NC State HC Dave Doeren Talks ECU Opener, Wolfpack Roster, And More

NC State head coach Dave Doeren met with the media Friday afternoon ahead of the Wolfpack's season opener versus East Carolina.

NOTE: Click the video above to watch the press conference.

Opening statement

All right, I'm excited to get the season started with this staff and group of players, and it's been a really fun, refreshing, enjoyable fall camp with this group of young men.

It's a team and staff that has a chip on its shoulder and a lot to prove, and I like how they interact. It's a group that wants to get better. Very coachable, which I've mentioned many times, meaning that they take constructive criticism well.

They want to get better. They want to be the best versions of themselves, and on top of that, you see a lot of players holding each other accountable to their goals. I've really enjoyed the offseason with these guys, building a team, team chemistry, the glue, you know, through a variety of ways, leadership, shared adversity, team building, and it's been fun to see the guys when we've put them in tough situations, put them in chaos, how they respond.

We look forward to the season and every piece of it, and we're excited to be in Carter-Finley Stadium and get to this point of the season and, playing against each other every day. Since we started camp, you're ready to see somebody else and excited for our fans to be in Carter-Finley. Sold-out environment, night game, Thursday night.

We love you guys for all your support, and that's what's beautiful about this program. It's the Wolfpack. It's a group of people supporting one another, and we know that game day is entertainment for some people, but for us, it's personal, and we need our 12th man to be there with us and on your feet in key moments of the game when our defense is on the field.

You guys are a part of the process and a huge weapon in this stadium with our crowd noise, and our students, you guys are amazing. You're the thermostat for the crowd, and we need you guys to turn it all the way up in that stadium. Our players feed off of your energy, and I look forward to seeing you all again on Thursday night.

Going into my 13th season here, I'm excited, feel very refreshed, poised, and with the goal of bringing our program to new heights and excited to see this team compete and our staff coach together, and it's all about earning our place, you know, in the conference, in power for football, and this first opportunity obviously is the most important one, and we've gone from a really young, inexperienced offense to an offense with a lot of returning experience, and whether it's CJ, Justin Joly, Hollywood, Noah Rogers, Wesley Grimes, and the skill positions. Terrell Anderson was a freshman playing last year. Keenan Jackson was a freshman playing last year.

To Anthony Carter, Jacarrius Peak, and then some experienced guys that we've brought in that have played a lot of football, Teague Andersen and Cody Hardy, Jalen Grant. So there's new names, but they're experienced guys in college football, and they've really gelled well. Coach Roper's done a really good job with that side of the ball, building on what we were and changing us in ways that needed to be changed.

Defensively, there's a lot of new players, some are returners, some are experienced transfers, and, it's great to see Caden Fordham back on the field, and obviously with him getting number one, it tells you where he's at. Sean Brown's had a tremendous camp, and D-line, Brandon Cleveland, Travali Price, Isaiah Shirley, guys with a lot of experience. Jackson Vick really came on at the end of the season, excited about his fall camp, Devon Marshall, and then some guys you didn't see a lot last year, Chazz Wallace, had a good training camp, excited about some of the young players on the defensive line and how they've grown up.

Chase Bond, another guy that was red-shirted last year that's had a really good training camp, and then some new players, Sabastian Harsh, you've heard me talk about from Wyoming. He's been a really positive player on our defensive front. Cian Slone, same thing.

Excited to see what those guys bring. Brian Nelson at corner, Jamel Johnson at corner, J.J. Johnson, Jeremiah Johnson at safety, so there's a lot of new parts, and then Brody Barnhardts had a really good training camp. Assad Brown's had a really good training camp, and so some guys that were red-shirted a year ago.

Ronnie Royal had a really good training camp, so I'm excited to see these guys play. And we've seen them in practice. We've seen them in scrimmages, obviously training them, but game day is the true test, and so this group of guys has bought in to what we're doing.

They're excited about what they need to do and how it needs to be done. With our opponent, I have a lot of respect for Blake Harrell, the job he did last year, taking over interim and becoming the full-time head coach, went five and one and did a tremendous job and had multiple conversations with him over the past couple of years and have a lot of respect for him. It's a talented team, obviously.

We know some of them from last year, and we're looking forward to playing them. As I stated after that game last year, I was embarrassed as the head coach, as a program, and know that I let down our fan base, our alums, our former players, and what happened after the game can't happen and won't happen, and so, this is a team that understands this game. This is a game of competition.

