Dave Doeren ready to lead refreshed NC State back into action
A refreshed NC State football head coach Dave Doeren met with the media for the first time since the loss at Syracuse on Oct. 15 by going to the podium and asking about everyone’s State Fair experiences. Doeren himself did not walk across the street from his office to enjoy the festivities.
Instead, Doeren spent quality time with family and watching football on television.
“Got a little more sleep than normal,” Doeren added.
Perhaps watching Clemson’s comeback win over the aforementioned Orange highlighted his viewing experience.
“That was a good football game,” Doeren noted.
Those teams are responsible for NC State’s 2 losses, with the Pack sitting at 5-2 overall and 1-2 in the ACC.
Seven-straight weeks with a game, Doeren guessed, was the longest he has been without a bye since his first year at NC State in the fall of 2013. For multiple reasons, this bye came at a good time.
“Physically, mentally, all of it, fatigue, even if Devin [Leary] was playing, it would have been a good time for us to have a bye,” Doeren said, referring to the Pack’s fifth-year redshirt junior starting quarterback who will miss the rest of the season after having surgery on his pectoral muscle last week.
Leary was at practice Monday, which was treated like a normal game-week Wednesday practice since NC State is back in action Thursday night at home against Virginia Tech. Leary walked off the field with Doeren after Monday’s workout in good spirits.
The bye week allowed NC State offensive coordinator Tim Beck to further adjust the offense in the post-Leary portion of the season.
“It’s hard going into the Syracuse game,” Doeren added. “Can’t change a lot in three days of practice, particularly when you’re playing in a place where you can’t audible and make checks because of the crowd noise that they have.”
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Doeren confirmed that, with senior Jack Chambers leading the way and freshman MJ Morris also in the mix, NC State is going to try to further utilize their new signal-callers’ athleticism in the offense.
“That was just kind of the beginnings of what we can do,” Doeren said, referring to Syracuse. “We’re not going to turn into running triple option, but we do have a quarterback that can do some things and want to utilize that. Still want to feed our receivers, running backs and tight ends. … You got to be careful about not doing too much when you are not doing things and executing and playing fast.”
Doeren also noted that during the bye week some guys were able to “mend up.”
“Much better than we were in the second half of the last game,” Doeren added, reflecting on how NC State was down 10 starters by the end of the Syracuse loss.
The refreshed Wolfpack squad understands that they may have to recalibrate the goals from preseason hopes of a title, but Doeren noted there is still a lot to play for over the final 5 games of the season.
“If you spend your time on what we could have been, you’re not going to get anything out of what’s left,” Dave Doeren said. “I think there is obviously a lot of banter out there on the past and things like that for all teams involved, but for the team that is actually playing and sweating and fighting, you can’t worry about that.”
