WATCH: Dave Doeren after NC State’s 1st Day of 2025 Fall Practice (with transcript)

Yesterday was NC State’s 1st Fall Football practice, and Head Coach Dave Doeren met with the media afterwards. You can watch the video above, and read the transcript below.

First day. Excited to be back on the grass with the guys. Obviously, competing against one another. You do so much of these walkthroughs and things throughout the summer.

The guys are training, and today’s a chance to get your first glimpse. I was happy to see the conditioning of many of the players. It’s good to have some guys back that were out last year.

To see Isaiah Shirley, Caden Fordham, and some of those guys playing for us again. It was fun to see, and they look great. You can see there’s some continuity with CJ (Bailey), different from last year, being a returning starter with his receivers.

And obviously, we’re not in pads, so some of the stuff you’ve got to kind of wait and see on, with the blocking and pass rush, and taking on blocks and all that. But it’s a good first day, a lot of things we’ve got to clean up. Too many drops, balls on the ground, a couple false starts.

Guys cramping, it’s hot out there, and learning how to prepare themselves, obviously, for the heat it seems like we’re going to have for the rest of the week. 

Who have been some of the young guys that have stood out to you going back to spring camp?

I think we’re all offensively excited to see Duke Scott. He had a really good spring. He’s building off of a tremendous summer in the weight room. Spike Sowell’s, young offensive lineman that did a really nice job early in the spring, and had a good summer. Defensively, there’s just a lot of new parts that came in, and so whether they’re new or, I guess they’re all new when you talk about transfers and freshmen, but it’s good to see Brian (Nelson II), the corner, transferred in here. He had a good day today, very smooth mover. Ronnie Royal, I thought, took advantage of a lot of reps today, did a nice job in there. 

So, it’s going to be a process, getting these guys into a lot of situational football, and competitive drills, to see how they handle the load. It’s the first day of practice, not a lot of install, but there’s a lot of competition coming in this training camp. But, I’ll be able to give you a lot more detail with guys after that. 

This is the first time in a long time you’ve had to replace a couple different coordinators. Does that change where you expect things to be? 

No. In my tenure here, I’ve had several new coordinators.

I look at Kurt (Roper) differently maybe than the outside world does, because I’ve been with him for so long. He knows our players. He knows our terminology and how he wants to change it. He has relationships built. So, offensively, it’s not the same as bringing in a new face that knows nobody in that locker room. 

On defense, obviously, it’s a different conversation. For me, I’ve known DJ (Eliot) a long time, so I knew what he was going to be about. There’s a lot of new faces, because we had graduations and guys leave. There is an evolution over there, from a schematic standpoint and personnel, so it’s an opportunity. That’s how I look at it, more than a challenge.

I’m excited for the players, because they’re getting to learn new things. We’ve had different times throughout my tenure where we’ve changed, and in each of those changes, it’s helped us. So, looking forward to that.

This may be a little too early, but you’ve talked about this before, just finding the balance of tackling in the offseason, so that the guys are ready to tackle in the first game, and then you don’t want them to get hurt. Have you gotten closer to what your balance will be for this offseason? 

Well, we’re not in the offseason anymore. So, in training camp, we’ve got a pretty good idea of how much we want to do, and you’re right, it’s kind of a slippery slope. You don’t want to do too much, but you have to do enough to have them ready. 

Ball carriers too, it’s not just the tackling. You want guys to be able to protect the football when it’s live. Now you got people pulling them to the ground, and the ball can come out. So, there’s a definite need for that.

We’ll have two full scrimmages, and then we’ll have some situational scrimmages where we get into short yardage and goal line. Backed up where you want to get into those four minute offense. ‘Hey, can he finish a run, can we stop the guy from finishing a run?’ So, you just really use your gut as a head coach to get a feel for where you’re at and what you need, with their safety in mind, and also having them ready to go play a game.

How much of this camp do you think will be focused on perfecting fundamentals as opposed to install? 

It’s always both. I mean, there isn’t a good play on offense or defense that has bad fundamentals. There just isn’t.

So, every play starts in a good stance. There’s a desired technique and finish that you’re looking for from the players. And then there’s the X’s and O’s that go with it.

Every single play, all of those little things. 11 guys doing all those little things at once together is what creates positive play, so the focus is always on both. 

You’ve collected a bunch of receivers who put up major numbers in high school. How important is it for one or two or three to break out and basically scare the heck out of defenses? 

Yeah, it helps when you’re worried about someone running by you. Then to have the tight ends that we do, the running backs that we do. To have the versatility at the skill positions, it helps. You don’t want DBs to just sit and play catch coverage on you, because you won’t run by them or can’t run by them. That’s not where we’re at. We’ve got some guys that can go. And we’re going to be able to connect when we take those shots, too.

Where do you feel like the offensive line is right now heading into fall camp? 

It’s too early to say. I’m excited about the depth we’ve created through recruiting and development. There’s some really good body changes on those guys.

We brought in a couple new guys with Teague (Andersen) and JG (Jalen Grant), so there’s more competitive depth. But to give you an answer without pads on, we need to wait.

Capped off your offseason with the hole in one. What was that like for you? 

To do that with two of my three sons with me was pretty special and good karma. When I looked in the hole, I saw the logo of the wolf looking back at me, and it just made me laugh. That’s good karma, and it was awesome. Beautiful place, too.

But the best part of it was to celebrate it with Connor and Luke. 

Was that your first one? 

It was, yeah. 

Which course? Which iron? 

60 degree, short hole, downhill, it was in Missouri.

My son’s got a job in Arkansas, so we met to Missouri and played. There’s this big golf resort down there where we played at. 

13 can be an unlucky number, so you’re 13 on the team.

This will be the fourth different starting center in four years. What are you hoping to see from the guys that you’re evaluating, and what will it take to earn that spot? 

Well, the center of your offense and your defense have to be really, really strong. If you’re soft in the middle, you’ve got a tough day. Jalen (Grant) was very consistent in the spring, and so you want that consistent demeanor.

Spike (Sowells), really excited about what we’re getting out of him. So it’s the fourth, but we’ve had a lot of good ones, too. Each one of these guys, two of them are playing, three of them are playing in the NFL right now.

There’s a tradition there at that position, and we expect nothing to change. To have somebody in the middle that’s strong, that’s a good leader, that’s consistent.