Obviously, during the game, it's a team you want to beat whoever you're playing, but it's also brotherhood, college football, pro football, high school football, whether you're a coach or a player. You're trying to win every game. You're trying to play the game the right way with the respect the game deserves and play it to our standard of play.

We talk about hard, tough together, and that's playing football with physicality and also doing it with class, and our staff and team know what we have to carry, what the torch looks like and the standard is, and it's competing for the name on the front and the name on the back and making the people proud that care so much and support this university, and so we look forward to that opportunity. Games bring out the truth, and it's truly a place where you find out the most about your football team, about your staff, and it's an outcome-based business. I've always felt like games are definitely won on the field.

They're also lost on the field in some ways when you beat yourself, whether that's turnovers, penalties, how clean you can play, how well you tackle, the fundamentals of the game, and how you finish plays, how you respond to adversity within the games and the momentum swings that take place, and to be the best team, we have to put a premium on execution and how we play 11-man football, 11 guys playing together and eliminating, unforced errors, preventable mistakes, the turnover margin and all the things that go into it, managing the clock well, doing a good job with how we use our timeouts, you know, being physical on short yardage both sides of the football, getting in the red zone, getting points, denying points on defense, and then just playing really, really good special teams, getting points when they're there, flipping the field with our punter, covering punts and kicks, and then getting momentum plays, whether it's returns or blocked kicks, those are all things that we spend a lot of time on. So it's that time of year. It's time to go play a game and excited, for this weekend to watch football in the short week coming up.

We'll be back on the field here in six days. So excited for that. Open it up for questions.

Hey, Dave. Since you brought up what happened last year in the bowl game, I'm curious, it's a testy in-state series. It's a rivalry. There is some spice to it. But do you talk to guys in the offseason about that kind of thing? Do you do it this week when it's more on tap and say whether it's instigating or reacting to something like you have to be, composure has to be paramount? Do you address it this week or have you done it through the offseason?

It started minutes after the game in that locker room and has been continuously talked about with this football team.

Obviously, it's going to be brought up the week of the game, but it's something that's been going on a long time. The standards and the culture of this football program on and off the field are to do things a certain way. And how you react versus respond is part of maturity, and two wrongs don't make a right.

It doesn't matter what somebody else does. It's how we respond to what happens. And in a game, in life, it's all the same.

And so just having the maturity, the leadership, obviously, as coaches doing our part to educate. But, yeah, it's an ongoing topic that it's not just college football. And we met with Troy Vincent from the NFL as an ACC head coach's group, and he talked about the same thing.

You know, they were disappointed with how their guys reacted at times in the league last year. And a lot of the things that you saw penalized in the NFL were penalized in college football. And, you know, it's about respecting the game.

It's a gladiator sport. It's a tough-guy sport, no doubt about it. But there's also a way to do it.

Coach, this offseason, you've talked extensively about leaving meat on the bone. And to close last season, you said, quote, “that's what this offseason is going to be about. It's going to be about learning how to finish and put ourselves in position to win those one-possession games.” At this point, how do you feel about your team's ability to do that?

Yeah, well, Josiah, it's been a huge part of our training camp, spring ball, putting them in the situations. We do it every day. We call it situation of the day, you know, where you're in the last 13 seconds, 18 seconds, 22 seconds, 45, 48 different field positions. Need a field goal to win. Need a field goal to tie. Need a touchdown to win.

Need a touchdown and two-point conversion to win. Getting into four-minute offense. And how do we run the clock out? How do we stop them so they can't run the clock out? And so situational football has been massively talked about and overemphasized with this team.

And I feel great about where we're at. Obviously, you got to go do it under the lights now, but the training has been excellent. And the guys have really done a good job staff-wise, too, of presentations on these things and not just from a college standpoint, but bringing up clips from NFL Super Bowl games and watching drives.

And so, you know, you do as much as you can to get them ready, and then you trust them to go out there and make the plays. And that's what it comes down to now, you know. It's the guys going out there and being the best that they can be.

Yeah, Dave, CJ actually talked about the ball game at ACC kickoff, and he was talking about how it was important for the players, too, that, you know, they proved that they're more than their behavior at the end of that game. What's it like seeing a young player really take the lead on that and encourage his teammates to say, hey, we're better than this?

Well, there's a reason he was voted captain as a sophomore, and how he carries himself, what he stands for, what he speaks about, actions and words. CJ's, way more mature than his age.

And so I'm proud of him, for standing up and saying what needed to be said as a leader. And the guys follow him. And so it's good to see that.

And that's what you need. Great teams have internal leadership in that locker room, away from the coaches. And that's something he wasn't prompted to say. It's something that he believes. 

