RALEIGH — The Pittsburgh Panthers dominated NC State for the first time in the Dave Doeren era. In just two prior matchups between Doeren and Pitt head coach Pat Narduzzi, the latter had never beaten his friend and counterpart. He flipped the script Saturday, dominating with true freshman quarterback Mason Heintschel.
Doeren appeared to reach a new high in frustration for the 2025 season. He spent the week explaining that he felt the team improved some of its main issues during the time away and the bye week. The 13th year head coach spoke to the media following the loss, trying to figure out what happened once again.
Doeren’s Postgame Thoughts
From his opening statement following the loss
- “I’ve got a football team that needs to play better. I thought the first half, in particular, defensively, we did not play contested football. I thought it was way too easy for the quarterback. We played really soft coverage and gave up a lot of things.”
- “Defensively, in the second half, different story and had a lot of bad field position in the second half, but stopped him over and over and over, like five straight drives without a touchdown. So, I was proud of the adjustments, but we can’t play like that.”
- “Offensively, we’ve got to score, you know, we gotta score a lot more points than we are. When we’re in rhythm, I’m seeing a lot of good things, but with that defense, top 10 rushing defense, I knew we’d have to throw the football and we did have an explosive run, obviously, in the first half and hung in there with them score-wise for a while.”
- “You get behind two or three possessions and it kind of changes things as far as your play calling.”
On CJ Bailey’s struggles and throwing the ball away on fourth down
- “Yeah, just disappointed in that. I told him after the game, ‘You can run, man; things aren’t there, so run the football.’ Get us first down with your legs. It’s fourth and two. So he’s still a young quarterback.”
- “You know, as far as where he’s at mentally, he does a lot of things at an elite level. There’s always growth. And you know, that wasn’t what we prepared for.”
On why the things the team worked on during the bye week didn’t show up in the game
- ” It’s a good question. If I had the answer, we would’ve played a lot better. It’s not what I expected to see, and it’s not the team that I expected to see on the field. And I’m not blaming them.”
- “I’m the one that got them ready. So it starts with me, and I told them that in a locker and we got to coach better. They have to play better.”
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