Dave Doeren: "It's A Fun Group To Coach"

NC State head coach Dave Doeren met with the media to discuss his team's development throughout spring practice.

NOTE: Click the video above to watch the interview.

How have you been doing?  We haven't talked to you since day one. 
Been busy with the other sports, right? Just a little bit. Yeah, it's good. It's a fun team to coach. It's the one thing that, when you come off a season where you didn't like the results, or you were short coming up with where you wanted to end up, you know, record-wise, and you lost in close games, what you usually get back is a bunch of guys that don't want to go through that again, and they're coachable, their attention to detail, their want to, it's better, and that's been really refreshing.

The practices have been high-energy. There's back and forth competitiveness, offense, defense. Obviously, there's install going on with two new coordinators, so that's been fun, for me to watch just the process of the offense coming together, the defense coming together, but it's a fun group to coach.

You can see the growth in the returning players, too, so just picturing where C.J. Bailey was a year ago compared to where he is now, and all the reps that he's had, Lex Thomas, same way, feel really good about the two returning quarterbacks, and then Will Wilson's just getting better and better and better. That's a position most people want to hear about, but it's been fun to see.

And some of the new players, J.J. [Johnson] has been a really good addition in the secondary. He's made a lot of good plays on the football. Jaren Sensabaugh is doing a lot of good things in the secondary, learning a new position, playing corner and nickel for us, so that's been fun. Tra Thomas has been a really good addition, so, seeing him and, obviously, his familiarity with D.J.'s system has been a plus, just having that guy that can translate things to the players.

The leadership, Sean Brown's done a great job leading, vocal and with his play, his effort and practice. Hollywood Smothers on offense, Jacarrius Peak, like guys that were good players are now taking it to another level leadership-wise, so that's been a critical part of this break for our team. 

You mentioned the two new coordinators. How have you seen, particularly on the defensive side of the ball, defensive players and Coach Eliot's relationship kind of evolve? 
There's kind of a feeling out period at first when you have a new coach, and from getting to know each other, how you're wired, what you're about, how he teaches, and then, for him, how they learn. Some guys are great classroom learners. Some guys need to be on the field and walk through. Some guys need reps. And so there's that feeling out, and then for him, getting to know what all the players can and can't do well, right? And then he had a base install. This is what we're going to do, and now you can see it start to kind of tweak and lean in to where the player's strengths are. This guy can do this really well. Let's do this. This guy can do this really well. Let's do this. And so it's been fun to see, and that's kind of what spring is when you're a new coordinator at a school, is you have a system, but your system has to evolve to fit the pieces that you have in place, and then, obviously, we have an opportunity to recruit a little bit after the spring.

So I've been pleased with what DJ's doing, and I think the players today defensively, they made a lot of plays, so it was fun to watch.

Is there that back-and-forth between the two groups?  Obviously, they each want to get the better of them. 
Yeah, I mean, that's going against teammates, and there's a lot of that back-and-forth competitiveness and all of our skill on offense is back. So naturally, those guys are going to come out of the gates a little faster, but the defense, a lot of new guys in the secondary have played well. They're doing some good things. When they give up plays, they're learning from their mistakes, and it's competitive. I mean, obviously, Wesley and Noah and Dacari, they're some good receivers out there. They got to defend Justin in the tight end position. It's very competitive. I think the thing that jumps out to you is Hollywood, some of the things that he's doing. 

The running backs in general, we have good guys that can run the football, but their protection has been really good this spring, too. He seems to step in on the blitzes and playing square and playing without the football better. 

You talked about the changes in some of the other sports that have been happening. I mean, just your thoughts on the Will Wade hire. Have you had a chance to talk to him? 
We've texted back and forth. I've been pretty busy. We had pro day Tuesday, the day they announced him, so I actually texted him. It might be my busiest day of the year if we get announced, so we practiced. We had recruits here, and we had pro day. I look forward to meeting him. I mean, obviously, I trust Boo, and there's been nothing but great things. I don't read a lot of media, but I get the input from my sons and Sara. I'm excited for the basketball program. I was really excited for Wes, and I did get to watch their win over Michigan State. We looked awesome in that game, so I look forward to seeing their next one.

In regards to a lot of the players that registered last year, have you seen any of those take big strides in the spring? 
No, Chase Bond has really changed his body. He's doing a great job on the defensive line. Proud of Chase. He's worked really hard in the developmental program. Chazz Wallace, another guy that played in four games, and we redshirted him, and he's doing some really good things on the defensive line. Those two guys jumped out to me.

 Zane Williams is taking advantage of his reps, doing some really good things, tough guy, competitive, plays really hard. Excited to see what he can do. Ronnie Royal III, another guy that's getting a lot of reps, had a nice interception in the scrimmage the other day, trying to get through the player rolodex. 

On the offensive line, it's been fun to see our centers, you know, Jalen Grant, Rylan Vann. We're playing Spike Sowells at center end guard, so we get to see him play a lot in different positions. Those are the ones that jump out to me. 

You've had some of the younger receivers get to play both outside and inside this year. Is there a natural slot receiver? Is there anyone that you're seeing that's going to make it his home? 
I think getting the best three on the field is the most important thing. To say a natural slot, we don't necessarily have the smaller body guy there that you saw maybe in our offense in the past. It's going to get the best three on the field, and you'll see from Dacari to Keenan to Noah to Wesley, all of them can move around in the offense. And then we got to develop Teddy Hoffmann. I mean, he's a guy that can really catch the football. He's still learning, but he's probably the most natural, what you think about in a slot. It's just day 11 in college for him as far as football goes. 

You mentioned it was a fun group. How rewarding is that for you when you're February, March, and they seem to be a team you can embrace like that? 
Yeah, it makes coming to work a lot different. When you're coming in and you're dealing with egos and attitudes, it's not a fun job, and this has been the opposite. It's been a really team-oriented group of guys that want to win, want to get better. They're very coachable. They can handle criticism. When they give good feedback, they're intentional about getting better. They want to watch film. They want to meet. They want to lift. There's just no complaining, and it's very refreshing to be around them. 

With revenue sharing, have you had to come up with a formula for how you distribute that? Is it bottled on kind of how the NFL does it? 
Yeah, we did a lot of study during the season on what other people were doing and how they might do it, you know, if things get past them, as we expect here in April. Talking to the NFL helps, but, as you know, it's different just because we have two free agency windows, more or less, and so that part, the attrition, and, players leaving, players coming in, makes it more challenging, I think, than the NFL, but you definitely lean on people in the business that you trust. Andy Vaughn, our GM, really, really smart guy. I trust him. He does a lot of studying with other people and the right way to do it and works with the admin and our collective on how we're going to do it, so there's been a lot of time spent. I think the hardest part is it's not a science that's just like this is what we're dealing with because, in the old days, you'd have your seniors, you'd have your medicals, and you'd have a couple guys that went early and would say it was 25, and you're going to sign 25. That was it, and now it's, you think that that's it, and some guy's leaving the board on, and you have another window coming up, so you just have to be more flexible and be able to deal with change a little bit, a lot. I shouldn't say a little bit, deal with change a lot when it happens. 

Are you going to stick with the 85 scholarships?
I don't know yet. It'll just depend on where we end up at the end of the spring. Appreciate it, guys.