Dave, obviously the focus coming out of any fall camp is to be injury-free. Where do things stand heading into the season opener?

When we get to that day where I release all that, I will definitely give that to you, Cory.

Well, as a follow-up to that, what are your thoughts on the injury reports and that being required now at this point?

It doesn't really matter what I think about it. I mean, that's just what we're going to do. So we'll release all that on the day that it's required, and you guys will have it.

Hey, Coach. This is the third year in a row you'll open on a Thursday. What did you take away for the last two years and how not only with week one preparation, but how does that impact kind of week two and having a longer week?

And then I want to say this year you have another Thursday game kind of shortly after. Yeah. I'm a big fan of it. Any time you can create additional space in the schedule for what's next, it helps. And so opening on a Thursday obviously gives you more recovery and lead time to game two, regardless of who that is. And for the fans, I think, Thursday night, as you guys know, is pretty electric in Carter-Finley.

So getting that to be a weekday game makes it a night game. And so that helps also for a variety of reasons. But and then it's always a holiday weekend, you know, and I think it helps our fans to be able to have their Labor Day weekend, where they can go do the things they would do, with their families.

And so there's a lot that goes into that. But, being selfish as a coach, it's always for me, I love having, that Friday-Saturday extra, to heal up and get these guys refocused on game two.

And just to follow up, does that change the way you operate during the week, whether it's, at the end of camp going into it and then obviously having this couple extra days after?

Yeah, so your camp calendar mirrors a Thursday start.

And so, like, our scrimmages, as you guys know, we're all on Thursdays. And so it's just, kind of reorganizing the calendar so that a Thursday is a Saturday and you go backwards. So, as we get back here on Sunday, Sunday is game week Tuesday to us.

And so you just talk to the guys in that manner and they understand what those days are. But, yeah, it does take some organization staff-wise to get it done. We've done it enough now where it's pretty routine how it works out.

Given how the year ended last year, given the proximity of this rivalry, and just everything, the back and forth over the offseason, does this season opener feel different? Does it feel more important? Have you played it up to guys like that? And what is the temperature of the team as opposed to any other season opener? I know everybody wants to win the season opener, but does this one feel different?

Well, it feels different because of how we acted at the end of the season.

To me, we didn't live up to the privilege we have to be at this university, to work at this university, and it starts with me. I said that after the game. And so it's an opportunity to go play.

And it is about who we're playing, obviously, because you have to know their personnel and their coaches and their schemes. It's always going to be about who you're playing. This is way more about how we play and how we carry the torch for this university and the reputation we want to have as a program.

And so I do think that that makes it different. We have played them back-to-back before. I mean, that was written about.

I read one of the articles. So it's not new to play someone back-to-back. We've done that, but it's more about us than anything.

Just if I could follow up, how important is it to get off to a fast start? Obviously, in game one, you want the crowd rocking, like you just said, you know, with ECU, inside a Carter-Carter. How important will that be?

Well, it always helps. I mean, momentum's great, but it's a four-quarter game.

And we'd love to start fast, jump out of the gates, get the fans going and all those things, you know. That's always helpful in any football game. But you also have to keep it going.

I've watched a lot of football, and you see teams jump up and give up the lead. You see teams behind and come back. Is it better to start fast and keep your foot on the gas for four quarters? Absolutely.

I think every coach would say that.

Yeah, Dave, just could you describe the juice, I guess, the extra bump you guys get when it's game day prep week?

Can you say that again, Rob?

I'm sorry. Could you guys describe just the extra juice, the bump? When you're obviously camp's a long thing, but when you get to game week, that extra juice and that bump preparing for another team?

Yeah, I mean, you can feel it as a staff. You can feel it as a player, your urgency. You understand when you look up at our clock, tells you how many days until we play. It's six days away.

And so the guys feel that. You can see their focus. And like I told them, both teams get the same amount of time. It's on us to maximize our preparation and how we practice and our film study, how we, you know, take care of ourselves. So it's ratcheted up without even asking them to do it. I mean, you can feel it.

Yeah, where do you think that this team has grown the most during fall camp?

I think on the defensive side of the ball, just because we have a new coordinator, new scheme, a lot of new pieces, just that thing coming together. There's a lot of competition on that side of football. And so being able to watch those competitions and get guys to where we think this is our best 11 and our guys that are going to rotate.

There's some guys that in some cases, if there's two of them out there, we look at the third guy as a starter that's going to also play a lot. Sometimes you need games to settle the competition. But I think that side of the ball is where the biggest unknowns have been answered for us as a staff.

