NC State Football
Derrick Eason’s Selflessness Impressed Doeren
NC State head coach Dave Doeren spoke of the selflessness of Redshirt Freshman Derrick Eason in yesterday’s weekly press conference. When a coach watches a player make a sacrifice for the sake of the team, they swell up with pride.
The depth of the Wolfpack Offensive Line took a serious blow this offseason. Kendall Brown is no longer with the team. Jalynn Strickland is still on scholarship at NC State, but is no longer on the football team due to medical hardship. Graduate Redshirt Senior Tyrone Riley, who was expected to start at Left Tackle, will miss the entirety of the 2019 season due to injury.
While Doeren is extremely excited about the True Freshman offensive Lineman (3 of them are on the Week 1 2-Deep Depth Chart), the attrition at the position group raised concern.
Here’s where the sacrifice of Eason comes in.
Eason was a 3-Star Defensive End prospect that ultimately chose the Wolfpack over the Fighting Irish. He played last season on the EDGE, seeing action in 3 games (3 plays from the line of scrimmage), which means he was able to maintain his Redshirt season.
This offseason, Eason moved to Defensive Tackle, and there was a lot of buzz surrounding how well he was adjusting to the middle.
When the need was presented to Eason, he was willing to switch to Offensive Tackle, if it was what was best for the team. Eason is listed as a backup to Justin Witt at Right Tackle, along with True Freshman Timothy McKay, on this weeks Depth Chart.
“I’m proud of Derrick for doing it, because it’s a selfless thing. You know, really, it’s about our depth. We feel like with Josh Harris and CJ Clark, two of the guys we signed, who are going to be available here soon, that we have depth inside (defensive line) that’s going to be coming back to the roster. Whereas on the O-line we don’t.
And so Derrick played O-line in high school. He was pretty good at it, and he’s a big long guy. He was willing to help the football team. And obviously, if it’s a thing that doesn’t work out, we know we can move him back, but it gives us the ability to have another player there.” Doeren said at his weekly press conference
Eason has many years ahead of him in Raleigh, and only time will tell whether or not he ends up staying on the Offensive Line. What is easy to know, is the fact that sacrifices like this make a team better, and draw them closer together.