Dave Doeren Speaks to Media Ahead of Bout with Tennessee
By Tucker Harlin
NC State head coach Dave Doeren spoke to media members in Raleigh ahead of the Wolf Pack’s contest against Tennessee in Charlotte on Saturday.
Doeren had a handful of remarks about the Vols in his Monday availability.
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Much of the conversation about the Vols centered around Josh Heupel’s system and how to effectively slow it down.
“When you’re playing against an up tempo, explosive offense, not allowing efficiency is a big deal,” Doeren said “As those guys get first downs, the tempo only gets harder and harder, and creating what we call ‘off schedule playcalling’ is important. Whether that’s an efficient first or second down on defense, creating long yardage third downs, and then getting off the field.”
Doeren had a few comments about the Vol running backs and how important their contributions are to the success of Josh Heupel’s offense.
“Their running backs are good players,” “They protect the football, they don’t fumble the football, they run hard. They don’t have a ton of schemes, they’re good at blocking and the backs are good at timing them up.”
When discussing the running backs, Doeren was sure to mention that Tennessee is not exactly the pass happy offense many thought it was when Josh Heupel first arrived in Knoxville.
“They’re balanced,” said Doeren. “A lot of these spread teams are not committed to running the football and Tennessee clearly is.”
One of the final questions Doeren answered was in regard to Tennessee quarterback Nico Iamaleava and how he would approach studying his film. Doeren made it clear the scheme is what makes Iamaleava successful.
“You’re leaning on the Iowa game for some of it, you look at their spring game knowing that’s DNA and kind of vanilla, and then you have the opener when he really only played a half of football,” Doeren said about Iamaleava. “You can watch Coach Heupel’s offense for a long time and see what it is, and the players in it are what makes it go. The scheme itself hasn’t changed a lot over the years, just the players in it.”
