Dave Doeren: "That's What We're Excited To See"

NC State head coach Dave Doeren met with the media to discuss his team with spring practice starting this week.

NOTE: Click the video above to watch the interview.

You got two new coaches on the offensive staff and you moved a couple coaches to new position groups. Just how has that gone so far and how has that transition been?

Yeah, it's been great. I think Coach Anae is exactly what I expected him to be, very creative, unique. You can see why he is a tough guy to coach against. He knows his system. He also is open to learning things, and evolving, and getting to know his players, and spends a lot of time watching them, studying them on Film. Coach Tujague brought great energy to the O-line. Coach Garrison did a great job here, and so he walked into a room that loved their former coach, and I think he's done a really good job of building his own relationships, and teaching them new things, and adding to their repertoire, giving them new tools. I'm excited to see those guys this spring, coach in action. And so Coach Goebbel and Coach Roper moved to other spots. I've seen Coach Roper in the quarterback room prior, and that's been most of his career.

And so it brings a lot of experience as a teacher to that room. And then Coach Goebbel’s coached everything but 0-line. If you look at his resume, you'll see that he's coached about everywhere and being on special teams, he's got really good relationships already with our running box. He's coached those guys in that area for their entire career, so he'll bring a lot of toughness to that group. I know that he'll be demanding. I'm excited to see what he can do to help those guys continue to grow. He is a really good motivator and so time will tell, but all signs are pointing in a good direction here and the unity of that, that staff has been excellent.

A lot of attention sometimes goes with transfers and recruits, but you look at it as Payton Wilson might be your biggest offseason recruit.

Anytime you get a guy back that has that kind of experience on your team, and we had a bunch of those last year, it means a lot. And Payton's grown up so much as a person and a leader. I'm so proud of him and excited for him. He's in a great head space. He's doing a really good job just being himself, but also stepping out of his comfort zone a little bit and using his voice more. And I would've told you four years ago, it's probably his biggest fear is public speaking. Just seeing him now get in front of the team and talk when he needs to. He's done a great job with that and so, very proud of him, excited for the program to have someone of his caliber back and praying that he's going to have the type of year that he wanted to have as his final season.

Dave, I joined a little late, so you may have already answered this, but you've had some turnover in the wide receiver room. Just how excited are you see some of those younger guys this spring?

Yeah, yeah, it's definitely a group that's worked hard. They know they have an opportunity. Keyon's really the biggest guy back from a playing time standpoint, and so there's a ton of people in that room that are going to be competing to get the ball and excited to see how that evolves. And then there's some new faces coming in too with Dacari Collins transferring in. You see Javonte Vareen here as an early grad, KC Concepcion here as an early grad. So there's a lot of competition for the football in the receiver, H-back, tight end rooms.

And because of what we lost there, I think you're going to see some new faces obviously, and some guys in some new roles. And then you have some guys that have played a little bit that are trying to play a lot. You've got Anthony Smith, Josh Crabtree, Julian Gray; guys that have been here that are Porter Rooks, Porter probably being the most experienced guy that wasn't a starter. Those guys trying to now step onto the platform as "the guy". And so this brings in a really important time for these guys to get out there and showcase what they can do and compete.

I wanted to ask you about Robert Kennedy. You added him from Old Dominion, and what appealed to you with him in the transfer portal?

Well, we needed to find an older player or two in the back end. We lost a lot on the secondary, lost four of our five starters. And even though there's guys back that started a lot of games, the depth went from having two guys that can be starters to one guy that's been a starter. And so we wanted to add with Tyler Baker Williams' departure to graduation, another guy that could compete in that nickel room that was older, felt like that would help that room a lot. Joaquin Harris is back and Devin Bodkin is back, guys that have started at Safety and Nickel.

So just getting one more older player in there to compete with the younger guys that we have, and we thought was really important. He's a guy that's played a lot of football. He is really impressive on film now. Physical guy that can run, cover, blitz, tackle, and does all the things that we are looking for.

Obviously you've got a good team coming back, but the outside expectations that you had last year probably won't be the same this year. Is that going to be nice for you guys to maybe fly a little bit under the radar possibly this year?

Yeah, I mean, I think just the line of question ain't going to be a lot different. I don't know. I mean, I liked the position we were in last year too. I think we had a lot of good players that had earned that, and that was where we were at. This year's team's got more to prove, probably because the lack of returning starters, which maybe puts a bigger chip on our shoulder and we do fare well in that kind of landscape I think. But, this is a team that wants to prove themselves no different than last year's team. I think last year we knew we were up against expectations and probably complacency. This year we've got to out-kick kind of where people are putting us, and I think that's fun about this is just getting a chance to go out there and compete and prove who we are.

Does it change how you guys coach any in any way?

Not really how we coach. It definitely changes the conversations. I mean, you're going to be talking about different things. We don't have 21 starters back, so we're talking about a lot of different things in that room. And in our case, we got 40-some new faces by the time we start in August. We're talking about a lot of different things in last year when it comes to just the team chemistry and getting this thing to gel.

You had some great leaders last year who might step up and be one of your more vocal leaders this year?

Well, that's what we're excited to see. I think the off season program guys stepped up. Payton's obviously going to be one of them. Dylan McMahon, guy that played a lot of football for us. Tim McKay's played a lot of football for us. Those are our guys. Keyon Lesane played a lot of football at receiver, Jakeen Harris, Devan Boykin, Shy Battle in the secondary. Some guys with returning experience and then there's guys that are, by the end of the spring, may earn jobs that have a voice on our team.

Devon Betty being one of those guys has got a big voice, but he's got to win that job to have that voice carry the way he wants it to. And so we got to let competition and time play out a little bit before we know the complete answer to that question.

You mentioned Dylan McMahon. Obviously you've had him at the center now a couple of games and you've had success at that position. How do you view him long term at that position?

Well, I think we recruited him to be our center, and because of Gibby, he ended up being our guard. And with Gibby's departure, Grant Gibson, I'm talking about Dylan now, has inserted into the spot. We recruited him to play as a natural center. He is very good at that position. I think he's in a perfect position right now to lead the offense.

Being a guy with experience, kind of like Bradbury played guard. And then when Joe Scelfo left, Garrett slid inside and became a Remington Award winner over time. Would love to see Dylan in that same mold. It's going to be his to prove now, but we're excited to have a player of his caliber at center, of his athleticism. And the fact that he played it through high school, he is a natural at that position. It's not something, sometimes you're trying to train a guy to play it that's never done it, and that takes a little more time.

Yeah. Coach, we've had a chance, obviously to be around MJ and Ben Finley in these last years and kind of got to know them a little bit, but don't know a lot about Brennan. And can you tell us a little bit about the young man you've gotten to know and just your thoughts about him?

Well, it's a great room. I think Ben and MJ, great personalities, great team guys, fun watching them grow up over the last 12 months, both of them, and excited about the way that they're carrying themselves and look forward to watching them both this spring and in the future.

Brennan's a competitor. He's tough, small town guy, very blue collar, hardworking, ultra competitive, and the team runs all these competitions we do. He thrived, he loves to compete. He see that he, he's quiet in how he goes about his business, but he's not quiet in how he works. He's a really hardworking guy that's got a very consistent way about himself. He's the same every day as what we've seen. Just ultra-competitive, treats people with respect. I think he's quiet in how he talks to people, but he's earned the respect of the guys around him already.

It's fun having someone that knows the offense as a player because he is been very helpful going around with the other players, you can see, likes to serve others that way.