Coach Dave Doeren's Duke Scouting Report
The NC State football team returns home for the first time since its season opener on Sept. 12 when it takes on Duke on Saturday at Carter-Finley Stadium.
It will be the first matchup between the Wolfpack and Blue Devils since 2017 and only the fourth time they've played since the ACC began expanding in 2005.
Both teams are coming off ACC road wins, with State beating Virginia in Charlottesville and duke rolling up 645 yards of total offense in a 38-24 victory at Syracuse.
Here's what Wolfpack coach Dave Doeren had to say about the Blue Devils and the upcoming game during his regular weekly media conference on Monday:
"I love the way our guys are buying into their preparation and practicing with an edge. They’re seeing that their investment does give them results, and two weeks in a row, something we can build on that way. We now move on to a crosstown game here with Duke, a game that’s been played since 1924. It’s only my second time in eight years getting to play against Duke and first time playing them in Carter-Finley.
"I know they’ll be very well-coached. I know they’ve had a tough go of it with turnovers, but they’re a really talented group on the defensive line, really good football coaching staff. I know their kids are smart and tough and they’ll play really hard against us.
"Just looking at them overall, they’ve turned the ball over 19 times and you can’t win doing that. I know that’ll be an area that they work really hard on. Their quarterback (Chase Brice) is a Clemson transfer, as you know. Their running backs really stand out to me. They’re tough kids, they run hard, they’re downhill, they don’t get tackled on first contact very often. Their receivers have good size. They have a 6-5 receiver in (Jake) Bobo and the tight end is their leading receiver.
"It’s nothing we haven’t seen as far as what they do in terms of their spread, no-huddle, pistol offense and all of the elements that you see from spread. For us, it’s going to be about getting better, continuing to work hard on stopping the run, being sound, playing hard, playing 11-man defense.
"You look at them on defense, I mentioned this already, but just turning the tape on (Victor) Dimukeje and (Chris) Rumph jump off the film on their defensive line. They’re very impressive. They’re very well-coached up front. They’re disruptive. But you take those two ends, and together they’ve got 10 (tackles for loss) and nine sacks between the two of them. They’re powerful guys, their Mike (Shaka Heyward) linebacker makes a lot of plays."
"They’re not an overly-complicated group, they play really hard. They line up where they’re supposed to. They’re very disciplined in coverage. They’ve got 18 sacks and 32 TFLs in their games, so they can cause some problems. They’ve been put in a lot of tough situations defensively because of their turnovers and that’s made their statistics a little skewed, but they do jump off the tape D-Line wise.
"For us it’s just a chance here to finally come home and try to get in a little bit of a routine playing home games. We will have Tyler Baker-Williams back this week. It’s nice to add someone to the secondary. It’s been a group that’s been losing players, and so we’re excited that he’s back with us."
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