Doeren's Postgame Comments Following Clemson Loss

Here's what the NC State coach had to say about his team's 55-10 drubbing at the hands of defending national champion Clemson

The frustration of a third straight lopsided loss and a growing injury list showed on the face of NC State football coach Dave Doeren as he met with the media following Saturday's 55-10 homecoming night loss to Clemson on Saturday.

But as bad as things have gotten for the Wolfpack in a season that has taken an ugly turn in the wrong direction, Doeren said that he and his players are anything but discouraged.

In fact, he said that they’re more determined than ever to turn things around and finish strong. Here are his comments after a forgettable performance: that left State at 4-5 overall (1-4 ACC):

"I wouldn't say morale is bad. I think the guys are mad, more than having bad morale. These guys want to win. They are frustrated. They all understand at the same time that we are playing with a short deck right now. They get that and they're playing hard. But we ar enot playing smart enough to win. We are not giving ourselves a chance with turnovers and poor decision making on special teams at the end."

"I don't think we have bad morale, I just think we have a football team that wants to win really bad and is not getting that taste right now."

An injury situation Doeren described as “Code Red” after last week’s loss ar Wake Forest got even worse Saturday. 

The coach addressed the astonishing rate of attrition, which claimed several more key players in the loss to Clemson:

"Yeah, it's bad. We're down to no depth. We had three walkon linebackers in there at the end of the game at one point. Guys played hard. Payton (Wilson) sprained his shoulder. I don’t know how long he’ll be out. I don’t have any idea. Calvin (Hart) did the same thing. Guys are beat up right now. We didn’t have Louis (Acceus) or Isaiah (Moore), so we were down to Brock [Miller] backing up all three spots, and then he got hurt in the game. It’s tough when you’ve got all those guys injured like that. It’s tough.It's tough when you've got all those guys injured like that. It's tough."

Redshirt freshman quarterback Devin Leary has another tough night in his second career start, but Doeren doesn’t sound like he’s ready to give up on the talented youngster:

"I think Devin's going to learn as he goes. He just played probably the best two teams on our schedule back-to-back. The thing I like about Devin is that he doesn't get down. He makes mistakes like everybody has that we've put out there. He has good arm talent and he's gonna keep getting better."

As if all the injuries weren't bad enough, State played the game without one of it's best offensive linemen. Here, Doeren explains why junior guard Joe Sculthorpe didn't play, leaving true freshman Dylan McMahon to make his first career start against one of the nation's best defenses:

"It was a violation of team rules, so I held him out for the game. My choice. He'll be back next week."

One of the few bright spots for the Wolfpack was the running of freshman Zonovan Knight, who left last week's game after just three carries with a knee injury. Knight was admittedly slowed by the brace he was forced to wear, but still had plenty of explosiviness in posting his second career 100-yard game. He finished with 139 yards on 12 carries and an electric 53-yard touchdown.

Still, even in praising Knight's performance, Doeren couldn't help referring back to the mistakes his team made during the game:

"I thought Bam ran really hard. I was happy to see him bust a long run. that play in particular, our stretch play, was a good play for us tonight. It was one of the better things we didn offensively. The bottom line: we can't turn the football over and win a football game. We turned the ball over three times in the first half against a team that's as good as anybody that we are going to play every year. You just can't do that and we did. Bright spot is definitely Zonovan."

"I thought Devin played much better in the second half. He showed a lot of resiliency there. Got to get back at it. We have three games left and we still have a lot to play for."