MONDAY PC: Dave Doeren Previews USF, Talks Roster and Much More
After a long offseason and fall camp, it’s finally game week for NC State football. The Wolfpack begins what it hopes is a highly successful season coming off last year’s 8-4 finish with USF Thursday night at Carter-Finley Stadium.
Dave Doeren spoke to the media Monday for his first game week press conference of the season, here’s a full breakdown of everything he had to say:
Opening Statement
I’m excited to be in game week. It’s been a long time since we’ve played. I’m excited to have the fans back and things somewhat back to normal from a game day atmosphere standpoint. More than anything, I’m just excited to get the season started with this staff and group of players.
As a head coach, I’m really proud to be a part of such an experienced staff. We have 299 years of coaching between us on our coaching staff. It’s a great group of guys to work with. It’s a group that cares a lot about each other, likes to have fun together and does it for the right reasons. And we get to work with some fantastic young people.
It’s a team that has grown together over time and definitely understands the commitment and what it’s like. Just being at practice with them today and seeing how they are handling game week, it’s a much more mature football team than we’ve had that way. It’s a one day at a time journey with these guys. That’s what they want it to be. That’s what it’s about. We’re all about winning the day. It’s cliche, I guess, to stack days now, but that’s really the focus of this group. We’re trying to be the best version of ourselves as men each and every day, as students and as athletes.
I’ve enjoyed the process of fall camp. It was great to have a normal fall camp to get to coach football and have a preseason. It’s been a challenge. It’s been hot. We’ve had some crazy hot weather here, and these guys have endured that. It’s nice to play a night game Thursday and not have the sun on our necks for a day.
I’m looking forward to seeing them get to go out there and compete against somebody else. I know they are sick of hitting each other. It’s time to test our mettle and see where we are at and what we need to work on and where we’ve grown. It’s the first opportunity and test of the season, and we’re excited. I’m excited to play a very athletic South Florida team, an experienced team. They got a new coach last year that we’re very familiar with, you know when he spent all his years at Clemson. He did a great job there as an offensive coordinator. They’re in year two with him. I know what that’s like. The first year in a program is difficult. They’ve got a lot of players back, but they also have a lot of transfers that they’ve brought in. I know he’ll have his team ready.
For us, I’ve always felt like in the opening games you are chasing a lot of ghosts. Particularly coming out of a COVID year because there’s opt-outs on the team that you are playing that are back, and then there’s transfers and new guys and different jersey numbers and maybe a handful of new coaches. But early in the season, I feel like - and really year round - but particularly early in the season, there’s some sloppy play. There’s a lot more games that are lost than won at the beginning of seasons. We’ve made that a major focus here, to be the best team we can. Here we need to get out of our own way and not beat ourselves, minimize pre-snap things that we can take off from a focus standpoint. Minimize the post-snap things from an emotional standpoint.
Again, making your layups, taking the gimmies that are there and making those routine plays. Then really competing on special teams to give ourselves an advantage. Our guys have worked really hard with coach Goebbel in that area. In my career, and for most head coaches, the turnover margin and explosive play battle tells a lot. Those are major points of emphasis for us.
When it comes to our roster, I really like the competition we’ve had. I’m just going to start on offense with our offensive line. To have the ability to rotate some guys and some versatility. [Ikem Ekwonu] and [Chandler Zavala] and [Grant Gibson] and [DylanMcMahon] and [Bryson Speas] and [Timothy McKay] and [Derrick Eason] are all guys that we feel can play and will play. Dylan’s a guy that can play multiple spots, guard and center. Tim McKay can play multiple spots. Speas can play multiple spots. We feel like we have some good flexibility there.
I think Devin Leary is in a really good spot, not just physically but mentally and emotionally. I like where he’s at. He’s confident. He’s comfortable. He’s ready to lead. He’s built really good relationships with his teammates.
Our backfield has experience and there’s talent. When you look at what [Bam Knight] and [Ricky Person] can do, and the way [Jordan Houston] has improved, the way Delbert Mimms has improved. There’s a lot of hands back there that can help us win.
The tight end position is probably the biggest spot where we lost production from last year on offense with [Cary Angeline] leaving. Dylan Parham, I’m excited for him in his sixth year, to see how he can play, not just as a blocker, he’s been a really good blocker for us, but how he can evolve now as a pass catcher. I think Trent Pennix and Chris Toudle are two young guys that have our coaches excited. I’m excited for them. They’re both guys that have changed positions to get on the field more. They have some versatility. Chris being a former receiver and Trent being a former running back, they can do a lot of things out of that tight end room. And then Kam Walker is a lunch pail guy who has worked very hard.
