Dave Doeren Details NC State’s Bye Week, Pitt Game Plan

RALEIGH — NC State spent the last weekend watching football rather than playing for the first time all season, as the Wolfpack reached an open date after seven straight games.

Now, the team and head coach Dave Doeren turn their focus to the 5-2 Pitt Panther squad, led by head coach Pat Narduzzi. Doeren and Narduzzi trail only Clemson's Dabo Swinney as the longest-tenured ACC head coaches and share a great deal of respect for one another.

Doeren spoke about the upcoming matchup again his friend's program, as well as the Wolfpack's areas of improvement during the bye week at his weekly press conference Monday evening.

Watch Doeren's Press Conference here

Doeren's Memorable Quotes

Oct 4, 2025; Raleigh, North Carolina, USA; NC State Wolfpack head coach Dave Doeren with his team prepare to run out prior to the first half of the game against Campbell Fighting Camels at Carter-Finley Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jaylynn Nash-Imagn Images | Jaylynn Nash-Imagn Images

On the team's self-scouting efforts during the bye week

"The team definitely took advantage of the bye week, not just from the opportunity to rest and get healthy with some players, but after seven weeks, a lot of things to look at in all three phases. The biggest thing, we haven't played complementary football yet this year for four quarters."

"It's game to game, which side of the ball really plays well, or which part of the game that side of the ball plays well. And so it's a team that has a lot of improving to do."

Aug 28, 2025; Raleigh, North Carolina, USA; North Carolina State Wolfpack head coach Dave Doeren walks out during the warmups prior to the game against East Carolina Pirates at Carter-Finley Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jaylynn Nash-Imagn Images | Jaylynn Nash-Imagn Images

On the changes to the ACC and the parity of the conference

"I'll be honest, the whole time I've been in the league, every game has been a fight. It has. Who the teams are on top is changing more now. But, I mean, you can look across the board, man, and you see teams you don't think are going to play with that team and they do. And sometimes they beat them."

"Stanford had a heck of an upset over Florida State this week. I think you go across the board in this league, there aren't any easy outs. Obviously, with the portal, a lot of teams have opportunities to change the rosters ... But this league has always been a league that's well-coached."

On the team's mindset with a 4-3 record

"We've got a lot to play for. I told them today, I expect to win every game we play, every single game we play and we prepare that way. Sometimes we do and sometimes we don't from an outcome standpoint."

"But we have five games to play and, you know, you go 5-0 in those five games and you're sitting here with nine wins. We got a lot on the table and so we'll take it one at a time... You go in there, 'Hey, we got five left. Let's go 5-0,' and that's the mindset."

On NC State's third down issues on defense

"Not good enough. I think there's multiple things, you know, some of it's pass rush, we've got to get our pass rushers to win more one-on-ones. And I think there's been times where we've had success with that. Some of it's been coverage related and where we're just not, you know, we're too deep in the back end and too shallow in the front end and there's intermediates."

"At times, it's been execution. We had a great blitz dialed up at a perfect time in one of the games, I think it was a Duke game. It's going to be a sack by Sean Brown, and our edge players supposed to take the back releasing and doesn't and they throw it to him and he walks in for a touchdown."

On the performance of defensive back Asaad Brown Jr.

"I'm proud of Assad, you know, I can't remember when it was in training camp, but, you know, it became pretty clear that he and Jackson (Vick) at nickel were two good players stacked on each other and we knew he'd have to rotate in that first game with ECU..."

"We wanted to start cross-training Assad so that if there was something that happened, we could get our best 11 on the field. And clearly, with the injuries we've had at safety, something has happened, and so being able to move him was something that was a little proactive on our part with the training aspect."

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