NC State head coach Dave Doeren and quarterback Brennan Armstrong on this upcoming season

Dave Doran is sitting here.

He is the head coach at NC State, but you know that, and I know that, and we'll just wait. I'll even do this with you if you want. How are you?

I'm great. You having a good summer so far? It's over? Yeah, I could have used a little bit more time, family-wise, but you know, the timing is always valuable. You can always get, everybody can always use more time. Yeah, it just seems like the time has been allotted differently now with NIL and the fundraising aspects the head coach has in his life.

Kind of coincided with when we would be taking time off, and so didn't feel like I got the same rest that I normally would have gotten. Talk to me about how the new landscape has impacted your life. I know you alluded to it here, but if you could give an example of now I need to be doing this, and it is because it has obviously put a lot of additional pressure on everything you have to do. Well, yeah. I mean, first, I think it's great that the players are able to get income from all the things they do for our program, and I've seen a lot of guys being able to help their families out, and that's phenomenal, but the money has to be raised, and it has to be donated, you know, and so the head coach becomes a part of that. A lot of people won't just give it away, you know, they're going to want to play golf with the head coach or go fishing with the head coach or have conversations with the head coach. Our collectives have done tremendous work, and we had a huge successful gala with Scottie McCreary, and all that's awesome, you know, but it takes time, and that time used to be family time, and now you're, you know, there's an impact for everything you say yes to, you say no to something else, and so I can't say I'm excited about the loss of that time.

I'm excited about the product that's coming out of it, though. All right, let's get to the football field. Last several years, I mean, just specifically to the last year, it injuries a quarterback that really derailed everything you wanted to do offensively, but you bring in a new guy this year, Brendan Armstrong, who we have great familiarity with. I mean, two years ago at Virginia, he was a stud.

Last year, there was a transition year. One is good for him, but you also have Robert and I, the new offensive coordinator, so what are you looking for from your offense? Well, I think, you know, picking up where Brendan left off for him, I would love to see him get back to who he was in that system. You know, I think Robert is really good at tweaking his offensive system to fit the talent that he has to work with, so one of the things that attracted me to hiring him was each time I've coached against him, the offense has been different each time, and that's because the talent changes. You know, maybe you have running backs or tight ends or receivers you want to feature more, and he knows how to do that, so, you know, getting the complementary football aspect. We played great defense and special teams last year. We didn't turn the ball over, but we didn't score enough points, right, and so you want to get back into where your defense doesn't have as much pressure on it, you know, to keep somebody from scoring to win the game on you.

It brings up a philosophical question. The old adage is that defense wins championships, but has that flipped in college football? You know, I mean, you have to have a defense.

Right. You have to outscore people too, obviously, and you have to score more than you used to to win, and so all of it, you know, complementary football is a big deal. Like, you know, your defense has to have opportune stops, and the turnover margin piece is huge, you know, but you're not going to win championships scoring 21 points a game.

You're not. You know, you've got to be in that 35 points a game to be a real contender in these championship races. Dave Doran is joining us here on the Adam Gold Show. How big a deal is Trent Pennock's health for you? Yeah, I mean, he is an electric player. He's a productive player.

He's a touchdown guy, and when we've had him, he's made a lot of plays for us, and it's hard. Coach and I is actually working with him. That's one of the positions he coaches, and, you know, I think managing him in practice and trying to get him to stay healthy is a big part of it.

Obviously, we can't make football, not football. It's going to be a contact sport, but, you know, Trent has to do a good job taking care of himself too. You know, I think the amount of sleep, how he hydrates, how he eats, what he does off the field, everything adds up, and how many reps we give him, so we're going to be smart with them, and he's got to be smarter himself, and hopefully, we'll be able to keep him on the field for a whole season.

Dave Doran is here. Peyton Wilson's another guy who has had his injury issues, and a few years ago, we thought, like, he's gone. He's gone to the NFL, and he's still here. Your thoughts about what he is, what he means to the program, and what he can be like this year?

I'm excited for Peyton. You know, he'll tell you that he's the best version of himself he's ever been. He stepped into a leadership role as a vocal leader, which, in the past, he's been more just behind the scenes grinder.

