Dave Doeren's postgame press conference

NC State football Dave Doeren was understandably proud of his team on Saturday after rallying to beat No. 24 Pittsburgh 30-29 for its first road win against a ranked ACC opponent since 2017.

Even more satisfying than the result was the way the Wolfpack earned it -- overcoming adversity, a depleted secondary and a late deficit to score the winning touchdown on a 13-yard pass from Devin Leary to Emeka Emezie with 23 seconds remaining.

Here is what Doeren had to say about the win and the effort at his virtual postgame press conference ...

"That was a heck of a football game and I’m super proud of our young men and our coaches. We just talked about fighting and throwing the first punch, just continuing to throw punches and to make sure we throw the last punch. Our guys were very resilient. They know it’s a long year. They know there’s a lot of things going on in this COVID-era that makes things challenging and they really hung together this week. Kudos to them for doing that.

"We played a really good Pitt team today, a well-coached football team. I thought we had a good plan. I thought we used our tempo well on offense, changing our cadence up and getting them to give us a lot of free first downs in the first half. They adjusted. We adjusted. Devin Leary really played a stellar game in his first start of the season. I’m really proud of him and the way the wideouts caught the football, the tight ends. The running backs took care of it on the road. We said ‘no turnovers,’ and we were able to do that.

"Defensively, we hung in there. We had some good red zone stops. We had a good goal line stand. We had an unfortunate deal where we had a pick six that was called back. I personally didn’t think that was a very good call, but the guys still stopped them on that drive. I just thought they were resilient. We are down in personnel right now, so those guys really had to suck it up on that side of the football.

"I’m very proud of them. I think it says a lot about the fight of these kids and these coaches and I’m very thankful to that -- the way they just take a tough situation, make it theirs and do something great with it."

What can a character win do for a young team like this moving forward?

"I think it’s huge for the character. It’s huge for the confidence. It’s one thing to say ‘we can do it.’ It’s one thing to believe, but it’s another to go do it. It’s a tremendous thing for your quarterback to know it doesn’t matter what’s on the clock, that he’ll drive us down and score to win. It was a really good drive.

"There were some good play calls by (offensive coordinator Tim Beck). The kids executed well. They managed the clock and the time. The O-line protected against a really, really good defensive line. It’s a huge character deal, to answer your question, and the resiliency that they showed was awesome."

How depleted was the secondary and how did the grit show by Tanner Ingle carry over the the rest of the group?

"We found out on Thursday that we wouldn’t have Tyler Baker-Williams because of contact tracing. We had Josh Pierre-Louis, a true freshman, start his first game. We moved Taiyon Palmer during training camp from corner to nickel, and then last week had to move him back to corner. He didn’t take a rep of practice this week at nickel, Taiyon didn’t.

"So Josh Pierre-Louis goes out of the game, and we had to teach two linebackers how to play nickel on Friday. When you take Chris Ingram out, Teshaun Smith out, Tyler Baker-Williams out it’s pretty crazy what we’re dealing with. At free safety Khalid Martin is out, as you guys know, (Rakeim) Ashford is out.

I think there’s six DBs that are not playing that are in our two-deep. We’re very thin. It says a lot about the heart and toughness of that group. They need a cold tub right now. That’s what they need.

How would you assess the play of Devin Leary?

"As hard as it was for him not to play in the Wake Forest game, I think it was the right thing for us to do coming out of the quarantine that he had. It’s given him time to get back to where he needed to be, and he’s done a great job of taking coaching from Coach Beck. It was nice to see him with starting wideouts and starting offensive linemen and three rotational tailbacks and all the tight ends. I think you got a good glimpse of what he is and what he could be."

What does it say about the defense that it came up big when it had to, even after giving up some big plays?

"Heart. It’s just heart. We played a lot of football. There was a time there where offensively we weren’t getting a whole lot going. We were out there a lot, I thought, defensively in that third quarter. It was just a lot of heart and toughness. Obviously we don’t want to bend but not break.

"We’ve got to make plays. I think they got in some unbalance and we didn’t adjust well at times, and they had guys wide open because of that. So, we’ve got stuff we’ve got to clean up, but when it counted they stood up. They made some really key plays in some key moments, and they showed a lot of resiliency and toughness.

What was the biggest different in the run defense from the first two game and how much did Alim McNeill have to do with the improvement?

"It’s a joint effort when you stop the run. It’s not one guy. Obviously having Alim in the middle helps. It always starts inside-out, but as you guys know we didn’t play well in the rushing defense the first week because of our edges and in the second week for a myriad of reasons. It was great to see them get that shored up in Game Three.

'I thought we tackled better. There were some really good tackles in that game; some crisp, contact plays on defense. They were striking people. It wasn’t just dragging people to the ground, they were striking people in the run game. That was fun to see that, some knockback tackling. Guys are getting into game shape. Hopefully, we’ll have enough guys to continue to play. It was fun to watch them fly around there for a bit."

How good was it to see Emeka Emezie have a big game?

"It’s awesome for Emeka. He was struggling these past couple weeks just because his role wasn’t too big yet. He just kept fighting, kept working and kept practicing. Coach (George) McDonald does a good job with him.

"I was really happy for Emeka to make that play. He’s earned it by continuing to work hard. That was a big play for us on that drive, and obviously the fourth-down conversion with Thayer (Thomas) was huge, which led to the touchdown.

'Devin was nails, man. He did a great job of reading coverage and putting the ball where it needed to be."

How much did last week's performance play into the offensive line's strong performance?

"Obviously they took last game to heart. We worked really hard on our pass-rush fundamentals this week. There were some things that we got exposed on in week two, and that’s what we have to do. We have to take each week and try to get better. I think our offensive line took giving up six sacks in a game to heart.

"They saw what they were up against with Pitt’s D-line, and coach (John) Garrison and them had a great plan. Tight ends and backs are all part of that, too. There’s a lot of times when they’re in the protection with them. And then it’s just Devin throwing on time, not giving them too much time to get to him.

How much did Leary's calm under pressure carry over the rest of the offense on that final drive?

"That’s what they need. We’ve been waiting for him to become the guy. We’ve always known what his arm was. This team believes in him. You can see it in the locker room. They rally around him. He’s just calm and poised. He’s got a really, really good arm. He’s a tough kid and he really played a heck of a football game. I’m very proud of him and very happy for him."

You can follow us for future coverage by clicking "Follow" on the top righthand corner of the page. Also be sure to like us on Facebook & Twitter:

Facebook -- ACC Insider

Twitter -- @WolfpackMaven and Brett Friedlander at @BFriedACC

Add us as a preferred source on Google