NC State head coach Dave Doeren met with the media after practice today one final time before Saturday’s season opener against Troy. Here’s the FULL VIDEO and the TRANSCRIPT is below.
“These guys take so many hits that are away from the ball at running back in pass protection. You don’t want to be damaged goods when you’re done playing. They all want the ball, but they also know they want to play for X amount of plays and make it through the season. That’s the thing that Des (Kitchings) does a good job of”
“The idea would be able to share the ball and still have a 1,000 yard rusher. We’d love for those two guys to have 1,000 yards at the end of the year. They have to stay healthy to do that first of all. If they do, we have to get them the amount of touches to make that happen.”
“Last year we didn’t have a backup (QB) to run the offense the way we wanted to run it if Jacoby went out. We would have had to change dramatically if he couldn’t play. We didn’t want to do that. We didn’t run him as much because it’s what we had to do. It’s what our offense had to do. Towards the end of the season we had to do it to win. We can run him a lot if we need to. I’m not going to say that we are going to have 10 designed runs for him. He’s going to run on his own some to. He’s going to get hit because of the scrambling. We just have to make sure that we are smart about when we do it and why we do it, and how much do we need to do it based on our tailbacks running ability.”
“Everything we talk about is process right now. It’s going through the process of the game. Going through the game plan. Processing the call if you are a defense of player. Processing the play if you are an offensive player. What does that mean? Where do my eyes go? What are my keys? It is all about envisioning the result. We believe we control that result. We don’t control a lot of things that happen through the course of a game as players and coaches, but we can control how we handle those things. That’s what we do.”
“We have a tradition three minutes before the kickoff where we turn the red lights on and all the white lights out, and the guys have three minutes of pure focus. There’s no music playing. Guys have their headsets on, so that they can respect each others space.”
Prior to the announcement, NC State already had their non-conference slate booked for both of those seasons.
As a result of the addition of the Virginia series, a previously scheduled non-conference game from each season would need to be dropped. While it hasn’t been officially announced by the school, Joe Giglio and David Glenn seem to think that the series with Appalachian State is going to be dropped.
State swaps out a home-and-home with App State for one with Virginia
Given the ACC’s stance on road G5 games, that was going to happen
NC STATE BACKS OUT OF FOOTBALL SERIES WITH APPALACHIAN STATE…. David Glenn Weighs in on Required #NCPOL Scheduling Bill per UNC, NC STATE, ECU, CHARLOTTE AND APP https://t.co/5sfWzmRa93 via @YouTube
— NORTH CAROLINA SPORTS NETWORK (@TheNCSportsNet) May 16, 2024
It would make the most sense, considering the Mountaineers were the only opponent the Wolfpack was scheduled to play in both 2025 and 2026. It would also make sense, considering the fact that ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips isn’t a fan of ACC teams playing Group of 5 schools on the road.
I will tell you this much. The Mountaineer faithful certainly believe NC State is dropping the series with App State, and it just takes a little scrolling on X (formerly Twitter) to get a read on their feelings on the situation.
CBS Sports released their Top-25 Power 4 Coaches in College Football, and NC State’s Dave Doeren came in at #16. Heading into last season, he went into the season ranked #25.
16) Dave Doeren: The NC State coach finally gets some overdue credit. He’s always hovered around the bottom of our top 25 or just outside it, and now he finds himself firmly entrenched in it thanks to all the changes at the top. Coaches who take mid-tier programs and overachieve never get enough credit, in my estimation, and the consistency Doeren has established at NC State — where he spent most of his time in a division with Clemson and Florida State — is one of the most impressive things any coach in the country has done. I’m glad to see Doeren getting closer to the top 15. 2023 rank: 25 (+9) (CBS Sports)
Numerous CBS Sports’ analysts voted in the poll, and Tom Fornelli actually ranked Doeren #8.
DraftKings released their way-too-early odds for the game, and Tennessee is currently a 5.5-point favorite.
Here’s the deal, as NC State fans, if we want to be a big time Football program, NC State fans need to gobble up tickets to this game. Let’s do our part and make sure that Bank of America Stadium is painted RED. Buy Tickets HERE.
NC State announced this morning that the Wolfpack and UVA will play in a home-and-home non-conference series, with the game in 2025 being in Raleigh, and the game in 2026 being in Charlottesville.
To reiterate, despite the fact that both teams are in the ACC, these games are considered non-conference games, and won’t count toward conference records. This is similar to what UNC and Wake Forest did a few years back.
Here’s what’s interesting about the addition of these games in 2025 and 2026. Prior to the announcement, NC State already had 4 non-conference games scheduled for both years.
It would be my assumption that one of the previously scheduled non-conference games for each season will not take place now.