Doeren: State-UNC Rivalry Is Different

NC State head coach Dave Doeren met with the media today to discuss the upcoming game against North Carolina. 

What is your normal Thanksgiving schedule like with the team?
They don't have class, so we backed everything up an hour to get a little more sleep for them and then they eat here for lunch and dinner.

Tomorrow after we're done with practice the guys that don't travel have a chance to go home. So they'll be traveling back to their homes Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and the travel team, we all go to Angus Barn, have a big meal with our coaches, wives and kids and players. It's really an awesome meal, great place.

Then we're back into a normal Friday.

When you were in college, who was your biggest rival?
At Drake, the University of Dayton... the Dayton Flyers were our rival.

What was that like?
It was a heated game. Unfortunately, I never beat them as a player, but as a coach I was a part of beating those guys and winning their first championship there.

Any rivalry game means a lot; as a player and coach and you remember him.

What did you know about this rivalry coming here and what have you learned about it since you’ve been here?
Having been a part of the USC-UCLA rivalry, I kind of had been a part of something similar where you have two universities in the same city limits, basically.

So I anticipated it being like that, and my first press conference here several people came up and welcomed me in and many of them mentioned “Beat Carolina”.

It kind of cemented what I thought it would be, and then as you live here and you start to see how integrated the alumni base is, where you run into theirs and they run into ours everyday. It's different.

Not that all of the rivalries aren't huge. They are, but just the integration of alumni makes it a little different than most.

How important is the Angus Barn dinner from a team bonding perspective, and how much do you look forward to that?
Well, the food's incredible, first of all, and the guys love it. It's a really, really good meal.

From a bonding standpoint there is 100 of us basically in a big tent eating, so it's not that type of setting, but it's all our coaches, our wives, our kids, and our players. It's a real family atmosphere and incredible food and good night to kind of say thanks to everything that we have.

Does winning rival games affect recruiting?
It can.  I think it's selective. I think there's some players that are between us and them and these games can matter.

Sometimes they don't. Sometimes there's other factors in play that matter more than the outcome of a game, and I would say in most cases that's true.

They're putting a lot of their attention on the things that matter to them and their family and if it's a tie going into it, maybe that swings it, I don't know.

It's a state where there's a lot of pride with our alumni base and obviously they have the same with theirs. So to have that where you own a rivalry for that year is nice. It's nice to have that.

You expected to end the year with North Carolina, now you've added East Carolina.  How different is that going to be?
I can probably answer than when I get to that game. I’m not really thinking about the next one right now.

How good have the linebackers been this year for you guys?
They've been very productive.

Obviously Germaine is in the top five in the league in tackles, so he's made a lot of plays for our defense this year. I think Isaiah and Louis compliment each other and both had outstanding games. Isaiah played his best game last week.

Brock is now getting better and better each week; he's taken a ton of reps.  So those four guys have been fun to watch.

Calvin Hart is a young linebacker that has gotten a lot of reps and is going to be a really good player here.

What's your go-to Thanksgiving side?
I probably would have to say the green bean casserole with the old French onion deals on top of it. I love that.

I'm a dark Turkey guy. Put some gravy on there and some sweet potatoes, and I'm a happy dog.