We didn't have all those guys in spring practice. We had them here for the summer, but that's not practice. And so being able to witness, Cian and Sabastian and Brian Nelson and A.J. Richardson was out for spring ball, so him practicing, you're just able to see what you really have and how, as a staff, it is plays, but it's players as much or more, which guys have earned the right to be out there the most.

And, I think that's the biggest thing ball camp was for us, was that side of the football. We knew because so many guys were back on offense, kind of who those guys were, with the exception of a few battles on the other line.

How are you going off of that? You talked about how much competitive depth you guys have, especially on defense now after the portal. I s there any position battle that's really stuck out to you during camp?

I think in the defensive backfield, it's been fun to watch the corners, the nickels, and those two position groups. There's really good competition on a daily basis. And even in the front, you see it, with what's going on there.

So on the defensive side of the ball in general, there's a lot of competitive depth. And day in and day out, it's pushed them. It pushes you a lot when you see the guy behind you go in and make plays that you're not making.

And now you have to step up your game. And it's just you're getting better through competition. And guys know because the way we rep them in fall camp, ones, twos, and threes, everybody's getting reps.

I mean, they're all on film getting better. And so you get to see that, witness that, in those position groups where there was the most competition.

Just to follow up, you mentioned A.J. Richardson, kind of not being able to see him this spring. What's impressed you the most about him? I know he was a freshman captain, at Norfolk State when he was there.

Yeah, he's a leader. I mean, he is a true alpha, very fun-spirited kid. He loves everything about being on a team. He's a guy that will say what he needs to say, says it the right way. He has command. He definitely has a presence about him. Physical football player, smart football player, can play multiple positions. Tough.

And then off the field, just a really nice young man. I mean, gratitude everywhere about everything. It's fun being around A.J. I have a lot of respect for him, and I know his teammates do, too.

Dave, you got a couple new faces on the offensive line. You've had a chance to talk about them a little bit, but what have you seen from that unit, and how have they progressed as well?

Yeah, Teague Andersen was a really good player at his last stop, and we had him all spring. He was consistent, physical, smart, wants to get better, learns from reps, very mature. Jalen Grant played a lot of football at Bowling Green, went to Purdue in his first year there, played a lot of football, and then last year not able to play as much, and so he's hungry, very consistent. Has kind of a calming presence as a center, which I love, and getting to see him do that, and he's been a great mentor to Spike.

A lot has been said about Spike throughout the offseason, really talented young player that we're excited about, and having kind of a journeyman that's a very smart football player, tough, consistent. It's really great as a freshman when you have that in the room with you, and he's a good mentor to him. But those two guys have added, quality, not just in depth, but leadership in that room.

They definitely fit in here. They're guys that fit our culture. They're good teammates, and they've blended in well with Anthony Carter and Peak and Kamen Smith, and so, and then Val, missed a lot of fall camp and has grown up a lot.

Anthony Carter did a great job mentoring Val this offseason. Erickson, excited about his growth as well. He got transferred here a year ago, so we've been able to work with him now for over a year.

Yeah, Dave, I don't recall if I've heard you talk about this, but the SEC is going to nine games. This is something that Jim Phillips has talked about, has been discussed several times with the ACC, whether that is something that you guys want to do as a league. Where do you come down on that, especially when you understand what it's like to build and balance a schedule where, you know, now you're playing Virginia non-conference. You've got Notre Dame. A game like this might be trickier to schedule in the future. Kind of where did you come down on the idea of nine games if the ACC went to it?

Whatever Jim decides, we will support him fully. I understand there's arguments for this on both sides. What makes the ACC different when you sit in that room with those coaches? Some of their schools have an automatic crossover with the SEC. And so, if you're at Clemson, you have South Carolina.

If you're at Louisville, you have Kentucky. So they have an automatic powerful rival that they're playing, which gives them nine games already. And then if you have Notre Dame on your schedule, there's 10.

And then if you had another conference game, there's 11. And so, in their case, there's an argument not to do it. For us, we don't have that SEC automatic game.

It makes, for me, nine games is great. I don't have a problem with it, but I understand the argument of the teams that do have that other game. Because you do want to have some freedom to schedule certain games, particularly before a rivalry game or based on how things play out on your schedule.

Putting another game in there and trying to keep them in regions where you have recruiting and things like that. But there's a lot of conversation about strength of schedule now as well, right? So, we all saw the new parameters that came out from the college football playoff. And so I can understand why commissioners would look at it as something that needs to be done. But there's two sides to the argument.