Dave Doeren wants Carter-Finley Stadium rocking on Saturday, and he made that message plain after practice this week ahead of NC State’s matchup with Louisville.
The Wolfpack coach said Louisville is walking into what he views as its first real road test of the season, and he’s asking NC State fans to turn the place into a problem for the visitors.
“I’m asking for our players and for the program, if the crowd can just be on fire in this one for us from start to finish.”
Doeren said the home crowd can swing momentum in a game like this, especially with Louisville’s offense bringing a challenge that makes noise even more valuable. He pointed out that the Cardinals “have not” dealt with crowd noise all year and said the Wolfpack’s fan base needs to lean into that edge.
“They haven’t had crowd noise all year, they have not. This is their first real road test for them.
Our fan base needs to dig in on that. We need people out of their seats, screaming and yelling when the opponent’s out there on offense.
You are a factor when you do that.”
He also noted the atmosphere has mattered before, bringing up past big nights at Carter-Finley.
“But when it’s live in there, man, there isn’t a better place than college football,” Doeren said.
Before getting to the crowd, Doeren spent time on the Wolfpack’s own progress through four games. He said NC State has improved each week, though the opener was not where the team wanted to start.
“We’ve gotten better every game. The first game was not a good performance,” he said.
He praised the second game as “an outstanding football game” and said the team has grown more physical, especially in the run game and against the run. Special teams, he added, have been steady.
Doeren also talked about the changes NC State has made to its practice schedule. The structure is different, but the volume is the same, with the goal of pushing the intensity later in practice.
“It’s been a good change,” he said. “I mean, we do the same number of periods. It’s just in a different order to try to intensify the latter part of practice.”
For him, the bigger issue is focus. He said attention spans are harder to manage now and that one missed moment in football can flip everything.
“Societal distraction is maybe at an all-time high,” Doeren said. “I think every one of these young men we coach has grown up with a cell phone on his desk.”
That led into a larger point about discipline on Saturday. Doeren said NC State can’t afford to match Louisville’s mistakes if the Cardinals do make them, and the Wolfpack has to stay clean while staying aggressive.
“We’ve got to play a clean football game, an aggressive football game, and within the rules, try to keep as few yellow flags as we can from being thrown on our team,” he said.
On the defensive side, Doeren discussed the challenge of stopping athletic quarterbacks and why that’s such a difficult thing to simulate in practice. He said the key is body position, leverage and discipline rather than full-speed tackling.
“The hardest thing on defense is tackling athletic quarterbacks, ’cause you just don’t do it in practice,” Doeren said.
He added that players can still improve by getting their bodies in the right place and finishing the way they would in a game.
Doeren also had praise for NC State’s tight ends, a group he said has been productive and reliable after entering the season without much attention.
“I’m proud of those guys,” he said. “They just quietly go about their business. They show up to work, they’re productive, they’ve been versatile, and they’re being rewarded for it.”
As for Louisville, Doeren described defensive end Clev Lubin and the Cardinals’ front as a major challenge. He called Lubin “deep, long, big, yeah, productive” and said the group has already been tested against strong competition.
“They definitely present a great opportunity for our offensive line, tight ends, and backs to be physical,” Doeren said. “And we gotta build a wall.”
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