WATCH: Dave Doeren’s Press Conference After NC State was Selected to Play ECU in the Military Bowl

Yesterday, NC State was selected to play ECU in the Military Bowl. Wolfpack Head Coach Dave Doeren met with the media last night to give his thoughts on the bowl selection, ECU, Tony Gibson becoming a head coach and what the military means to him.

You can watch the video ABOVE, and read the transcript BELOW.

Very appreciative for the opportunity, Steve. Appreciated the phone call earlier, too.

We’re excited to go to the bowl game in Annapolis and play at our Naval Academy, spend time in the nation’s capital. I always look at the bowl games as life opportunities for these young men and no better place than our nation’s capital to experience something. A lot of these guys probably haven’t gotten the tours and the things that we’re going to be able to do.

And so, looking forward to that. The proximity, obviously, for our fan base, great location for them to be able to get there. And look forward to playing Coach Harrell and East Carolina.

A lot of respect, Blake, for what you did this year and congrats on becoming the head coach at ECU. I know that’s not an easy thing to do midstream like you did, so congratulations. And we look forward to playing them.

It’s kind of a game that goes a long way back and we don’t get to play each other very often and it’s been a while. So I don’t know how many of our players, the way rosters change anymore, are going to remember the last time we played. But they’re excited to go to a bowl game.

There’s several guys on our team, just to go back to your comments, that were a part of a canceled bowl game a few years ago in California and it was on the way to the pregame meal that that one got canceled. Excited to go up there and play. Our team’s coming off a good win against our rival UNC and we do have a really talented quarterback that’s excited to get into the postseason here.

As far as playing each other at the end and the beginning, we actually did that with ECU. I don’t know how many years ago it was, but in the previous hurricane year we had a game canceled with West Virginia and picked up ECU as our last contest and then opened with them the next year. So it’s something I’ve already done.

Teams change a lot from one year to the next. Obviously there’ll be some carryover, but these rosters for both of us will look different in the Fall than they do. We’ll probably both find out tomorrow if our rosters look the same with the transfer portal opening tomorrow.

So there’s a lot of change this time of year. I know for one, just getting back on the practice field and getting around the guys again, it’s going to be nice. I’m getting ready and coaching up some of these young players.

So look forward to the opportunity and I’m sure there’s a lot of questions.

Do you remember, you probably don’t remember, back in the 80’s and 90’s, the history of this rivalry, just how much it means to the fan base. I’m sure there’s still some people from that era too that remember the history of this rivalry. Can you touch on how important it is to maybe Wolfpack fans and how exciting that would be for these fan bases to go head-to-head again?

We’re in the same state.

It’s kind of hard to call us rivals now because we don’t play each other every year, and to me, that’s what rivals do. We’re in-state opponents and there’s a lot of crossover between our fans.

There’s split households and all those kinds of things. There’s Wolfpack families whose kids are students at ECU. There’s all that in-state stuff that goes with this game.

We’re not far from each other. We run into each other. Coaches see each other on the road and recruiting at clinics, everything else.

A lot of these players probably, at least the in-state guys, will have teammates from high school on these two teams. So that’s part of it. But to go back to the 80’s for me, Todd, I can’t do that.

I’d be speaking out of turn. I mean, in the 80’s, I was in middle school or high school. I mean, I’m not that old, man.

So, yeah. I mean, I know some of our older fans look at this a lot different than us. But I got here 12 years ago.

I know when we play each other, it’s always packed at whoever’s stadium it’s at, and there’s a lot of fanfare.

I was just wondering if you had any comments about Tony (Gibson) heading to Marshall, what he’s meant for your program over the past few years, and what you plan on doing from a defensive coordinator or defensive play calling perspective with his departure?

Yeah, I’m super excited for Tony. He’s earned it. He deserves it.

He’s been a great staff member, friend. Throughout his time in college football, he’s made his mark, and it’s always been one of his goals.

So for me, it’s a proud moment. It’s Coach Beck a few years ago, Eli Drinkwitz a few years ago, Mike Uremovich is now the head coach at Ball State. So there’s a lot of guys that have worked for me that are now running their own programs.

I take a lot of pride in that and am super excited for him. Anytime a coach leaves, I look at that vacancy as an opportunity to improve and take our time, making decisions on what we’re going to do. Our staff on defense is all here and those guys will coach.

Tony won’t coach in the bowl game. Obviously, he’s got a program to go run. Freddie Aughtry-Lindsay will call the defense and run it, and excited for him to do that in this game.

Our kids will be excited to play hard for him.

Coach, just to bounce off of that, what does your process look like in replacing Tony just with the portal opening, the accelerated offseason that you guys are in this era of college football?

Well, it’ll go as fast as it can go. I never look at an opening as something that I have to rush because of what’s going on on the outside. It’s more about what I need for this program.

