Charlton Warren: "It's An Open Competition"

NC State co-defensive coordinator and safeties coach Charlton Warren met with the media to discuss his position group, the start of spring practice, and much more.

NOTE: Click on the video above to watch the interview.

What’s it like getting out there with them and hands on the practice field?
That's what it's about. I mean, really, the meetings and the OTAs and the morning markers are great, cuz it pushes our kids. But as a guy that loves to coach fundamentals and technique and get into the game and be a competitive, fiery guy, that's what it's about.

I get to teach and instruct and be hands on with my guys and make an impression with them about fundamentals and technique, and it gives them a chance to see their work and then they have success by doing it right.

It just builds that trust and that foundation you need from as a position coach to a player. So it's been great, really great. 

Can you tell us about the implementation of the new system so far? 
It's been great.

I think the number one thing for me in football is fundamentals, techniques, and eye discipline. And I think no matter what system you're putting in, that is what you're trying to lay the foundation for. Cuz if your technique is right, your fundamentals are right, your eyes, and then lastly, your communication. If those things are right, no matter what you do, you give yourself a chance to win a football game because when you don't execute and you don't play with good fundamentals and technique or eyes, then you give up an explosive play.

So regardless of the system, right now, we're really focused on the process. And I tell guys, I'm, in some regards, not worried about the result of a play today in practice as a result of how we arrived at that, the process of how we arrived at that result. Cuz it's all about the process right now for us. 

When did you decide or determine that you wanted to be a coach and you wanted to be as hands-on as you are? 
Wow. I think for me, my journey's a little different with four years at the academy, ten years active duty military. So to be honest, I never was gonna be a coach. I wanted to be a general in the Air Force. And so I did ten years, but my last two years, I got sent back to the academy to start coaching football. And I was just able to see how you could change a young man's life. You can recruit him, you can develop him and raise him from his teen years. And then you can graduate him, send him off to be a fighter pilot, a doctor, a lawyer, a husband, a father. And that just spoke volumes to me with my time at the academy as a military coach. So when it came time to move, I said, you know what? 

I love my country, I love what I'm doing in my career field. But I feel like I can have a bigger impact on kids' lives by doing that. And that's why I tell people all the time, the first thing I am is a mentor. I'm a father first, then I'm a mentor, and then I'm a coach.

Is it harder with the portal and all the movement in college football to do that? 
I think the portal and the movement, it has made things very transactional. But my job as a coach is to build a relationship. And sometimes you can build a relationship over two years of recruiting and they come to you. And sometimes you build a relationship by making an impression on that young man and family in the three weeks of the portal. They get to know you as a human, cuz it's not about football right now. It's about, can I trust the guy that's gonna coach me and take care of me? And then I think once they get on campus, it's all about relationships. So I think, yes, I don't ever wanna use that as an excuse for why I don't have a great relationship with a player. But I think you have to work harder when the time margin is shrunk to build an impression on that young man and that family to let them know that you care about them. 

What's that process been like this past few months that you've been here? 
It's been great. These kids, one thing they wanna do is they wanna be coached. And they wanna work hard and they're tough. And that makes my job a lot easier cuz they got a lot of want to. I'm not prodding guys to do anything. They're open eyes, open ears, notebooks ready. They're being sponges right now. As a guy that loves to teach, that's awesome. I don't have to, hey, stay awake, stand up. No, those guys are bright-eyed, bushy-tailed and ready to roll. And they're just soaking everything in. And they're trying really hard to make the process work. So it's been great.

What's been your role as a leader, a vocal leader, or leader by example? 
I think Rente (Hinton) has done a really good job of being a vocal leader, a leader by the way he works and acts. Being a second coach on the sideline when something goes wrong to help explain as I'm coaching other guys. I think he's taking that mature stance to help the defense get better and help our program get better. He has been an emerging leader since I got here. I mean, he was the first one to come meet with me one-on-one. He's been the guy that did a great job in morning workouts. And he's been a guy that's on the field, has been leading in multiple ways. So I think, no, he is experienced, he is older. He's been able to watch other guys become leaders to allow him to elevate to the leader he is. 

Obviously a lot of new faces in that secondary, but how good has it been to have some veteran guys come into that system and be ready to step right into those roles? 
It's been good, you don't start with a room full of guys that have never had experience in this game or experience on the game day. And that's the key thing is how many guys have game reps? Cuz it's great to meet, it's great to practice, but there's nothing like game day. And we do all these things for those opportunities. So to have guys that have been in the fire, that have had success, had failures, and learned from them when it really, really matters, right? We don't get a do over in a game, we blow coverage. So it's been great to have those guys to mix in with the new guys, but everybody's been great about soaking up the new information and trying to be a better football player. 

How hungry have you seen them? Cuz some of the guys have played, none of them really were in starting roles kind of last year. How hungry have you seen them? 
They're starving. Yeah. I mean, they're all starving because they haven't had 67 plays in the game. And I told them when I got here, no matter what you did in the past, you have an opportunity to rebuild yourself right now. I don't know anything about, I can't say much, but I don't know what the ins and the buts and the whys of last year. All I know is right now. So if you were a great player, you gotta prove it. If you were bad, you gotta prove that you're gonna be better. Everybody has an open chance, and it's an open competition. No one is, the jobs are open. And their enthusiasm and their hunger is what's gonna push them to earn reps or lose reps. 

Some of the guys, like, say, Brody Barnhardt, Zack Myers, you probably evaluated them in high school and knew them, recruited them. But now that you see them a few years later, what is it like to work with them? 
I think it just gives me a part of having a relationship where I knew a name and a face. I knew a mom and a dad. So there's a little bit more level of trust and relationship there than maybe a guy that I've never met, if that makes sense. When I come into a room and I never recruited you, I never met you, I'm just the ball-headed guy at the front of the room, and you gotta learn that. But if I recruited you for 18 months, and I know your mom and I know your daddy, I've been to your house, then that's a little easier transition, especially between me and the parents, once I take this job. So it's been good to have some familiar faces, Asaad Brown Jr., Brody Barnhardt, Zack (Myers). There have been some guys that I have some overlap with in the recruiting trail. 

Ronnie Royal III did everything for his high school team, and Coach Doeren has repeatedly brought him up over the last three, four months. What is it about him that makes everybody believe that one day he's gonna be very good?
I think it's like all these guys. They really, really work hard. They do a great job of giving us all they have when they're on the field, and Ronnie's no different. Play with good tempo, play with a great motor. You love to play the game, and you're very coachable. And I think that bodes well for a lot of those guys in that room, where they have a chance to continue to elevate their play and elevate their contribution to the team. 

Were you as hardworking when you were in college as you guys are? 
Well, a little known story, I actually won in college. I'll never say I was the biggest, I'll never say that I was the smartest, but I was a hard worker. I mean, our team at the academy, as a senior, we have the coveted award called Mr. Intensity. I actually won that award as a senior, which is a pretty big honor cuz your name goes on the wall forever and all that. And that's really a testament to not necessarily you're the greatest player, but you're one of the hardworking players. And I've been the same human my entire life. When I was in charge of programs, I was intense and fiery. When I was in the military special forces, same thing. I was a coach, no different. That's just sort of who I mold myself to be. And I try to put that on my guys, like a sense of urgency, and preach your butt off, and let the chips fall where they may. And we're gonna do it going 100 miles an hour, vectored in the right way. And so for me, it's all I've ever been.