NC State plays their final regular season game this Saturday vs UNC!

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See website for details. Last year, I believe State Carolina was a Friday game. I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing, but there are some Friday games still being played. I know the National Football League is kind of infringing its, you know, on everything.

They've been doing that for years. Used to be Thursday night was a college football night. Now it's an NFL night, and that's too bad in my opinion. Dave Doran is the head coach at NC State, and we are honored to get some time with the head man. Mr. Doran, how you doing?

I'm doing well. Thanks for having me. I appreciate your time, and I know it's a crazy week, and I value it. So, let me just start here.

And this could be me having too much time on my hands, and feel free to say it. It seems, especially over the last few weeks, that the enjoyment, the joy that you have gotten from this group, maybe eclipses. And I'm not saying it wasn't joyful. It just looks different to me, the satisfaction after results the last couple of weeks. Has it been different because of circumstances with this group? Yeah, I think, you know, we went through a lot. There's just a ton of ups and downs throughout the beginning of the season. And we came together through some tough times, kind of walked on the hot coals together. And then four really good weeks of football, getting better and enjoying it.

Kids are having fun. And so, yeah, it's kind of a culmination of a lot of hard work, you know, a lot of tough times, doubt, and then overcoming adversity. And that's an achievement, you know, and when you get to do it with a group of people that you care about, it's special.

Dave Doran is joining us here on the Adam Gold Show. So, I mean, but is it true? I mean, I hate to just kind of ask the same question. It just seems as though you've gotten more out of it.

I'm not even talking about the record. Like there has just been more, like I know you were talking about how excited it was to watch Robert and I kind of dig into his bag of tricks with plays. Has there been more of that for you as the season has progressed? Yeah, I think since the bowl, not the bowl, sorry, the bye week, we've just become different, you know. He's settled in on who we are, who the guys are that need the ball, how to get it to them, the best way to teach it, you know, the plays off the plays. I mean, he's had a good sampling of who they were and what was working, what wasn't working, what needed to change. And he did a good job with that during the bye week. And, you know, as you all know that I've watched college football, Robert's got a lot of creativity. So he jumped into it and with both feet and I said, look, man, don't hold back for me.

Like, I want to see it all, you know, and so he's doing a great job. Dave Doran is with us here. They'll take on Carolina eight o'clock Saturday night. Real quick about the night game Saturday night. Is there is there a preference as to when you would like to have a rivalry game? And this is not a rivalry like we have other we don't have a name for this. We don't have a trophy for it. We probably should have both for this particular game. Would you like to be see it being played at the same time every year? I don't know.

I mean, thought about it. You know, I do like playing the rivalry weekend in this game. I know earlier in my tenure here, we didn't do that. We played in the middle of the year and I don't know it to me.

It's a lot for oldest robbery in the ACC. It deserves that placement on the calendar. In my opinion, as far as what time we play the game, I'm not sure that matters as much. It's, you know, I love a night game at Carter family. So I'm excited. That's what we have for this one.

And you've been you've been pretty successful of late with those. I am a believer in a and especially in sports that what happens one play leads to something else. So I don't I don't think you can go back and say, well, if we had just made that field goal or whatever, then the game would have turned out because I think everything happens differently. And I believe that we're with games as well. Do you think the season turns out the way it has for you without the adversity you guys experienced at Duke?

Probably not. Yeah, I mean, I think everything truly has a place in how you respond to the ups and downs in life and in football. They're all meaningful. I think when you get exposed and it's raw and it hurts, it really does force you to face reality on some things. So, yeah, I think we became a better team through that failure. And I've said this a couple of different times, like you can choose to stay that way and choose to change. And I'm not going to stay that way.

And it starts with me going to the rim and demand change. And we got it. And I was proud that we had it.

And now thankful, I guess, that we had that moment of struggle so that we could become a better version of ourselves through it. So you had you had to make the quarterback change. I think I guess it was after week five or maybe it was after week four. And you went from Brennan to MJ Morris. And I'm not going to ask about I'm going to ask you something about MJ in a second. But how was that first conversation with Brennan, who was who was brought here to play and be the guy for one more year of college football? How did that first conversation go? You know, it's hard to have a conversation like that with anyone, with a guy like him that plays so hard and it means so much to. But he understood, you know, and he was in a tough spot mentally. He needed a break. I think it was the right thing for him. He agreed. And it wasn't a explain this to me. Coaches like Coach, I understand.

And I'm going to take advantage of this opportunity to reset. Like he knew he needed to do that. And so I was thankful that, you know, he understood that and the way he handled it. I've told the story before he stood up in front of the team on his own the next day and demanded and asked them to play as hard as they could for him.

As hard as they could for MJ. And I thought that was one of the classiest things I've ever seen from a player, you know, and probably won him a ton of the kudos that he's getting now from the teammates, you know? Well, and he certainly you were able to keep, you know, kind of keep him incorporated in the offense eventually. I mean, he was on the field a bunch in the last couple of games before he resumed as the starter. Did he come to you or did you guys go to him and say, hey, we want to use you in these roles? Now, Robert just felt like it was good for him to start getting them reengaged.

