Dave Doeren Postgame Presser vs. WCU

great to be one and0 and uh really proud of how we finished uh obviously game we would love to have playing better in the first half but I'm not going to apologize for winning either I think uh Western Carolina played a heart F game you know I thought defensively we didn't tackle well uh in the first half gave up some third Downs that that we usually don't offensively didn't convert on some drives went forward on fourth down twice and um didn't get it and so there was some frustration there we came in 1414 and really love how we responded you know I thought third quarter even though there weren a lot of points we had the ball for eight minutes on the opening drive got a field goal took a lead and then came alive you know in the fourth quarter and I was proud of our guys for that I thought Casey really had a great game offensively and sparked us I was proud of uh Jordan Waters responding because I don't think he played well in the first half and really responded and that was great to see and that's what you look for you know and then some veteran players DAV van made a big play you know and uh you lean on guys when you need him it's was good to see Grayson in there and I know he's going to talk to you guys in a minute and finally got to get tackled in first time in the year so that probably felt good for him but um you know winning is hard and being one and0 is is great having a couple days to recover and they get ready to go playing Charlotte against Tennessee any questions raise your hand for questions for Coach Rob mclam go ahead Dave do you think the fourth quarter was maybe some attrition you guys were we them down how do you think that shook out you guys well it helped you know what with the ball for 38 minutes uh time of possession I think and so you know time of possession helps you know um their rotation on defense probably being an FCS program and probably warm down I would think going in the fourth quarter I also think our guys woke up a little bit and just started playing better uh that's why you play games man you got to go out there and learn where you're at and um there's some nerves a lot of new players in the program probably and lot learned from but we stressed the fourth quarter I mean that's something that every day in practice we talk about being finishers and I thought that was something I was very proud of tonight Brian Murphy go ahead yeah coach I wonder if you could talk about the game you thought uh Grayson had seemed like there were probably a couple throws he'd like to have back but but overall did you did you think he perform pretty well yeah I do I think you know you hit it on the head and I'm sure he'll tell you the same thing there were some balls that you know if he would have put a little bit to the right or a little bit to the left would have been completions and and some of them potentially big gains but he played a good football game kept drives alive used his feet you know protected the football uh had the one pick early and after that I thought he settled in played a good football game but I know he's going to watch it and his accuracy is one of his strengths and so that'll be something that he'll continue to improve Noah go ahead hey KC kind of seemed like he was the the offense for for part of the first half did you anticipate you know as many targets as you got early on was it kind of just what the game you know gave the offense as a whole yeah I mean some of its progressions and we wanted to get him the football obviously on the plays we flipped it to him on and things like that but some of them are progression reads and you know they were trying to cover him with a guy one-on-one at times and we're going to win that matchup you know I think when we have one-on one's in the slot you're going to see him catch a lot of passes and there was a couple times they did you know play over under him and double them and you saw the ball go to other people Justin Jolie had some big catches for us in the game as well and we did get to spread the ball around a little bit it was good to see Terrell Anderson have a catch Noah Rogers had a couple catches Wesley Grimes had a catch you know so we're were able to get the ball in several people's hands Jaden go ahead I know ENT the game we talked about headsets the iPads and everything how much did that h your game plan later you know as as things progress or did it really at all no it did I think the biggest thing is when you get to the sideline you you know exactly what happened there is no the the question and answer portion of the show is over you know you just you hit the button you get to see that this guy didn't get it done or their guy beat us or we did a really good job doing this and here's how they're playing Us in coverage I thought the iPads were really uh advantageous and it's the same for both teams obviously you know you should probably ask the players about the headset how how that impacted them I did hear the coaches talking to them throughout the game and there's not nice things that you can do when you're you know giving your your quarterback or your linebacker some tips based on down and distance and some things that might happen but U I thought it went smooth Griffin go ahead hey coach you've mentioned leaning on players and also moving the ball around today were you prepared to lean as heavily on certain players like water with KC and then how do you feel like they responded today uh both responded well um you never know going into a game I mean you have your game plan but you know that when you get in it there's going to be things that happen and you just got to see and I wanted to see a lot I wanted to see a lot of these players how they'd respond to a game today I hadn't had 42 of these guys in a game before and so seeing how you know being down in a game you know being up in a game whatever it might be how they're going to respond and so like I said I thought we learned a lot as the game went on and guys grew last question from coach will come from David Hae hey Dave um I'm curious how much do you think the defense was impacted when Kate uh went out early with the flag and then was a quick follow up jiad you what his availability might be in the future yeah uh Kaden's one of our better players you know not having him hurts the defense there's no doubt about it and you'll get to see him obviously as the season goes on he's a physical presence in the Run game he's a guy that plays really really hard he's tough he's got good leadership skills so not having him in the middle hurt um there's no question about it as far as Jihad goes uh we felt like Jihad could go in this game but we also know that we've got a stretch coming up here and he wasn't 100% so our plan is to have him ready I think he could have played tonight but I think having him 100% % for these next couple games is more important so you'll see him against Tennessee um and games to come thank you guys