At receiver, obviously the experience there excites us with [Emeka Emezie] and [Thayer Thomas] and Devin Carter, C.J. Riley, Porter Rooks and then Julian Gray, one of our newcomers that we expect a lot out of. As the year goes on you’ll probably see him more and more. That’s really the group there offensively. And then systematically, just being in [Tim Beck]’s system another year allows him to grow it. The philosophy doesn’t change, to be aggressive and be balanced and finish every drive with a kick. That’s the biggest thing offensively, is using our personnel the right way and Devin being a distributor of the ball.
On defense, there are a few newcomers with the transfers. With our D-line rotation, you’ll see [Savion Jackson], Cory Durden, C.J. Clark, Josh Harris, Daniel Joseph, Davin Vann and Danny Blakeman. Those guys have all rotated throughout camp. Our D-line, like most D-lines, is going to rotate players. The guys that take the first snap of the game are going to be the guys that graded out the best each week.
Our top three linebackers have gotten a lot of pub, and we expect a lot out of them. I think [Payton Wilson] is poised and healthy and has grown a lot as a player, particularly just the mentality of how to practice and how to study film. He’s a lot different, but not different in how hard he is going to play. I can tell you that, but just the maturity he has now compared to a year ago. Isaiah Moore has improved himself athletically a lot. He’s still a great leader, but he’s lost some body fat, and he’s really moving well. He’s poised to play really well. I think [Drake Thomas] has also changed his body. Those three guys are the heartbeat of what happens on defense. They make a lot of plays. They can all run. They all have game experience. In the absence of Drake and Patyon, we were able to get Levi [Jones] a lot of work, not just as our Sam but as a rush player for us and a special teams guy. Then Jaylon Scott, we’re really happy with his progress. He’s a guy that’s really changed his body and maybe one of the most improved when you talk about the linebacker body type. I think he was like 260-something last year in fall camp, and now he’s in the 220s. He looks really good.
At safety, Tanner Ingle returns and wants to be in the game the whole game. He’s got to do a great job for us of being the player that he can be. He’s a dynamic guy, a contact guy. He’s a great leader. [Jakeen Harris] and him and Tyler Baker-Williams, those three guys when they’re all in there together do a great job. We’ve added some good competition. It’s been fun seeing Cyrus [Fagan] and Khalid Martin push those guys in front of them, and Devan Boykin and Josh Pierre-Louis will have a role for us as well, and Rakeim Ashford.
The corner position, that competition is still going. It’s been really fun to see.We’ve got some talented corners that are all playing and have to play well and will play in the game. Between Shy Battle and Derrek Pitts and Chris Ingram and Teshaun Smith and then Aydan White, there’s five guys that are pushing each other every day. Like our D-line, we don’t really have two guys that we look at as starters. There’s multiple guys that will play in that room. Whoever plays the best will continue to be the starter in that room. We’ll have a rotation, and the way offenses play now at tempo we need to have a rotation at many of these spots.
Our specialists, as you guys know, Chris Dunn and Trent Gill and [Joe] Shimko, our long snapper, those three guys have been together now going on three years. I’m looking forward to seeing them together again. Thayer is our punt returner, Bam is our kick returner. That’s a must-win area. It’s an elite group that has game experience that needs to give us an edge.
As far as game day, having a night game at Carter-Finley, we’re very excited for our team and for our fans to be back together at home on a Thursday night. Our Thursday nights have been electric, and we expect it to be. I appreciate Boo Corrigan and Fred Demarest and the admin staff for the improvements that have been made in the stadium. I think the beer garden area, the party platform or whatever we are calling that up there, is going to be fun for those who take advantage of it. Hopefully it gives you a reason not to leave at halftime. Stay in there and hang out with us and enjoy what’s going on.
We need a four-quarter crowd. We need it rowdy. I hope that you’re ready to do that. Coming back from COVID where you couldn’t really be a part of our game day, it’s now here. That’s what makes us different. We are asking for our fan base and our student section to be a 12th man that has one thing in mind, and that’s making life hell on the opponent and lifting the spirit of our team and making it hard on their team. I think we have a fan base that can do that. We need you to do that for as long as it takes. If it’s four overtimes, then it’s four overtimes, but it does give us a unique environment here when we have it the way that it can be. I expect it to be that way Thursday.
