Dave Doeren weekly press conference transcript

NC State kicks off its 2022 season in just five days against in-state rival East Carolina. Prior to the season-opening matchup, head coach Dave Doeren met with the media to discuss the program’s past with the Pirates, the depth throughout the Wolfpack’s roster and more.

Watch Dave Doeren’s press conference

Dave Doeren press conference opening statement transcript

“Alright, ECU week. We’re excited, as a staff, as a team and as a program to kick off the season. I’m very proud as a head coach to be on a staff like this. We have over 310 years between us in this sport, and it’s a group that cares a lot about each other, enjoys time together and does it for the right reasons, for the players, and very, very special coaching staff to be on. Our team, it’s a team that has been on a journey together for a time now, and we’ve grown together, a lot of vulnerable conversations with each other and there’s a genuine commitment and an understanding of what it takes to be good and what it takes not to be good. 

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“It is a one day at a time journey with our team, a mentality of trying to stack days that resemble actions that lead to our goals, and we have high goals as a football team, as a program. It’s about winning today, over and over and over and over so that we can play well in the moment of truth, and that’s what Saturdays are about. Trying to be the best version of ourselves, really have enjoyed this training camp with this group and the preseason. 

“It’s been great having the two extra days the NCAA allowed for rest to break up the work. It’s as healthy as I’ve ever seen a team coming out of training camp here because of the time they’ve had from a recovery standpoint, so I’m excited about that. And we’ve been able to blend really hot weather with some rain, so the conditions have made us adjust, which is good for what we might see in the opener. [It is] unique that we’ve practiced so much since our last game. We played UNC that Friday before Thanksgiving, or of Thanksgiving weekend, prepared for a bowl, which we didn’t play, had spring ball, which doesn’t have a game against someone else, and then fall camp. So we’ve practiced a lot without a game, and I know we’re all ready to go play a game and see where we’re at. 

“And I think, as a coach, to coach a game and, as a player, to play a game that we get to play against an in-state team in their house, a great opportunity to go play against Coach Houston, who I have great respect for and his staff. They also have a lot of continuity on their staff and the team that he’s been able to recruit, develop. It’s more of his roster now than it ever has been, and they bring back a team that has a lot of veteran players with game reps like we do. When you watch them, they play hard. They execute their systems well. They play the entire length of the game. You see them come back in games, they’ve been in overtime games and they don’t quit, so I have a lot of respect for that when you watch them. 

“Their quarterback has played a lot of football. I’ve known Holton [Ahlers] since he was in high school, big strong kid that can run around and super smart and has a lot of game experience. He’s got skilled players around him . They’re impressive guys. His top receiver, [C.J. Johnson], obviously, he’s a high school teammate, so there’s chemistry there. The tight end that transferred in from Oklahoma, Ryan Jones, we recruited from Mallard Creek in high school. He was a really good athlete in high school, and I think their tailback is a really, really good football player for them. The O line has some starters back and, also, have added some competition to their roster in the portal there. On defense, they’re very multiple, a lot of pressure, a lot of stunts and just change up their coverage packages quite a bit. They play hard. I do see good defensive speed when you watch their film. The best thing they do on defense is get the ball back. Last year, they got 21 takeaways on defense.

 “Crowd noise, it will be great to be involved in an atmosphere like that. We know that their fans will be loud and, for us, it’s something we need. We need to go play on the road and play in front of a fan base like that. Obviously, we’re going to come home after this game for three weeks and then have to go play at Clemson, and that’ll be our next time to really have that. So I’m excited we have that challenge in our opener as well. And it’s a stadium that NC State has not played well. As a program, we’re 1-4 in Greenville. My last time there, we had 13 penalties and lost in a one-possession game, so I know this is a tough place, trust me. Our team knows that as well. There’s been a  lot of conversation about who we’re playing and where we’re playing. 

