Combating FSU's fast starts, learning to play on the road, but no clarity on QB situation

Coach Dave Doeren: 'Wait and see' how much -- if any -- Bailey Hockman will play on Saturday

Coach Dave Doeren's avoidance of the subject about his quarterback situation, combined with some optimistically cryptic comments by backup Bailey Hockman on Tuesday have led to specuation that changes might be coming to NC State's quarterback situation for Saturday's ACC opener at Florida State.

Asked Thursday about the possibility of Hockman seeing significant action in the game, Doeren did nothing to dispel that speculation by saying only that "We’ll just have to see how much he’s out there, to answer that question.”

Among the other subjects the Wolfpack coach touched on in his final meeting with the media before the game were slowing down a Seminole offense that has outscored its opponents 56-9 in the first quarter this season and what, if anything, his young team learned from its first road game two weeks ago at West Virginia.

Here's the video of his comments ...

On taking the ball first after winning the coin toss because of FSU’s first quarter success this season …

“It’s a discussion that we’ll have. We’ll look at the conditions first, see if there’s weather, wind or any of those things. Obviously they’ve been really good. The advantage of being out there on defense is that if you get the stop, you get better field position usually on your opening possession and then you gain a possession coming out in the third quarter. We’ve been really good at having the momentum play at the end of the second quarter, then having the ball back in the third. That’s the thought behind it. So obviously it’s something to consider in a game like this.”

How much momentum does a team get from scoring late in the first half and getting the ball right back to start the second?

“I think it’s huge. We call it a two-fer because you have a chance to get two scores back-to-back. It’s really a big deal in the game. There’s a lot of momentum going into the half when you do that and if you can start fast in the third, which is something we need to do better … we broke out in a lot of games last year when you’re in halftime with a three-point lead, seven-point lead, then you look up and you’re up by 14. Those kind of things can help.”

How much incentive do you have to get Bailey Hockman extra snaps on Saturday?

“We’ll just have to see how much he’s out there, to answer that question.”

Have you seen anything on tape that explains FSU’s first quarter success?

“I couldn’t really (tell) you. They’re playing good football, they’re just not executing as well amd the defenses are probably not used to the speed they play at. It’s kind of like playing Georgia Tech when Paul Johnson was there. You’d see a lot of people catching up as the game went on. But the first quarter … they have great skill. So you’ve got to be ready for their speed.”

Is there anything that happened at West Virginia that you’ve tried to correct for this road game?

“I didn’t think we had great sideline energy. You go from having 115 teammates to 70-whatever we bring, 72 this week. Obviously the crowd’s against you. That’s the same on every road trip. It’s just a young team and there wasn’t the calming James Smith-Williams, Nick McCloud. So I had to learn from that. We’ve got to educate our guys better about the road. It was a great experience in a bad way for our guys. We learned a lot from that trip. Not that I’m glad that we lost that game. I’m not. But I’m glad we had the opportunity to go on the road before we start conference play and play in a place like that.”

How odd is is that this will be FSU’s third ACC game and State’s first?

“It’s unique. And obviously they opened with Boise as well. They’ve got a good schedule. I think next year we open with an ACC game on a Thursday night. So it’s out of my control. Having the State Fair here makes our scheduling unique as well, because we don’t play home games for that window. It pushes people front and backwards on our schedule.”