I think we have an incredible tailgate here, and I want our fan base to take advantage of that. And then I want them to be in the seats for four quarters cheering on this team that has worked their butts off for you. Make game day something that other fan bases should be jealous of. I think that’s something that we should strive for as a fan base. It’s definitely an opportunity for us to be a part of this together. We talk about our mission statement, one Pack one goal. It’s a united mission to win a championship. It’s united not with players and coaches. It’s all of us. It’s our fans. It’s our administration. It’s our students. It’s our players and our coaches working together to get these seven home opportunities to be uniquely special. We want it to be that. We want you to be a part of the journey with us. When we come out of that tunnel, whether it’s for the first quarter or the third, it matters. It matters a lot to our young men.
You can hear the passion in my voice asking for your help with an incredible season coming off the most difficult season in my life, as a player or coach. When you talk about what we went through last year, what a reward to play on a night at home against a team. Regardless of who it is, I think the opportunity to have that Wolfpack fellowship and brotherhood, and like I said, let’s make everyone jealous about how special it is here on game day.
You have a familiar face at quarterback in the sense that you saw [Cade] Fortin play against you guys several years ago. How do you scout a guy like that? Do you look at the film even though it was at UNC?
When we played him, obviously it was a long time ago in his career. We know he’s grown a lot since then. He’s going to be a much better player than he was that day. We have a lot of respect for him and know that he won a battle with another ACC quarterback that transferred in there. It wasn’t like it was handed to him. He earned that. I think last year they had a challenging situation offensively. You could tell that there was a lot of rotation, a lot of guys in and out. I know that couldn’t have been easy for him, either. Just reading as much as I could get on their situation, it sounds like he really stepped up in their offseason program and in their spring and learned a lot of respect on that roster. He got a scholarship to that other school for a reason. They’ve recruited well there at quarterback. He’s a guy that has a lot of talent.
Have you decided on a backup quarterback?
Both Ben Finley and Aaron McLaughlin are kind of listed as ors. Both of them could play. Both of them will be ready to play. Ben has more game experience, so right now we’d go that way. If it ended up being a long-term thing then you may see both of them. They both have had good camps. I think we’re in a good situation with their progress. Ben is a way better player than he was a year ago. Aaron is really poised. I love his size and the way he can run the ball. It’s just a matter of him getting more and more reps. I like the way we are set up there right now.
How excited are you for the guys who haven’t gotten to experience Carter-Finley in full effect yet?
I think it’s a gift that these guys get. It’s part of the sweat equity. You earn that. As a player you work so hard for these special moments. Coming out of the tunnel when the Carter is packed, it’s unique. I’ve been at four Power 5 conferences, played in a lot of stadiums. When ours is the way that it can be, it’s one of the best. It is. The entry is special. I’ve been through there many times as the head coach now, and each time it’s ‘wow’ when it’s lit up the way that it can be. I’m happy for them to get their first. I think it’s going to be unique for college football. There’s a lot of players on all of our rosters that haven’t experienced crowd noise at all. When you think of last year’s class plus this year’s class plus whatever transfers came in your door, in some cases it may be half of a team, that hasn’t played in front of a loud stadium before. How teams can handle that is going to be part of the challenge this year for road teams.
You said this is a mature team. Can you elaborate on that, and how does that help the coaching staff?
I think last year, they stepped up in a big way leading each other through that quarantine time, and that showed a lot of maturity. How we handled the day-to-day protocols through COVID showed a lot of maturity. I think we made a lot of immature things happen on the field still in that. And so we were able to take the good, the bad and the ugly, go into the offseason and really praise them in some ways and challenge them in some ways. We had 109 penalties last year, and that’s a lot over the course of 12 games. We can’t be like that. When you break down what they were, I broke them down to them. I showed them, ‘Here’s all of them. Here’s the one’s on offense, here’s the ones on defense, here’s the pre-snap, here’s the in-play ones. And then here’s the post snap. What can we do to fix this?’
And so those guys were really diligent about wanting to fix it. We had officials at every spring practice, we had officials at every fall camp practice. And we were throwing the yellows at them. We were talking about them, so hopefully that will lead into this formula for winning that we believe in here, because I think you can make it harder on yourself to win. The way I look at it, it’s immature. When you’re having pre-snap focus penalties and post-snap emotional penalties, that’s immature football. So that’s where I’m hoping you see it. We did see it in our second scrimmage. We saw a huge improvement, so hopefully that’ll carry over to game day.
You talked about having all your assistants back. How much more confident do you feel at this point compared to last year as far as the install and knowing your opponent for several months now?
It’s a totally different setup. We had three different teams we were going to play in the opener last year, and one month from the season starting. That was crazy. But coach Gibson and his staff have now been together with him as the coordinator for two years, Tim and his staff have been together for two years. [Joker Phillips] is new, but Tim had worked with Joker previously. Coach [Kurt Roper] had worked with Joker previously. So there’s a lot of continuity in there. We’ve done a lot of things from a staff building standpoint, whether it’s just our coaches hanging out or our coaches and our coaches’ wives hanging out. We’ve done a lot to get close with each other and we feel really good going into the season.
