Dave Doeren: "We're Excited To See These Guys Play"

NC State head coach Dave Doeren met with the media for the final time before the Wolfpack takes the field against East Carolina.

NOTE: Click the video above to watch Doeren’s interview.

How do you walk the tight rope of getting ready to play physical football but not get hurt during fall camp?
You scrimmage earlier on. You have a lot of your tackling earlier on. As you get closer to the game, you have to do it in situation things where you’re not having big body pileups.

For us, we have tackling circuits where that’s what you’re working on. We had a scrimmage, then we had a second scrimmage, then we had a couple of short-yardage, goal-line type things. After that, you’ve got to be really, really careful.

Has that changed from your time at Northern Illinois?
I’ve learned as I’ve gone. I was fortunate that I learned at Montana where I had a head coach there named Joe Glenn who said, ‘You can’t win the race without the horses at the gate.’ You’ve got to understand what they need until you can prove that they’re ready, and once you’ve seen enough, you back off and keep them safe.

We practice full speed where there’s a lot of contact out there, but minimal bodies on the ground is the goal. You just don’t want to see anybody in a pile.

How ready do you feel your team is?
Well, there’s a lot of unknowns that we have to see. I think we’re doing everything that we know how to do to prepare our young football team. We’re excited to see these guys play. Really, that’s what we need to do now.

We need to go out there, compete, and see who handles game day the right way and who needs to get better. Sometimes, a guy will show himself that there’s something we didn’t see in practice. One way or the other, you’ve got to coach through it.

I feel good about the preparation we’ve had for the game, and now it’s time to see them execute it.

You’ve talked about the youth of this team. What have you told them this week about what to expect with the atmosphere?
I told them to enjoy it. That’s why we work so hard; it’s to have an environment like that. They’ve earned that. But [I also told them] not to let it get in their head. You have to be able to let that go. Run through the tunnel, enjoy the atmosphere, and then focus. Get the call, whatever it may be, lock in on your keys, and go through our progression of playing the game.

But I want them to enjoy the atmosphere. That’s one of the things that makes NC State and Carter-Finley so special. We have that here, and not many people do. I can’t wait. I’m really excited for our fans and our students to be out there and enjoy the atmosphere.

Thoughts on Bam Knight’s play right now...
'Bam' [Zonovan Knight] is, as you guys have seen in our Spring Game, a top-end speed running back. He’s learned our offense. He needs to play a game now too. He’s not thinking as much as he was. I think for him it’s that having a little success will help him confidence-wise. You can say that for most of these freshmen.

How versatile is the running back group?
I don’t really know which direction it’s going to go. We have some confidence in the two returners in Ricky [Person] and Trent [Pennix], but we have a lot of excitement with Jordan Houston and Zonovan because of their playmaking ability.

We’ve got to get those guys in the game and see how they react. We’ll have some plays for these guys where you’ll see multiple guys in the game. We’re going to have an opportunity to evaluate them, and I look forward to seeing what they do.

What has been the game prep for Holton Ahlers?
We know that he’s a left-handed quarterback, so you expect to see a lot of movement stuff to go to our right, his left. We know how competitive he is. I’ve told our staff and our team how much I respect him as a competitor. I know how important playing in games like this is, having been the head coach at Northern Illinois. When you go up against a Power Five team, it means a lot in that locker room and with that coaching staff. We’ve talked about that. I know Holton [Ahlers] is the face of their program now as their quarterback, so he’ll do everything he can to help them.

Are you curious... what their approach will be? 
I think anytime you start with a new staff, even though we’ve played them, there’s new personnel for them to coach. There’s a feeling-out period in the game. Whether they’re going to use him as a true runner a lot or whether it’s just going to be here and there, short-yardage, and red zone, we’ll have to feel out what they want to do.

We expect the James Madison system. How much true QB-run game or read game that goes along with it or RPO gaming, those are all things they’ve done there.

Does this feel at year seven like a second phase of your tenure here with so many young guys?
It’s similar to when Bradley [Chubb] and those guys were first getting onto the field. It’s different in that we have a lot more guys that I recruited in the program where that was still kind of mixed.

But the youth of our program is similar to that. Going through that again, I guess there’s a lot of similarities because you’re feeling some guys out for the first time. [Having] a roster full of guys that know our culture, know our expectations, and were recruited into our systems, there’s comfort in that.

One of the stats you were good at last year was not having a lot of missed tackles.  How much do you emphasize that?
Everyday. The two things that you’ll see from a back-end standpoint everyday at our practice is going to be tackling fundamentals and taking the ball away. Those two things are paramount.

Every single day, we’re working a technique, and we’re doing it with our special teams players as well. Whether it’s an inside-out, an outside-in, an open-field situation, a sideline situation, [we’re] just putting them in as many of those as we can. Then we’re making every drill where they’re doing the same thing: tracking the near hip and playing with good balance.

A good tackling defense eliminates a lot of big plays, and that’s something we take a lot of pride in.