He's talking. He's representing what he says well about how he's training and eating, and all the things that he's doing with the younger players, teaching them things. He's the first graduate of college in his family, you know, so he's taking that step off the field, things he does in the community with community service, so he's really in a good place, and I'm really happy for him, and I'm excited to coach him again.

I mean, he's a fun guy to coach. I know you have a lot of things to do here, so I'm going to let you go in a second, but I want to, you have set the bar in a lot of different ways, not only with your football program, but, and I know I've joked with you about this, but winding the siren at hurricanes games. Nobody had, there is a Dave Doran level that nobody can reach. What did you think? Here's my favorite part of the outdoor hockey game, and I don't know, I think you were there, but I'm not 100% sure. I was there. My favorite thing was how they melt, they blended the Carter Finley stadium football environment with the hockey game. It made it one of the most special nights that the NHL has seen, because that was, a lot of it was NC State football heritage. Yeah, it was awesome, and I think I'm undefeated at canes games.

You can check me on that fact, but I do believe I am undefeated, but that night was really fun. Our whole staff and our wives were all there. We had a great time. It ended up being kind of a fun social night for us with everybody, but yeah, what a cool event, and the weather was perfect and really highlighted our city well, you know, for people to watch the game. And the marching band was awesome.

It really was fantastic. Hey, thank you very much. I know we'll talk during the season. Good luck. I know you're happy to be out of divisions. I am.

I know you guys want to see the best two teams played out at the end, you know, and sometimes that hasn't happened in our league, so teams that have the best records over 12 weeks deserve that opportunity and look forward to seeing that. All right. Thank you very much.

We'll talk to you very soon. NC State, I think, did a pretty doggone good job in the transfer portal. Brennan Armstrong, quarterback at NC State.

Last time I said Brennan Armstrong quarterback at, I said at the University of Virginia. Welcome to town. How are you? I'm doing great. How about yourself? I'm doing very well. Not to start with kind of a negative, but last year was a tough transition for you.

You're an old OC, and you're back with him now. That whole coaching staff was changed. How hard was it? I mean, we saw what happened on the field, but how hard was it for you to kind of deal with everything being new and it not being as good? Yeah, very difficult.

I'd be lying if I said it wasn't hard, right? We had a great season of 21. We had to change, so I felt like I was the middleman of trying to get everyone on board from the offensive guys to buy into this new thing, but like, you know, it's like, why do we, why are we doing this new thing, right? Because of everything works so well. Right. And so I was the middleman of just trying to get guys on board, and it was a tough one, right? Yeah.

Everyone saw the product. Yeah, it just, it was tough. And then everything else around it as a quarterback, you take the pressure.

I mean, I'm fully willing to take responsibility of how we played and that's, it was just a tough outing. Every, every game, you know, you tried to reset each week. We got another week. Let's just turn the page. Same thing. Turn the page.

Same thing. It's like, I can't, can't get this thing going. It's just like, not working. Frustrating. It becomes, it becomes too repetitive. I've covered in my, like I covered the hurricanes, Carolina hurricanes.

And there were years where they weren't very good. And you go and you talk to their best player and he goes, I, what did I tell you two days ago? It's the exact same thing right now. It's just feels like it's on repeat and you're just like, and it's not like you don't even try anything new. It's not like you're not switching things up. And it's just like, same thing.

It's just like, this is, this is where it gets frustrating. Yeah. Brennan Armstrong here, brand new quarterback for NC State. Before we talk about the, your, your old friend, Robert and I, what really hooked you on NC State? And I obviously sparked the first interest, right?

Sure. I knew he went there. I was like, okay, I'm looking for a new place.

He's there. Went to visit. They wanted me to come. They wanted me to check out the place. Went to visit. Talked to Coach Doran. Felt like NC State. I always knew because obviously being in ACC, they're always right there. They just needed a little bit more and they got it, you know, that just that a little bit more push.

I felt like the defense was solid. I love the culture, just that kind of blue collar. It's what they kind of pride themselves on. And me growing up from Ohio, just kind of who I was growing up. So it was super easy fitting for me with the culture. I thought Coach Doran was just the man, his style and who he was kind of fit me and who I am and how I play. And then coach and I, I thought the familiarity with the offense coming in being connect guys right away, me understanding it, which has been easy transition. And I feel comfortable. I think the offense brings the best out of me. So I thought that was a perfect fit for me.