These guys have been through a lot in games, whether they were coordinators or position coaches, or in Joker’s case, he was a head coach. So they’ve seen a lot. So for me, it’s great to have those kind of guys in the room with me that can say ‘Hey coach, have you seen this? I saw this today. It made me think about something that happened to me in 2006. I wanted to share this story with you, maybe it’s something that can help us.’ Charley Wiles has got a lot of coaching in him, ‘Hey, [Frank Beamer] did this one year, thought it was really good.’ So it’s been nice having that kind of sounding board. Obviously Ruffin McNeill and I spend a lot of time talking about things, not just with the team but with staff things, things that he’s seen with coaches, or that I’m seeing, and asking each other’s opinion of them.
Last year that opening game against Wake Forest set a tone that you guys built on. How important is it to get off to a good start in that first game and to really set a tone for the rest of the season?
It’s obviously helpful to do that, but it’s not going to always be that way. We’ve got to do everything we can to go out and make it go our way. Wake Forest, we had a heck of a game last year, but that was last year. Whatever this first experience is, we’re going to have to grow from it. Hopefully it’s a win. That’s what we’re all trying to do. Both teams are. But it’s a long season. We need to take whatever we can from that first game, and I think the biggest goal of this team is to get better every week. Every single week, we want to grow, learn and improve.
Entering year nine, you’re the third longest-tenured coach in the league. Nine years is a long time at one spot. What’s the key to that kind of longevity?
It’s a blessing to be here this long. You’re not always wanted as long as I’ve been able to stay. Winning obviously is part of that. What we do from a recruiting standpoint, how we develop players, the type of young men that want to be here and the things we’ve done in the community, the things we’re doing in the classroom, all of it plays into the product. The way our former players have done in the NFL and the way they talk about our team, our coaches, I think there’s just a lot to it. It’s rare to be somewhere as long as I am, obviously. Football’s been played here for 138 or 139 years now at NC State. To be second on the list of tenured coaches at this university, I think, says it all. It’s hard to do.
One of my best friends, Chris Ash, coaches in the NFL now. He used to be the head coach at Rutgers, and D coordinator at Ohio State. We were together at Wisconsin and Drake. We were talking on the phone earlier this summer earlier, just talking about the NFL and how that is, and just talking about college. He was like, ‘Dude, you’re almost at a school for a decade.’ I just started laughing. It’s hard, because I still look at myself as somewhat of a young coach. I’m used to being called. Now I’m the third oldest in the league and second long standing in the conference. It’s kind of crazy.
But it’s a total blessing that Sarah and I have been able to be here this long, and our children have been able to be in their school as long as they have. We hope that we’re here for the duration, until I’m done with this sport or this sport’s done with me, whatever it is. But we love the city of Raleigh and the fanbase, what this state brings geographically, as someone that lives here. We’re in a really, really awesome place to live. I think you guys that have been here for most of your lives know that. I’ve been all over the country. I’ve lived in California, to Montana, to Illinois, to Iowa, Kansas, to Wisconsin. To be able to not get on an airplane and go mountains to lakes to rivers to ocean, it’s pretty unique. So I consider myself blessed to live in such a great place.
A lot of the talk in July was about the 85% mark on vaccinations. Do you have an updated number, and how did you handle those conversations with the team?
We’re above 90%, close to 100 as far as the team. This started back when the vaccine first came out. Our coaches started getting it, our older coaches first and at-risk coaches. And then more and more vaccinations became available. We just started talking to the guys about it openly. ‘Where do you need information, what can we do to help you with it?’ We brought our team doc, he’s been in multiple times, he’s had visits with our entire team. He’s had individual visits with guys that wanted to ask more individual questions about it. Same with our coaches, we had coaches that had questions about it, so offering them opportunities to get that.
And then eventually there were decisions made about whether you can travel or not travel as a staff member or an athlete. Like I told the guys, ‘At some point in time, you’re going to have to make a choice. And you may not like your choices, but you’re going to have a choice.’ For us, the choice is to get the vaccine and be a part of everything or not get the vaccine and not be a part of everything but still be a student and on scholarship and on the roster and all those things. I’m not going to hold a grudge or be upset with anybody, but at the end of the day, we all saw what this did to our country last year. And I think we’re all in a different place now knowing that there is protection for those of us that believe in the vaccine and see the numbers with what’s going on in the hospitals for the unvaccinated population. It’s been tough. So we’re just trying to provide all that to the best of our ability and keeping everything out of it from a political standpoint and everything out of it other than the medicine. Just trying to leave it at that. I’m not a guy that goes to get advice from someone that isn’t professional at it. If I have financial advice, I’m going to a financial advisor. If I have medical advice, I’m going to go to a doctor. One thing about the Triangle, we have phenomenal healthcare. So we’re able to get some really good answers from people that have studied this for a long, long time.
