Doeren's debut a success

Source: Winston-Salem Journal, N.迷你倉C.Sept. 01--RALEIGH -- It was a successful debut for N.C. State's 2013 football team and new coach Dave Doeren on Saturday, but a short-lived one for quarterback Brandon Mitchell.The combination yielded a few mixed results, but the Wolfpack accomplished the main objective with a 40-14 victory against Louisiana Tech on a steamy season-opening day at Carter-Finley Stadium.The Wolfpack's new quick-paced, no-huddle Pistol offense clicked in a hurry under the dual-threat Mitchell, a graduate student who arrived from Arkansas this summer. Mitchell, however, was hurt on State's third offensive series and left the game with the Wolfpack up 14-0.Doeren confirmed that Mitchell's injury was to a bone in a foot and that recovery time is expected to be four to six weeks.Pete Thomas, a former Colorado State quarterback who was assigned backup duty to Mitchell on Wednesday after a preseason battle for the starting spot, took over from there and completed 15 of 27 passes for 212 yards in his debut. Doeren mixed in Bryant Shirreffs in a Wildcat formation and freshman quarterback Josh Taylor in the closing moments." A lot of guys got to be part of this, including four quarterbacks -- that was something I didn't plan on -- but it worked pretty good for us, I guess," Doeren said. "I'm real proud of Pete the way he came in."Doeren said he was pleased with the performance of a thin offensive line, a running game led by freshman Matt Dayes (84 yards, three touchdowns), the receivers' yardage after catches, a defense that had four takeaways and special-teams play. Niklas Sade kicked four field goals.The Wolfpack's start couldn't have been much better. Mitchell, adding a running dimension at quarterback, passed for two first downs and ran for one on an opening 65-yard drive that ended with Tony Creecy's 3-yard touchdown run.Mitchell followed on the next d儲存倉ive by connecting with Rashard Smith on a 56-yard pass, and the Wolfpack led 14-0 after a 2-yard run by Dayes less than six minutes into the game.From there, the Wolfpack turned to the more one-dimensional Thomas, primarily a passer."We'll be good with Pete in there, too," Doeren said. "We're excited about the different things we can do."Thomas said he was disappointed that the Wolfpack "left some points out there.""We can't do that," he said. "I feel we kicked too many field goals. We did a good job of converting them, but we need to punch those in."Dayes was a bright spot."I was pretty much expecting a lot of carries, and I had prepared for that," Dayes said. "As far as the quarterbacks, we have confidence in all of them."Louisiana Tech, which led the nation in total offense last season but lost 32 seniors and had just six returning starters, had 118 yards rushing from Kenneth Dixon but not much else. The Bulldogs lost three fumbles in the first half, but got as close as 27-14 early in the fourth quarter on a 12-yard run by Dixon.But Dayes' final touchdown, on an 18-yard run with 7:13 left, all but iced the victory and spoiled Skip Holtz's debut as Lousiana Tech's coach."I thought our defense competed, but I thought the second half, offensively, was really bad," Holtz said. "If we don't turn those two balls over in the first half on the 10-yard line, it's a 21-all game.... Hopefully, if we learn from those (mistakes), this could be a beneficial tail-whipping."Doeren said of his team's defense: "They held an offense that averaged 590 yards last year to 321 yards. I know they lost a lot of guys, but that's still a prolific offense. And our offense ran for 237 yards. That's good."Copyright: ___ (c)2013 Winston-Salem Journal (Winston Salem, N.C.) Visit Winston-Salem Journal (Winston Salem, N.C.) at 2.journalnow.com Distributed by MCT Information Services迷你倉價錢