Dave Doran has an underrated sense of humor, doesn't he? I'm learning it. I'll tell you that I'm learning a little dry. Yeah, I'm learning it. So I'm not going to take any like, I'm not going to commit on any thing right now.

You like you said the dryness. I don't know yet, but I'm learning it. I'm still learning. All right, whatever.

What is it? What? Like new teammates, guys, like, I'm not even sure that you've played against a lot of these guys because the schedule has been so, so crazy. But guys that you don't have to play against anymore that now they're going to be on your side. At least maybe not your side of the ball. But yeah, what about new teammates? I think our team. I mean, it's just, this is the way I looked at I thought when we had the best success on the field is when I stepped out and we we started having fun like we would like right now we go to concerts together. So we still try to enjoy the summer even though for the summer was a big part of player led stuff being able to throw and stuff but sure we want we went to some concerts and just I think that having that fun outside of football is huge like and they get to know who I am right they get to have fun and we get to have fun I get to understand them a little bit more and when you have like they always call me or like I don't want to really like cuss but like the guys get together and you can always like bust each other up about experiences right so I feel like you create those things guys are able to like dive deeper and play harder for you just those experiences together so that's a lot of what we've been doing and like I said I've been joining my time outside of football with these guys and then obviously in football it's business I think that's one thing I really thought a lot about this team is the switch gets turned on when it's football time like this team turns it on it's a it's a more personal for them and so I enjoyed that about that you're talking about the culture and first of all what concerts do you guys go see oh with luke combs in charlotte another yeah insane uh dirk's bentley a lot of country concerts oh yeah we're on the country way wait you're an ohio kid yeah yeah you're into country music from oh yeah okay what is that surprising I don't know I'm not I was pretty rural I'm a new jersey kid yeah that's it was I didn't grow up country I got some cousins in uh colts neck all right that's southern jersey yeah say I'm a northern jersey guy I'll give you a new jersey geography lesson another time when we have more time more time with brennan armstrong uh so you talked about the culture of of nc state and it seems that they haven't really had the mass exodus that other programs have had yeah and not to mention you go back to last year and how many kids could have gone pro yeah that decided to stay so how do you sum up what the culture is in this program like you said not a lot of guys leave you know and when they bring guys in they have to fit the culture and I coach I think coach doran realized I fit the culture and whoever else we brought in they fit the culture and I think he takes a huge responsibility on guys who he brings in I just think it goes to show you like the culture is built on winning guys want to win so they know they can stay there and win and I think guys get opportunities to play so I think that's another good thing I think the way just you know they're able to recycle guys and like build and then once that guy leaves next guy up and they're able to have success I think that's just a culture they've built and like you said guys willing to stay and come back and try to win something you know that's that's why everyone wants to come back to that they're on that cusp of winning something I think guys want to touch that I think guys want to have that success right at their uh alma mater so um I just think it's a special place and they're just right there let me ask you one more thing before they uh they they grab you and drag you out here um it's a whole new landscape of college football with portal and nil specifically what what is added on in your in your on your responsibility uh you know plate to as a representative what you have you know what the stuff that you can get right from and take from the system uh how have you managed all of that well I have good agents so they help me out a little bit just kind of like tiptoeing on that nil side of the world because I don't really like to you know put too much focus in that I think if you take care of business on the field things those things will be taken care of I think that's just bottom line that sounds like super cliche and all everyone says it but I think that's how it works if you take care of those businesses the other stuff will come um this being my last year it was super cool I got to take uh advantage of the nil I was in college when it wasn't here and now I'm in college when it is here and I get to take advantage of it so uh yeah we're I'm doing the best I think we've done a really good job of understanding my time and I've got too much time is taken away from me with what I've got going on uh it's simple stuff easy stuff what I've got and I can focus on football right that's kind of my big thing I was I really want to focus just on football I don't want my time being taken away now I love getting into the community since it's new it's a new place for me so just kind of stepping out there and doing some stuff but other than that the time is pretty crucial to me well especially now too with let's start talking let's start talking yeah speaking of time they're dragging you out here yeah brennan thank you very much and I'll talk to you again hey look I mean we gotta ask we gotta ask questions they're great people we have uh we love all of those guys uh at nc state I think brennan is an impressive young man don't you