. I feel for him. He’s worked really hard and he’s playing really well. I thought he got concussed when I saw the hit, the targeting hit. I thought he was concussed and when I went down there it was his ankle that he was worried about. So they’ll have to do x-rays and those kinds of things to figure out what it is. But I knew he’d be back on the field if he could be to watch. That’s what he said. He said ‘tell these guys to finish.’ He’s got a lot of guts. He’s a tough young man."

What did you say to Leary before he was carted off the field?

"I was just trying to comfort him. Usually when you get down there, you’re just trying to figure out what’s wrong. I thought he was out, like I said, so I was trying to get out there to see if he was awake. He was wide awake. He was very alert. He said his ankle was bothering him. 

"He was breathing hard and I just said ‘relax, take a deep breath. The doctors will be with you,’ just trying to get him calmed down so they could get a good evaluation on him. He was very coherent, very understanding of what was going on. He just started talking about his teammates at that point."

What does it say about the secondary that for the third straight week a key member of the secondary has been ejected for targeting and for the third straight week, a young player stepped up to fill the void?

"First of all, we’ve got to learn how to tackle with our head not being involved in it. It’s hard when a player is going down. The elevation changes on a runner sometimes, and as a defender you’ve already launched at a certain level and you end up not hitting him where you thought you were going to hit him. That’s a hard play, but we’ve got to really get better there.

"As far as stepping up, I couldn’t be prouder. It was (Rakeim) Ashford early in the season. Then it was Devan Boykin and now it’s (Isaac) Duffy. You saw (Joshua) Pierre-Louis do it. It’s just like a revolving door back there, but they are getting results. That’s a credit to (defensive coordinator Tony( Gibson and the defensive staff, coach (Joe0 DeForest and coach (Freddie) Aughtry-Lindsay. Those guys have had to play a lot of guys. Duffy was ready. You’ve got to give that man a lot of credit."

This was the second straight games that Vi has blocked a punt. Does he just have a knack for it?

"He does have a knack for blocking punts, but this was a called block. Last week was just a return and he was just the guy forcing the punt. This week was a called blocked punt. Coach (Todd) Goebbel had a good scheme. Delbert Mimms kind of was working up the field to keep their guy from getting down on Levi, and Levi took a good angle and made a play. It was great to see.

"Max Fisher is a guy that played receiver that we moved to safety because of our injuries there. He’s a guy that’s been selfless, probably would be getting playing time on offense. He’s had to learn how to play our defense the last two weeks, so it was great to see him get rewarded with that touchdown."

What did you tell the team at halftime after the sloppy first half it played?

"It wasn’t a real ‘rah-rah’ talk in there. It was very matter of fact, like ‘Hey, we’ve got eight penalties for 106 yards and they’ve got one for 10. They’ve blocked a punt for a touchdown. We’ve blocked a punt for a touchdown. The difference is us beating us. If you guys would just play football and quit being idiots, we’re going to win. You’ve got to own it and be a man, and step up and start playing the way you’re coached.’ They did.

"We’re a young football team. I saw a stat the other day that 66% of our snaps are by freshmen, redshirt freshmen or sophomores. We’ve got to be able to be a little more mature, even though we’re young, with what we are doing on the field. It got fixed in the second half. It’ll be a learning, teachable moment tomorrow."

How much does it help the team moving forward to have a comeback like this?

"I think our confidence is really high. I think we handle adversity well. There isn’t any flinch. Guys understand that they can come back, and they’ve done that multiple ways. It’s a very confident group. I know they’ll be excited for what’s coming up this week against another in-state opponent. We need to get healthy. That’s my concern right now. We’ve got a lot of guys beat up."

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