Dave Doeren: "It's A Great Rivalry"
NC State head coach Dave Doeren met with the media one final time before the Wolfpack's regular season finale against rival North Carolina.
NOTE: Click the video above to watch the interview.
Opening Statement...
It's been a good week. It's fun. Rivalry week, practice, no school now so the guys get a little downtime to rest and recover. Big family dinner with everybody tonight. Excited.
It's been a good week, so, good practice, good preparation. We're looking forward to playing a really good team Saturday night.
I’m excited that the crowd's going to be what it is. I heard it's standing room only in the stadium. It should be an awesome environment.
Bundle up. Sounds like it might be a little chilly. Might have to have some warm drinks in the tailgating areas for everybody, but should be a good time.
How rewarding has it been to see the team respond since the bye week?
It's very rewarding.
We stood at a crossroads as a team coming off of that loss. A lot's been said about it. I asked them to look at five games as a new season, and how good can we be in a five-game stretch? Take it one week at a time. Everything in the world to win each and every next game, and that's what they've done.
When you're on top of a program, you're the CEO of a company, whatever it is, when you give a directive and everyone follows it as hard as they can, it makes you feel good. You appreciate their willingness and the fact that they're all in. I’ve got a lot of respect for my coaches for helping me lead it and the players for leading each other. Ultimately, that's what it comes down to. It's those guys holding each other accountable.
How fun has it been preparing for your rival?
Anytime we get to play a crosstown rival, it's a big game. There's great history in this game, like I mentioned in my earlier press conference. A lot of close games. A lot of wild finishes. They have a really good football team.
Two 8-3 teams fighting for 9-3. What else could you ask for in a game like this? So, we're excited for it.
Who was Drake’s rival?
The Dayton Flyers.
Kevin Johns was the quarterback at Dayton when I was coaching at Drake... the OC for Duke. They were our rival. Mike Kelly was their coach. They were a really good football team.
I remember those games vividly. They had our number for a while and then we were able to get them the one year we won the conference there when I was coaching.
All rivalry games are big. When I was at Shawnee Mission Northwest, the Fighting Cougars, we had big rivalry games there too with the other Shawnee Mission schools.
All those games matter. These high school teams that play each other, no different. When you talk to a recruit on the phone and they’ve got the rivalry game you can hear it in their voice. They're excited.
Do you remember the day Payton Wilson flipped from UNC to NC State?
I do. I remember it well. It was exciting.
What a great player. That whole head-to-head was intense against them. Very happy that that happened for us. Every player matters. Every player. You never know who that player might be in the recruiting class when you get them.
As you guys know, it doesn't always turn out the way people think. Sometimes it's more than advertised with some kids. That one turned out in our favor in a big way.
Boy, he went through a lot. There were a lot of people that turned on him when he did that. For a young high school guy from the country to all of a sudden have a fanbase attack him, it was like, “Wow.”
That was pretty intense for him, at an early age he got a feel of that rivalry in a big way.
On attending Wilson’s high school wrestling match...
When you want a guy in your program, whenever you're allowed to be in their school, you're in their school. Whenever you're allowed to be. You show up. You're present. Multi-sport athletes, you're present.
When I was a position coach, whatever that second sport was, you were there. If they were playing basketball, you were at their game Friday night. You were eating team dinner if you're allowed to be at the team dinner. If they're a wrestler you were at the wrestling match. When it got to track season you're at the track meet.
That’s just what you did and what you still do if you're an assistant. I don't get to do that anymore. When they all go out on the road in the spring, I'm out raising money now. That's my new gig, I guess. Recruiting is about presence. It's about being there and building a relationship and being a part of that young person's life early.
How busy is the next week after UNC when it comes to roster management?
The whole country is like 'what's happening now?' You'll find out Sunday.
It's a mess to be honest. It's a mess. You hope that the young people involved get good advice and they listen to good advice because there's a lot of people that are trying to use these kids from other places to get money. That's the one thing that doesn't get talked about. These so-called agents that promise kids deals at schools, they get a cut. They're trying to make money off of these guys.
We're trying to keep them here. Help them develop and get a degree and be a part of a program and a family. They're trying to make a buck off of them.
You hope that guys don't lose out on that. I know there was a lot of players that went into the portal last year that didn't find a home. Which means they're not getting a scholarship. Which means they're -- if you leave one school go to the other school, what happens to your credits? Usually you lose some. Now you're not graduating at the same pace.
Nobody cares if you're not there anymore. No one's developing you. There's a lot of sad stories that have come out of this thing.
There are guys... you track where these guys go. A lot of these guys went out for things and didn't get what they thought they'd get. They're not playing as much. They're not playing well. They're on a losing team.