“And I’ve always felt winning starts with not beating yourself, and so a lot of conversation on that. Particularly, in these openers, you see a lot of early-season mistakes in opening games that we need to avoid. And, to be the best team we can be, we need to not make it harder than it needs to be on ourselves with pre snap penalties and layup type plays that you’ve got to make, whether it’s offense or defense. Our special teams needs to be special, it needs to be an area, like last year, that was a weapon. We talk about complimentary football and playing offense, defense, special teams and sideline love and energy that we have. 

“I think all of those go into the game itself and, anytime you travel, if you can win the turnover margin, you’ve got a great opportunity to win the game, and you’ve got two defenses that pride themselves on getting the ball back. When you talk about our team, starting on offense, our offensive line returns four of its starters in Chandler Zavala, Grant Gibson, Dylan McMahon, Bryson Speas and then, guys that played a lot for us, Tim McKay, Derrick Eason are back, so those six are back. We’re excited about Anthony Belton at left tackle and then Lyndon Cooper at center. You see a lot of good things out of Anthony Carter who is one of our guards and Patrick Matan is another one of our tackles, so we feel like we have good competitive depth there where we can rotate some guys on the line. 

“Obviously, at quarterback, we feel great about Devin [Leary], I met with him earlier today. He’s got a good handle on what we’re looking for as a leader and what he needs to do. The running back position, I’m excited to see Jordan Houston, Demi Sumo-Karngbaye, Demarcus Jones and Delbert Mimms, I think they’re all excited to get out and prove what they are. The tight ends, Trent Pennix and Chris Toudle are both healthy and feeling good, and Kam Walker has really improved. The two of our redshirt tight ends Ced and Fred Seabrough have come on to add depth at that position, excited about that. 

“Then, at receiver, Thayer [Thomas] probably had the best training camp he’s had. I thought he was outstanding, really has improved from last year. Devin Carter returns, and then you see kind of the up-and-coming guys, and then Darryl Jones, who came in from Maryland, Keyon Lesane has had a great camp and Julian Gray, a very productive camp, Porter Rooks, Anthony Smith, and Jalen Coit. We feel like that room has guys we can rotate, and Jasiah Provillon has done some things here in the last three or four practices, so we’ve increased definitely our depth of playmakers, I think. We leaned hard on Emeka, and so how are we going to create production? It’s going to come in a lot of guys’ hands, I think and we’ll see, as you get into the games, obviously, one guy outperforms others, he’ll get more time. The system has been able to grow because of our staff continuity and the number of returners, so excited about that for Coach [Tim] Beck. 

“On defense, a lot of the same names. D-line, Savion [Jackson], Cory Durden, Davin Vann, Josh Harris, C.J. Clark, those five who have played a lot for us are back and playing well. Travali Price and Claude Larkins are two younger guys that are now rotating as well. The three linebackers, Payton [Wilson], Isaiah [Moore] and Drake [Thomas] look good and really healthy, excited about those three, and then the improvement of Jaylon Scott, Jayland Parker and Caden Fordham behind them in our rotation.

“In the secondary, we’ve got some competitive depth, and we’ll be able to rotate some guys. Tanner Ingle and Jakeen Harris, Cyrus [Fagan], Devan Boykin at safety, [Tyler Baker-Williams] and Josh Pierre-Louis as the nickel and dime, and then our corners [Shyheim] Battle, Aydan White, Derrek Pitts, Teshaun Smith, so we’ll see how this plays out. There’s going to be a lot of guys, particularly early, getting some rotational time and, as the season goes on, we’re going to need them all, and so I think it’s important early to give a lot of guys opportunities.

“The specialists are the same as they were with Chris Dunn and [Joe] Shimko, and then Shane McDonough, our transfer punter, had a great camp. He’s also our holder. Collin Smith, our kickoff guy, and then Thayer and Julian are our returners. And so that kind of rounds out the roster. We’re in a pretty good spot. We had a great practice on Sunday. We used Sunday as a day to get out and work since normally we’d be coming off a game, it allowed us to get a little bit of extra work in on Sunday with our game plan. So good day to day to kind of critique where we’re at and polish things up as we go.”

Q&A transcript

I think we were all kind of expecting to see the two-deep depth chart today. Is there a reason for the delay, and are there maybe any surprises in there?

