Dave Doeren: 'It's exciting to be back into the season'

NC State football enters the 2021 season with a great deal of talent and depth andon  both sides of the ball, and a team it hopes can have a truly special season after last year’s breakthrough. That starts with fall camp, and the Wolfpack hit the field for practice for the first time on Wednesday. 

Head coach Dave Doeren spoke to the media after that practice; here’s a full breakdown of everything he had to say: 

Opening statement

First day of practice, it was great to be back with the players and on the grass. Beautiful weather, incredible day just being out there. It was really fun to see some of the players that have been out for a while. Chris Ingram and [Teshaun Smith], those two guys have been out for a long time, so having them back on the grass was really a heartfelt thing. I’m happy for them. I can’t really give you too much without watching the tape and not having pads on, but there’s good energy, there’s a lot of carryover. It’s exciting just to be back into the season. 

It seems like you’ve got a couple freshmen who might be able to challenge for some playing time in a normal year. Do you think, with everyone you’ve got back, it will be more difficult for freshmen to get on the field this year? 

I would say in college football in general, it’s going to be that way, for most of us to have the super senior going on. You’re going to have guys that might have played, not even freshmen, maybe a sophomore that’s in that same situation. A good example is us with [Emeka Emezie] and C.J. Riley. We didn’t expect to have those two guys for another year. So now the receiver room’s a little heavy because of that. We’ll have some really talented guys fighting to get on the field that may not, and that’s OK. If they have to redshirt, play in four games and learn from some veteran players, that’s not a bad thing for us to have that situation. 

You have so many guys that know where to go and where to line up, do you have to find new ways to challenge them? 

I think these guys have really high goals for this football team. And so it’s easy to hold them to little things. This isn’t last year’s team, obviously. Every year is new, but you can learn from things that happened. And we won five one-possession games, we lost two. So in those one-possession games, there’s details, there’s little things that you can hold them accountable for out here because they add up. It’s a hungry team, and it’s competitive. There’s some guys trying to get on the field vs. other guys that are also really good. They can’t really have a down day and keep their job. 

Do you look around and think that you’ve never really had this much depth before? 

I don’t think anyone has. We’ve never had super seniors in college football. It’s not just here. I said this the other day, Pitt has 16 super seniors on their roster. There’s teams that have over 100 guys on scholarship right now. So the whole country is different from that standpoint, not just NC State. 

But do you feel like your group in particular can be really good? 

With [Drake Thomas], [Payton Wilson] and that whole group of guys, I said it a couple years ago, in three years we could be really good. And we have a chance to be really good. We just have to go earn it. 

It feels like special teams is usually a unit that gets overlooked a lot of times, but you have a lot of returning experience at long snapper, punter, kicker and returner. How good is it to have that going into camp? 

Coach [Todd Goebbel] spoke to the team last night, and that was one of the things he pointed out. He showed a punt return of [Thayer Thomas’] for a touchdown, he showed a kick return of [Zonovan Knight’s] for a touchdown. He showed Trent Gill booming a punt and then hitting one inside the 5-yard line, he showed Chris Dunn hitting a long field goal and [Joe Shimko] snapping just to get the room excited. He said ‘Look, we’ve got some talent in these guys here, and you guys need to play for them.’ The other people on those units, as you know, have a lot to do with the success of those units as well. If you’re coaching a kickoff return team or a punt return team, and you know the guy back there can house it, that’s a fun team to be on. We’re excited about it, and we’ve got to build some depth behind those guys now. There’s some young guys that we’re looking forward to developing. 

You mentioned having a couple guys back like Emeka Emezie and C.J. Riley who you didn’t expect to have back. Obviously that can potentially make it harder for some of your younger guys to see the field, but do you think having those guys to learn from can help them get better in future years? 

They should. If they don’t take advantage of that, that’s on them. That’s something we’re going to obviously point out as coaches. And our older players do a really good job. You saw that at practice, they help the younger guys, they talk to them, they coach them. Sometimes younger guys think they know everything, and they have regret for not taking advantage of a learning moment like that. So it’s definitely something that we’re hopeful that they get a lot out of while they’re standing and watching. And that’s hard. These guys are all used to playing every snap in high school. So if they’re not getting those reps, hopefully they’ll get them mentally. 

There’s a lot of transfers that have come into this program. What have you seen from those guys so far? 

I need to see them in pads before I really give you some input. They work hard. They’ve got really good attitudes. They’re very thankful to be here. They’ve mentioned that over and over, just how blessed they are to have a fresh start, and they’re excited about the opportunity. But how they’re doing, I just need to see some practice to give you a real thing about that. Now, on the hoof, they look really good. They’re big looking dudes. 

Have you ever had a group of linebackers this good? 

Yeah. At Kansas, we had three guys that were fantastic the year we were really good. We had the conference player of the year in the room there in Nick Reid. And then at Wisconsin, we had a crew that was really good. Three of those guys went on to be drafted and play in the NFL. This is an elite group. It’s been a while since I’ve been around it. And it’s really more than three. I think Levi Jones does a lot for our team too, and Jaylon Scott’s getting better. So it’s a really talented room coach [Tony Gibson]’s put together.

I know you have depth across the board, but is there one position group you’re curious about? 

The corner spot, with Chris and Teshuan coming back, and seeing Shyheim Battle and Aydan White. There’s a lot of competition there in that room. So I’m definitely staring at that one. There’s competition for the right tackle job, watching that, the guard position. And then our D-Line, we rotate, but who’s going to be out there first? There’s some good players in that room right now, and they’re all going to battle for that. So those are kind of the three positions that stick out to me. 

Does it look like C.J. Riley has regained the speed that he had before he was hurt? 

He made some good plays today. I’m very hopeful in not just his speed, but his ability to sustain it and stay out there with us. He looked good today. It’s one day of camp, but today he looked good.