As soon as I’m ready, we’ll have a guy in there. I owe it to NC State and every player in that locker room to look at everything and make the best choices, not just for them as players, but for the culture of the team. And it’s a great opportunity.

There’s a lot of good young football players here. There’s a lot coming in in our signing class. We have one of the best, if not the best, freshman quarterback in college football on our roster coming back.

So there’ll be a lot of interest. My phone’s been buzzing the whole time since it broke, and a lot of people want the job.

I owe it to these players to give them the best coach I can get, and that’s what I’m going to do. Sometimes from the outside looking in, I’m not worried about winning a press conference.

I know what these guys need. I know what we have. We don’t need to change a 180 and all of a sudden go to a completely different thing, but we do need to evolve, and this is a great opportunity to do that. I don’t know if that answers your question, but every hire is just an opportunity.

It’s no different when a player graduates. There’s guys sitting right underneath them that can’t wait to show their stuff, and we’re going to have a guy that can’t wait to come in here and help NC State on defense.

You’ve been in North Carolina long enough to know the military legacy within the state, especially the eastern half of the state. There’s ROTC. I just left Reynolds Coliseum. They have ROTC in that building. It’s prominent at the school as well. The military aspect of this bowl game. Your thoughts on that. How meaningful is that for you and your players?

I love it, man.

I’m excited. Annapolis, I’ve never played there. I’ve been able to play at West Point.

It’s just the history and all of it. It’s awesome being on their campus and their stadium. I know there’s our military appreciation day.

The number of different military that shows up, like the presence in our state is so incredible. You talk about the eastern part of the state, like one of my favorite trips since I’ve been on here was spending eight hours at MAR-SOC, getting to see all the things that they do in the special forces part of the Marine Base. I’m excited to go to Annapolis, like really excited to see that.

I have so much respect for the military academies. My dad served in the Navy. I was born in a Naval Hospital in California.

All this is cool for me. I applied to the Naval Academy in high school. I’m really excited about the opportunity going there. Anytime we can do anything that lets the military have football involved in it, where they can take a break from protecting us and enjoy a day, I’m all about it.

I’m sorry, I have to ask now, you said you applied to the Naval Academy. How did that go?

It went good. I got in.

Obviously, I decided not to do that. But no, it was the only academy that accepted me. Let me say that to the other ones.

I was very excited about that opportunity, but at the time, I thought I was going to be a doctor. I was pre med, and to go to an academy, you owe them like 20 years of your life after med school. And that’s kind of hard to do at 17 and make a decision like that.

So I punted on that one.

I know, your grandparents and then your wife, she has family who served. Does it feel like this is somewhat of a family affair for you?

I hadn’t really thought about it. I think this always comes up during military week. Sarah’s dad, Stan served in the Army.

My father, Bill served in the Navy. All of our grandparents served. The military for us is meaningful as part of our upbringing. Living in a state, it’s very present, more present than any state I’ve lived in.

As far as the number of bases, active military reserves and everything else, do feel the pageantry of the military more here than you do anywhere.

From my standpoint, I know there’s other states with a huge presence, but for my seven or eight states that I’ve lived in, North Carolina is by far the biggest presence.

Playing on base at a place like that, obviously Boo Corrigan can speak to this better than me being at West Point as long as he was. There’s just, there’s a lot of pageantry, a lot of special things that goes with being there.

You guys will play ECU, Anthony Smith transferred there in the offseason. What was it like for you to be able to see him go there and then play as well as he has this year?

No, I’m excited for Anthony.I loved that kid, wanted well for him. I was just actually looking at his stats earlier today. He’s had some big games for them, like four 100 yard games.

He’s a fast kid, and he’s always been a fun guy to be around. I’m excited for him.

Anytime a guy leaves your program in good standing, which he did, you want nothing but success for those guys. Obviously in our game, I hope he doesn’t have any, but as far as his career and life, and looking at what he’s done there, he’s made an impact for them.

Not surprised. He’s definitely got a great skill set.

Coach, you mentioned Coach Freddie will be running the defense for bowl prep. I was just wondering, what makes you excited to see him in that role calling plays and stuff like that?

Well, it’s been a goal of his. Freddie was the defensive coordinator at the FCS level for a number of years.

All of my coaches, when they have goals to move up, those are things that I try to help them with. He’s had opportunities to leave here for mid major D-coordinator jobs, and he wanted to learn, he wanted to stay and he wanted to grow.

This is a great opportunity for him, to show what he can do, and to lead our guys. I know our guys trust and respect him. So it’ll be fun to watch him.

I’ve had to deal with this over the years, losing coaches. At this time of year, there’s been a lot of bowl games, we’ve had to elevate different people to coaching positions, so hopefully, it’s just the one.

It was Texas A&M when we played them in the Belk Bowl, but like half my staff was gone.

In this situation, we’ve got a very, very qualified coach that takes a lot of pride in what he does. I’m excited for Freddie.