Doeren's Postgame Comments Following Wake Forest Loss

Here's what the NC State coach had to say about his team's 44-10 beatdown at the hands of the Deacons on Saturday

There wasn't a lot NC State coach Dave Doeren could say about the 44-10 beatdown his injury-riddled team took at the hands of No. 20 Wake Forest on Saturday.

Here's what he did say following a game in which everything that could possibly have gone wrong did go wrong for the injury-riddled Wolfpack, which falls to 4-4 overall (1-3 in the ACC):

On the early turnover by kick returner Keyon Lesane and being down 21-0 in the first quarter:

"That was a bad situation for us to be in on defense, obviously. The whole first quarter didn't go our way. We didn't get off the field on third down. Field position was pretty critical in this football game on the road and we didn't have any. We had 99 yards, 97 yards and 98 yards (to drive). It was critical in a game like that."

On the performance of first-time starting quarterback Devin Leary, who was 17 of 45 for 149 yards a touchdown and two interceptions:

"He made some good throws. He was in a difficult situation, being down 21-0 and they were able to defend the coverages at that point. You get up by three scores, you don't have to defend the run the way you would in a tight game ... (He) did some bad things, too, and it's going to be a great game for him to learn from. A tough way to learn, but Devin just keeps fighting."

Doeren was asked how he will handle his young, injury-depleted team in the Wake of this loss, with a game against defending national champion Clemson looming:

"We've just got to get better. I can't even look at the score right now. We got 10 penalties and three turnovers. There's a lot fo fix."

"I think for us, the guys we can play with, what can we do to help them be in the best place mentally and physically, and put together a plan that they can go out and execute? It doesn't matter who we play. It's just us getting better and if you do that, (with) the young football team we have, who knows what can happen? We just need some good things to happen and a lot of guys were dropping passes, and that didn't help ourselves a little bit."

Doeren was asked about an injury situation that got even worse Saturday with running backs Zonovan Knight and Trent Pennix, along with starting linebacker Isaiah Moore all leaving the game and not returning:

"It's code red. We've got a lot of guys out."

In the end, Doeren sounded resigned to his team's fate against a team that is arguably a Wake team that leads the ACC in passing offense, ranks second in scoring and is arguably the second-best in the league behind next week's opponent, Clemson:

"You have to give them credit. That's an experienced offense that's operating at a high level. There's a reason they're where they're at statistically in the ACC and they're competiting against a bunch of young guys right now that are trying to do the best they can do. And we have to do better with them."