Dave Doeren: "It's Been A Good Week"

NC State head coach Dave Doeren met with the one final time before Saturday's matchup against Stanford.  Check out what all he had to say.

NOTE: Click the video above to watch the interview.

Favorite Halloween candy...
Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, for sure. Yeah, I love peanut butter. I need to eat peanut butter and chocolate, really. I do miss, in Wisconsin, we'd take the kids trick-or-treating there. The parents would hand the other parents beers at the door. The kids would get candy and the parents would get nice Wisconsin beer. I do miss that. 

Do you give out bourbon to the parents? 
I don't. Maybe one day I'll do that, but right now it'd probably be considered inappropriate.

How's this week gone in prep for Stanford? 
It's been a good week, yeah. Beautiful weather, as you know. Guys definitely benefited from the week. Not just in the rest that we could give them, but the chance to really narrow in on things. Fundamentally and schematically, that we want to do better. It's been a good week. Take some hitting off of them, but still get some quality work in.

Get some young guys some work. We did a lot of that during the bye week with the developmental guys. It's good to see their progression since fall camp as well. 

Do you think the most developmental guys in particular stand out to you? 
It's fun to see the body changes and the confidence.

Elijah Groves, the guy that's put on 20 good pounds. Seeing him and where he's at compared to when he got here, where he didn't know anything in our defense. It's fun to see that. Chase Bond, another young guy that's gained... he’s almost 280 pounds now. It's good to see him.

Able to give Kamen Smith... guys that travel but aren't getting game reps, able to give guys significant work. It's fun to see that. Give Lex Thomas a lot of work as quarterback. Jonathan Paylor. Again, seeing his progression. As you know, in high school he kind of did everything. How he's progressed as a true receiver. But he's good.

On Tuesday, we scrimmaged them. They were able to hit. Ronnie Royal III, Brody (Barnhardt). Seeing guys hit and cover and make plays. It was fun for those guys to be able to do that.

On Tuesday, when you talked to the players, they mentioned getting that win at Cal. Having that open day. It was kind of like a monkey coming off their back. They got a chance to breathe. Have you seen any renewed sense of energy in practice? 
Definitely. The reward is winning. The prior two games, we were right there and didn't get it done. Going through what we did emotionally as a team. Through Grayson's injury. CJ becoming the guy. Now it's his team. He got that win. The comeback win. We played as a team together on the road. Eight straight weeks. All the things that went into that eighth game. To see them overcome that against a team that's really good on the defense. It was a great win. You get that momentum going into a bye week. Alright, here's what's left. Here's the four teams. Here's how it lays out. Another bye coming after Duke. There's definitely that confidence that you get from a win. And excitement about what you can do for the rest of the season. 

I know Grayson has been on the sideline all season. Even when he's been out. But since officially announcing his retirement, what's it been like to see him in practice with the guys? 
He's coaching. He's really good at that. Just talking to CJ through a player's lens. It's fun to see him get disappointed at other guys. When you become a coach, you get mad. Because you see a guy do something. You're like, why isn't he doing that right? So to see that side of him. Now I know why you get frustrated. Those are the first comments you get from players that become coaches. They can see now why their coach gets mad sometimes. Because it does. It seems so simple. And then you get out there and it doesn't work. But he's got energy. He's very insightful. He cares a lot about CJ's development. Lex's development. And he's smiling and having fun with it. So that's important too in this transition. That he gets back to letting the game get back to him. 

You mentioned the developmental guys doing a lot of work there. How do you balance that in these last four games? Being able to get the reps? 
Well, we use the four games when we can. Based on our needs and how they can help us. We don't take the guy off the field on a special team and just insert a guy. He has to show us that he's capable of helping us. And if he does show us that, then we put him out there. And try to use, if we can, three to four games. Knowing that you can't have a fifth in postseason when you qualify. But sometimes early in the year, they're not ready. And so it's not even a consideration. And then you start seeing him get better and better and better. And now you have an injury. And Coach Goebbel does a good job of evaluating them on the scout team with special teams as well. So when our kickoff return is blocking a scout kickoff guy and he consistently makes plays, this guy is someone I need to look at on the other side of the ball. And so it's an evolution. It's a fast season, but a million things happen. And guys do develop and grow up during the season.

Last year, Brandon Cleveland didn't play really until the sixth... and then all of a sudden by the bowl game, he was starting. So guys can get a lot better over the course of the season. And then throughout the year, they handle that developmental piece the right way. 

Is Zane Williams kind of that example getting his feet wet in special teams?
Definitely, yeah. Zane's been effective on special teams for us. He's doing good things. Ronnie Royal III, same thing, been effective. Asaad Brown Jr., you know, he's getting some reps in there now doing that as well. You see Isaiah Crowell's a guy that made plays on special teams throughout the year. And then we needed him on defense and we had confidence, you know, because he was out there making those plays. 

We talked to Dante Daniels a few weeks ago. So, from your perspective, what, you know, where has he grown as a person and as a player since being here? 
Well, that's a long answer, you know, because he's been through a lot. You know, his stories. I don't know if you guys told his story or not. I haven't read the news. But his story is, you know, a lot different than most people's stories. He's been through a lot. He's at peace. He's forgiven people in his life. I think he's very, you know, grounded. He's engaged, you know, so his life is different than a lot of college people's lives. He's still learning, being from Canada and playing American football, how different things are and getting better as he does that. But, yeah, it's been fun to see him transition. And I love recruiting junior college players because they come in so grateful because there's nothing at those places, you know. In some cases, no one's there to tape their ankles. They got, obviously, no training table. They eat at the cafeteria. And then all of a sudden, someone hands you a shake and you're like, what's this? You know, you're giving me something, you know. And so the appreciation and gratitude, especially his story, you know, going through what he did as a youngster. So I'm really hopeful for his growth because he's got a huge upside still and he's just now starting to make plays for us and get better and better as a blocker.