Dave Doeren: “No, there’s no reason for it. We just felt like we’d hand it out the same day our opponent does. They do it on Tuesday, so that’s when we’re doing it.”

Dave you mentioned, obviously, the last time that you played this ECU team on the road was that 2016 team. You mentioned, obviously, that none of the other guys that are part of this team were a part of that one. How do you kind of relay that to them, the importance of going on the road and changing that record that you have against them?

Dave Doeren: “One, you talk about it, you recognize it. And two, we’re not the same team we were in 2016 either. That was a young football team, really young. All those guys that ended up being NFL players were sophomore starters in that game. We made a lot of immature mistakes, and so I’ve talked about all of that with them. You recognize it, but you also have to look at who you are. 

“We’re a team that can play a lot better than that team did at that time in their career, so we need to. And I think maturity is a big deal on the road. You look at your leadership, and we’ve got an experienced team that needs to make sure that we’re not making it harder than it is to win a football game, but pre snap and post snap decisions that can hurt our chances to be successful.”

I also wanted to ask you about Holton Ahlers … you’re recruiting him from his freshman season on, early on in his career back in high school. What did you see from him then that made him such a good recruit, and what do you see from him now that makes him such a difficult quarterback to face?

Dave Doeren: “He reminded me a lot of guys that I had at Northern Illinois, and at that time we were still trying to find a mobile quarterback. Cause he could run and he was tough, similar to Jordan Lynch and Chandler Harnish, two of the guys I had at NIU. We liked that about him and we thought we could run some of the downhill QB runs because he’s 230-pound guy and still have the drop back pass game that we wanted to have. Those are the things.

“He was a 4.0 guy, he’s obviously from a football family, had all the right things and ultimately he chose to stay home and be part of their family’s legacy at that school and have nothing but respect for him for that. And what makes him good now? The same things then. He’s mobile, still is, has a good arm, sees the field, is good on his feet. All those reasons I recruited them then are the same reasons he’s a four year starter for them.”

We know in college football there are no preseason games, no scrimmages, no jamborees. So your first opponent, it counts. What makes this game on the road in a hostile environment the perfect test right out the gate for your experience?

Dave Doeren: “I think I’ve pretty much touched on all that my remarks. It’s the crowd noise is a factor when you’re on the road and so when we get to play at some place that were that’s an element it tests you. It tests your focus with your 11 guys on offense. It tests your your mental maturity when you have opponent fans saying whatever they’re going to be saying to you, right. Can you manage yourself in that environment? Because we can’t practice that. We can’t put people in there yelling at our guys.

“There’s a hostile part of playing a stadium that sells out that has rowdy students just like ours does. So it does test you. It tests your leadership. It tests your ability to stay focused on the task instead of the surroundings.

“And they’re a good football team. I think it’s the best team Coach Houston’s had. He’s got a lot of good players back. His staff, it’s been together while, and they’re his kids he’s recruited. We’re not just playing against some team. I mean, it’s a good football team. There were bowl eligible team last year, and they’re better than they were last year because of who they brought back.”

Dave [Doeren], it was amazing as you’re going through the roster, just how deep this team is. Your 10th year here, you got the program, it seems like, to the point you want. How how hard is it to get to this point? And is this the kind of the team that you always expected you would get this program to look like?

Doeren: “If we can stay healthy, knock on wood and pray and all that stuff Wolfpack Nation, but yeah, if we can stay healthy, we’ve got really good competitive depth. It doesn’t take long if you’re looking at a depth chart and you see a fourth or fifth year player backed up by a second or third year player. What’s going to be behind one of them? A freshman. So it doesn’t take long to take to change the equation. I hope that we don’t. I hope that we can keep that that rotational depth going.

“And to answer your question, yeah, absolutely. This is what I hoped for. I hope to have not just the starting group of guys but a group of guys that are trying to beat them out that are good enough to beat him out. That can go in the game and not just take reps but produce and help us win. I think we have that, and we have tremendous leadership on this roster, not just with our captains, with guys in the position room.