Is it a competitive advantage from the standpoint of guys being able to have team meetings or do things you’d normally do?
I think so. For us, inside the Murphy Center, we’re 100% vaccinated. So for us to be able to, we still have to wear a mask in here, because that’s the policy on our campus. But we can have meetings with our guys, and the contact tracing rules, as you know, are different from a CDC and university standpoint. It’s a lot different than waking up every day, looking at my cell phone and seeing who has a runny nose and these 20 players can’t come to the building because of it. We don’t have that anymore. If you have symptoms, you’re removed until you have a negative test, and it’s just one person that has to leave. It’s a lot different from last year when it comes to who could be pulled out of your roster or your staff. Not just your coaching staff, your training staff, your dining room staff, your nutrition staff, your operations staff. You could lose a lot of work force last year because of one person not feeling well. And so I feel like there’s a huge competitive advantage if you can prevent that from being how you live on a daily basis. We’ve been able to do that. So it’s nice to be able to have that kind of setup right now.
Is there a feeling you get when you make the shift from fall camp to game week?
At this point, they’re so sick of not playing. They want to play a game. They’re at that point. Going to practice, they value practice, they know they need practice, but they do want to see where they’re at and compete at this point. They’ve handled it well. I think the one thing that’s been unique or fun as a coach is watching them coach each other and teaching some of the younger guys how to study film. I think that’s something at Wisconsin that I learned as a coach, that was kind of just the way things were at that university. The players came in and studied a lot of tape, and they demanded it from each other. I’ve shared those stories with our players here. You see it now, and they want to be great and they understand that the guy behind them may have to play. And he better know what he’s doing. So watching how they handle each other that way has been a lot of fun.
You were talking about the defensive rotation, but what’s a major expectation that you have?
I think to put numbers on it, I’m not sure I can do that. I think the biggest thing that you want to see is it starts on defense with how we play on the line of scrimmage. I think that’s programmatically how we win. We have to win the offensive and defensive line of scrimmages. We’ve got experience and depth on the defensive line. We expect those guys to battle in there for us, and create havoc and disruption, to beat the other team on plays in the backfield. That’s one of the things we look at. We call them bombs. How many bombs go off where we’re in that backfield vs. our backfield? The next thing is defensive takeaways. How many times are we going to get the ball back for our offense? I think that’s a big deal. Two years ago, we were really bad in that area and we had a bad season. I think the more we can set up the offense defensively with three and outs and takeaways, the more points we’re going to score and the more games we’re going to win. Lastly, it’s just the explosive plays. You heard me talk about that earlier. We can’t give up explosive plays for touchdowns. They’re going to happen. They’re going to have plays over 20 yards in games, offense are built that way now. But we’ve got to get them down on the ground, survive that down, get to the next down and stop them. So those are the kind of things I’m looking at. I’m not going to say ‘We’ve got to be third in this category or second in this category.’ I think it’s more about creating disruption and takeaways, and limiting explosive plays for that other side of the ball.
I know there’s been a lot of talk about the linebacker corps, but the defensive line for you guys, with the exception of losing Alim McNeill, you guys get a lot of experience and talent back, what are your thoughts on the defensive line?
I think it’s a hungry group. It’s a group that probably feels disrespected a little bit. I think there’s been a lot of things written about them in a negative way that they’ve read, and I think there’s a chip on their shoulder. Daniel Joseph’s a guy that plays really hard. [Savion Jackson], you’ve heard me talk, I think he’s set himself up for a really good year. He’s in good shape, he’s 290 pounds, he’s playing very confident. He kind of reminds me of how [Kentavius Street] was, he was just in the right place for a couple years and then he broke out as a playmaker. I think Savion’s in that spot. Corey Durden’s a really versatile guy. He can play inside and outside and has played himself into a really good football condition. I like how hungry he is. He’s got something to prove. He wants to finish his career the right way. Davin Vann can also play nose and four technique or five technique with what he brings to the table. There’s depth. I think they need to produce. I think that’s a group that wants to and has the ability to do that. C.J. Clark’s probably been one of the most impressive guys up front and in training camp it’s been fun watching him and Grant Gibson compete against each other every day. But he’s really playing hard. He’s got a high motor. So it’ll be fun to see that group on game day and the rotation, see how it all plays out with them.