Obviously, he was still a play away from playing in any of those games. And, you know, to start building them back up and getting them some success and using his skill set, which is what coach and I does is try to use the strength of his guys. And so it gave us a way to have some quarterback run game and build Brennan back up and take hits off of MJ by doing it.

All right. Real quick about MJ Morris. I know the decision surprised not just you surprised all of NC State fandom that that you would be a starter and then all of a sudden decide you wanted to preserve your red shirt year. How is his relationship? How is his standing within the team? Is it is it business as usual right now?

And we've moved on. You know, I mean, he's running the scout team, doing what he can down there to help the defense. And we're doing everything we can to help the offense with Brennan and the guys behind him. And, you know, like I said, I'm not going to turn this into a drama.

Right. The guys that are playing deserve all the attention. Coaches need to coach the guys that are in there to win the games and be supportive of everybody on the roster at the same time.

But we're not going to get into all that. And just, you know, I think that was the right approach. And Peyton Wilson and all these other guys that are playing and playing well, you know, let's go coach the heck out of them. And that's what we're doing. And, you know, doing the best we can one day at a time with the group that's playing.

Dave Doran is with us here on the Adam Gold show. You brought up the guy that I have in every conversation I have had about NC State. It has to get to Peyton Wilson at some point. What he has gone through in his career, the injuries he has had to deal with and to have the season he is having. I mean, I have a vote. He might be the defensive player of the year.

Heck, he might be the player of the year in the league when you should be when you talk about Peyton Wilson to others. What do you say? It's our best Black Friday ever at JCPenney. And we've got thousands of deals all week long. Spoil someone and save up to 75 percent on fine jewelry after an extra 40 percent off.

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That's the highest grade you can get for effort. And he said, if that's not what a nine looks like, then we need to lower the scale to eight. Because there's nobody he's ever watched as a pro scout that's played as hard as him.

Like, I mean, you can't get a better compliment. You know, that's a well respected pro scout saying that at practice today about him and just his effort is just off the scale. So when we get to the draft and I've this is again, my conversations about him, if he weren't older, if he didn't have an injury history, he might be he might be a first round pick, but he would definitely be at very least a day to pick.

And now because of his age and because of his injury history, we might be looking at an early day three. But he's going to crush the combine. No.

Yeah. I think, you know, there's as you know, with all these players going to the draft, they shrink them and they find every flaw they can find. He's had two years of health and he's got two years of great film. He's going to kill the combine. And so somebody will say, you know what, I'm taking a risk because this guy's that good. And you see it every year. Somebody does that.

And whoever does that with them is going to be the happiest guy in the world. You know, but it's going to take somebody that understands just like there is with every guy that they draft. There's a chance anybody in the draft could have an injury.

Right. And so you got to look at the last two years. Those have been really, really good, steady years of training of, you know, development. And that's what sets players back. You know, when they're younger and you're out for six months or whatever, you lose six months of training as well. So he's had 24 months of consecutive days of feeling good.

And that's pretty awesome. And I would hope that those things carry a lot of weight to scouts and with the NFL execs. Should have put him at running back at one point or tight end.

I don't think I haven't thought about it, man. Like, you know, every snap I could put him out there, I'd love to. I mean, why not? I mean, if they do it with Travis Hunter out of Colorado, he might have a Heisman Trophy winner. I know. Yeah.

How's that going for him? Well, yeah, it has not gone well for Colorado after the initial wave. But look, it was good for college football. All that attention shined a light on college football.

We need more of that. Again, I meant what I said. I mean, the NFL is infringed on Thursdays.

Now they're doing it the day after Thanksgiving at some point. Enough has to be enough. But I don't know.

Let me ask you finally before I let you go. When you talk about this particular rivalry game, what you know, you versus Carolina. What stands out to you just about the game. You know, the locations of the two schools make it makes it so unique. Just, you know, the interaction and the amount of people you run into wherever you go. I mean, you can't avoid each other from a fan base standpoint.

And that makes it unique. There's only a couple of other rivalries like that. You know, USC, UCLA rivalry rivalry was also like that. And so it's it's not just, you know, two teams in the state. It's two teams that are 30 minutes apart.

They recruit against each other and it goes the longest rivalry in the ACC. And it's a lot of players that played in it. It's been a really close game and a lot of games and hard fought game. I got good players. We got good players, good coaches, good coaches.

It's a fun game. And I know the fans will be jacked up for it. Yeah, to two very good teams going at it. And it's going to be a blast Saturday night on the ACC Network. Dave Dorn has been an absolute pleasure to watch you guys progress. How you guys took what was given injuries early.

What happened at quarterback in the middle and then where you guys have come out on the other side. It's been an absolute honor to watch. I appreciate your time. Good luck on Saturday night. Thanks for the kind words.

Happy Thanksgiving and go pack. You got it. Dave Dorn here on the Adam Gold Show with Lucky Land Slots.

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