North Carolina State University Athletics
NC State head coach Dave Doeren
Opening Statement
“First, I want to say thank you to our fans. I thought it was an awesome atmosphere for Military Appreciation Day. At one point during a dead ball, I looked up and kind of just took it all in. It was a good win for our team. It wasn’t pretty in the second half at all, but we got to 2-0 in ACC play, something we haven’t done in 11 years, so we’re happy about that. Defensively, we knew it was going to be tough. They average 35 points per game, and we held them to 25.”
On the Dakwa Nichols injury
“Dakwa Nichols will be out for the season. I’m not sure of the extent of the injury, but he will have surgery on his knee tomorrow. I feel for him. He’s a great young man that’s put a lot of time into our program. We’ll be praying for him.”
On Nyheim Hines’ performance
“He had over 100 yards, and If you know the young man, he is so competitive. Track guys are all about PR’s, and that’s all he talks about, so each game is a measuring stick for him. He was at 99 yards last week, and that probably hurt him. He competitiveness is elite.”
On going 2-0 in ACC play
“I was really, really happy. I was ecstatic, you know? I told the team, you have a choice. We’re trying to leave a legacy with our senior class. We haven’t been 2-0 in the conference in 11 years, and our senior class did that. I told them in practice this week, they were going to have be great leaders this week, and they did a great job with that.”
On the team focusing on the ‘here and now’ as the season progresses
“We’ve got to find a way to win, and we want to be better than we were the week before. That’s all we talk about right now. It’s just trying to keep them right here, right now. [We’re enforcing] the 12-hour rule, really the eight-hour rule. We’re two days removed, and tomorrow will be ‘Game Week Monday.’”
Syracuse head coach Dino Babers
Opening Statement:
“Once again, I think that when you look at that football team, NC State, (they're) very physical, very strong in their front seven. The job that their offensive line did on our defensive line to rush for the yards that they rushed for was absolutely amazing. Once again, (they have) fourth, fifth year guys that have been around a long time. My hat goes off to Coach Doeren. That was a physical football team, and they deserved the victory. They beat us physically. Good luck to those guys.”
On cleaning up the team’s penalties:
"We'll have to go back and check some of those. We're allowed to turn penalties in, and the officials tell us whether they were right or wrong. For the most part, I thought they were kind of balanced based off of what was going on out there, even though statistically it looks a little bit different."
On the offense’s tendency to gain momentum in the second half:
“We’ve got to find a way to start faster. That’s the bottom line. You can’t spot the LSU Tigers and the NC State Wolfpack leads like that and then expect to run them back down in their venues with their crowds behind them. The way we come back is really good, but you just can’t spot good football teams that big of a lead. It’s just a matter of working through the opening moves of a chess game and trying to figure out what the guy is trying to do. Then you make your adjustments, and you go for it. We need to do a better job faster.”