As we all know, the grass isn't always greener. I hope that in the next week a lot of kids make really educated decisions that have their education and their growth in mind.
The UNC game, people remember... do you talk with the team about how legends can be created in this series?
Absolutely. You can feel that. The number of players that are coming back for the game. We got a huge contingency of our former guys. You named off several of them.
JuMichael Ramos is coming back. Bra'Lon Cherry's coming back. Guys that I hadn't seen in a while. It's cool. You know what it means.
I heard there was a podcast the other night with Nyheim and Emeka talking about their big game. I didn't get to hear it, but that's pretty neat. That's what they want to get on a podcast and talk about, when it was their turn playing against them. You know what it means.
I know what it means to the other team, too. I've talked to a lot of their players that used to be in that on their team. Now that they're professionals or they're coaches or whatever, you see them. It's a great rivalry. It’s a great rivalry.
Thoughts on UNC’s offense...
It's super explosive, up-tempo, efficient. They've got a variety of skilled players that do different things. Whether you're talking about No. 9, No. 6, the tailback, No. 5, tight ends. The quarterback runs the whole show and is really, really good. That's an explosive offense with explosive players in it.
Coach Lindsay, their offensive coordinator, is an experienced guy. He's been in a lot of big games. He's coached against a lot of good defenses. He'll have a good plan. It's going to be fun. It's going to be a great game.
On Mack Brown still coaching at this age...
It's impressive. When I was a younger coach at Kansas in the Big 12, coach was at Texas. My recruiting area was the Metroplex. I would run into coach and his assistants a lot. I'd run into coach Brown. He was like a mentor to a lot of coaches in that league.
He's a Hall of Fame coach. You guys know how he is. He's very personable. He would always ask how I was doing. We built Kansas into a Big 12 Championship team. My last year there I had a linebacker that was the Defensive Player of the Year in the Big 12, Nick Reed.
He knew that. He was always courteous, cordial. Then he became an announcer. When I was here, I'd see him announcing games. We would talk.
I have nothing but great respect for coach Brown, a friendship with him outside of the rivalry that I do care about. How long he's been doing this, the fact that he came back. I don't know if I would do that personally, but you got to give him kudos for what he's doing there.
What has it been like watching Brennan Armstrong's journey through football?
It's inspiring.
Life's about how you overcome adversity, challenges, obstacles, failure. Brennan is a tremendous example of what NC State football wants to be about. Overcoming challenges, adversity, obstacles, failure, and shining because you did that. He is doing that right now.
We’re blessed that he came here and excited that he's getting the finish that he's earned. That he's getting his last year of college football to be what he had hoped for. Even though it was all over the place, the finish is what counts. Man, he's doing a great job with that.
Trent Pennix said the word of the week is Family. How does that manifest in this program?
For me, I got into coaching because of the brotherhood, the camaraderie, and the ability to help young people. To me, that happens best in a trusting environment... in an environment where you have to earn the trust, both sides of it. The coach has to earn the players' trust, the players have to earn the coach's trust. They got to learn about you outside of this sport. You got to learn about them outside of this sport. There's a lot of things that happen here behind the scenes. A lot of camaraderie, a lot of conversation.
It is a family away from families for all of us. Not just the coaches but the players. The players that leave their homes and come here, we want them to know that when they come in the Murph that we care about them, we love them, and we're going to help them. I think that just takes consistency and a long, long period of time.
I love the fact that not only our players feel that way, but our former players come back all the time.
Staff continuity. Unless guys are leaving to be head coaches, our coaches stick around. I think all those things are great. The visuals of, “he doesn't just talk about it, you can see it.”
You can see Alim McNeill comes back all the time. You can see these guys. When they get a bye week, they don't go to the Bahamas. They come back and they stand on the NC State sideline because they were treated like family when they were here.
On position groups being paired down...
Safeties, too. We lost two guys there at the beginning of the year. It's part of the sport. It's a contact sport. Sometimes your injuries pile up in one room. I'm proud of -- always have been -- with what Coach [Todd] Goebbel gets out of his position group. He gets a lot out of those guys.
The way that other players have pitched in to fill it in. Jordan Poole comes over there. KC jumps in the backfield every now and then. There's a lot of guys running the ball for us and doing a good job.
Three of the last five have been one-possession games...
I don't think I have to make them realize that. They lived through those games. It's all about finish. November is about finishing strong. That's one thing that we've done really well. I think we're 12-4 in the month of November since 2020, if I’m not mistaken.
This program knows how to finish the season. We're going to continue to push that. It's a big word, not just in the sport, but in what we do. If we say we're going to do something, let's go do it.