Doeren tries to clarify his comments on knocking Gallman out of the game

by Tony Crumpton - Assoc. Editor - Wed Oct 26 15:39:33 GMT-04:00 2016

NCSU head coach Dave Doeren was asked on the ACC teleconference on Wednesday to clarify his comments on his television show where he suggested that knocking Clemson running back Wayne Gallman out of the game was a priority.

"Well, first of all, we have a lot of respect for Wayne Gallman. He's a really good football player," Doeren said. "My comments came in response to a question about what we did well in the game and how physical we were, the fact that we had four takeaways and that we stopped the run. It had nothing to do with being excited about injuring another player. I feel like a lot of that was taken the wrong way. That's not something that we prioritize ever is injuring somebody, but we are a physical football team that take pride in playing the game in a physical way, and the play was not ruled a penalty. I'd like to remind people of that. They did review the play. They had an opportunity upstairs to buzz it, and they didn't do that."

A North Carolina State official reached out to TigerNet on Monday evening and shared the following about Doeren's comments towards Gallman's head injury.

"Coach Doeren's comments during his weekly television program were in the context of the overall physical play of the defense, as he also referenced having four takeaways, a pair of goal line stands and giving up just two plays of more than twenty yards," the official stated. "Coach [Doeren] has great respect for Wayne [Gallman] and publicly praised him leading into the game two weeks ago. We are glad Wayne is well and wish him and Clemson success the rest of the season."

Clemson star running back Wayne Gallman during Monday's media interviews stated that he thought North Carolina State's Dravious Wright was intentionally headhunting on the vicious hit.

"Yeah. Pretty much (hit was intentionally dirty). He didn't lead with his hands." Gallman said. "He just came with his head. I saw it everywhere. I wanted somebody that was in the game to hurt him if they could since I wasn't able to be in."

Swinney shared during his weekly press conference that Gallman will be ready to play against Florida State on Saturday night.