“It’s taken time, as you mentioned, but I do think some of the other teams we’ve had had similar things. Maybe not the same depth but we’ve had some older teams from time to time that have really had tremendous seasons and good leadership as well.”

You showed up wearing glasses, you said you didn’t need these 10 years ago and have you had time kind of to think about your own growth and what you’ve accomplished here in the past decade and kind of what still left to be done, things like that?

Doeren: “Well, definitely what’s left to be done. I know what my goals are here. win a championship. That’s what it’s been about since day one. 1Pack1Goal, united makes me win a championship. It’s been since day one, the mission statement of our program and the identity of our team, hard, tough, together, and it’s been a part of our makeup. And I think that’s very evident when you watch us play, that that’s branded in us here.

“As far as looking at myself, I absolutely try to get better every year. And I think in most cases I have. I would say, our down here we had a few years back, I own that as much as anybody in this building. I didn’t do a good enough job having a young team ready to play and then dealing with all the injuries.

“So I learned from that, and I think the biggest thing I can tell you is in my 12 years now as a head coach, I look at failure as an opportunity to grow, and you can’t get better without struggle. You can’t, and nobody likes to hear that but that’s the God’s honest truth in life. If you really want to get better you have to put yourself in very difficult situations to grow. You don’t grow much when it’s easy. And I’ve grown a lot.

“To be able to tell you exactly how, probably can’t do that. When I’m done coaching and maybe I’ll be able to do that a lot better when I’ve had that kind of time to reflect.”

How much do you think about that 2019 season heading into now with with a lot of those guys still being on this team?

Dave Doeren: “Yeah, it’s funny, I thought about that season this morning for some reason, and I’m thankful that I had to go through it because I’m better for having gone through it and exposed things in our program that had we not had some of those injuries and we were able to get to a bowl, and maybe not have to really dissect what’s wrong, I wouldn’t be where we’re at right now. So thankful for that for that year and for Boo allowing me to fix what was broken, with myself, too.

“I think all those hard hardships that this team suffered, I think shared adversity is a critical part of a team. It’s how you come together. It’s going through creating scars. We all have the same scar from 2019. It’s a big ugly one, man. And we remember it for those of us who are here and we don’t want another one like it. Having that shared adversity with those young men that were a part of that failure has allowed us to really prevent it from coming back.”

You’ve mentioned a lot of the depth that you have and the talent that you have returning but two positions in particular, obviously at the running back position, and then with that third wide receiver spot, there’s a lot of young guys battling for those positions. What have you seen from from some of the younger players on this roster, those two positions in particular?

Dave Doeren: I’ve seen people emerge more than anything. There’s a lot of competition. Guys that we were hoping would be playmakers for us are showing that they are. Consistency starting to emerge in some guys more than others. And as you know, these are practice things we’re watching not games yet. So this could change. Sometimes games bring out better things in some guys and not so good in others.

“So touching it from what we’ve had, which is a lot of practice since we played UNC, I think the improvement from Keyon Lesane, from from Julian Gray. The addition of Darryl has really helped the room Jalen Coit, what he did in our second scrimmage. Anthony Smith had a great spring. So there’s competition, and I think that pushed our guys. Thayer is better because of Porter Rooks and Julian Gray and Jalen Coit. He had to push himself to get better because he knew they were coming for his job, and I think that makes him better. And it did, because he’s playing as good as I’ve ever seen him play right now.

“Now the running back position, you guys help us there. I mean, all you did was talk about how they’re going to be good? They lost Bam [Knight], they lost Ricky [Person], who’s going to be good in that room? They read that stuff, they know. So yeah, that’s a hungry group right now. They’re anxious to get on the field and let you know who they are.”

Are there things you guys are implementing into practice to sort of simulate things [crowd noise]. I know you guys did cowbells from Mississippi State, anything like that?

Dave Doeren: “Yeah, we’ll definitely have. Anytime we play at a place where we need to, whether it’s the actual crowd noise or their fight songs or music. But the offensive field will have a lot of noise on it on Tuesday and Wednesday. Prepare for that. Obviously on defense, it’s not as bad because they’re not gonna be as loud when their offense is over.”