Dave Doeren interview

Fresh off four straight wins to close the regular season, NC State coach Dave Doran is now with us.

And after the home finale against Georgia Tech, they do these Zoom press conferences. And I remember seeing you more emotional than we normally see you coach. And the word you kept using throughout that postgame presser was proud and how proud you were of your guys.

There's some time between then and now. What makes you most proud of what your group accomplished this year? You know, I think it's just overcoming the number of, I don't even know how to, you know, a hundred things that happened.

And there were so many different things, you know, from schedule changes to leaving campus abruptly, to social injustice, to the injuries that we had to face and trying to play football with masks and different, all these things that happened. I mean, our lineup changed a bunch and they just kept sticking together and fighting and finding ways to win games with different guys in different ways. The no flinch mentality this football team has, it's just been a real breath of fresh air to be a part of. It's been a lot of fun.

I think our coaching staff, just the chemistry we've had too, has been a lot of fun for me in the office every day. I forget if it was Dabo or maybe Claussen who told us that the practices all throughout this year more lively than they were in the past because there was an appreciation just for the practices and for the process, considering how close it felt that we wouldn't get the season at all. Eight and three is great and you guys had a tremendous year, but did it somehow feel more satisfying because of the circumstances you've been outlining?

Yeah, I think so. I think there's just a million reasons you could say that we didn't have a good year, you know, and point it to all those things and people, yeah, okay, you know. But we found a way to have a really successful season and arguably I would say a great season when you win as many conference games as we did more than they have in school history.

It makes it very rewarding and I would agree, I think, particularly early on in the first couple months of practice, there was just, it was gratifying just to be playing, you know. I mean, for us in particular, there was a lot of times where these guys didn't know if it would really happen. It's NC State Coach Dave Dorham with us here on Sports Hub Triad.

I want to knock out this housekeeping note here. Devin Leary, he sustained a leg injury more, I think Pack Athletics described it as being a four to eight week injury and that was back in October. I did the math on it. I believe that last Saturday would have been eight weeks to today and you said last month.

Right. Don't really expect him to come back for the regular season, but maybe for the postseason. What can you tell me about his current status?

Well, he's finally out of a boot and the other day was the first day I've seen him just walking around in regular shoes. He's been able to throw for a couple weeks with a boot on, you know, but he's not ready to play. He will be fully cleared probably when we get back for the second semester to start workouts and all that, but he would not be ready to play in this bowl game. Is it fair to say, considering how he went off the field, that the injury was not as bad as you originally feared it might be?

You just never know. You know, it's fortunate that it's just one of the bones in his legs and a severe ankle sprain, obviously, to go along with it. But you have no idea when a kid's, you know, feeling what he was feeling on the field right there, couldn't feel his leg.

You know, how much it's going to be, how much damage, and obviously bones heal stronger. So that was good news and just the amount of time he was having to sit there and not move it, it's going to be just a matter now of building the muscle back up and flexibility and everything else. When you get called quarterback you, I feel the obligation to ask about the depth you have at that position. Saw some of Ben Finley. Bailey Hochman, of course, led the team in the final stretch to all those wins. And we know what Devin's capable of doing.

I think the best example might be the 400 yards or so and the game-winning drive he led at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh. How pleased are you with the quarterback depth you have going into the offseason? Yeah, it's a blessing, you know, and they're all great young men. We love them. They're competitive and they're all getting better. I think that's a tribute to Coach Beck and Chris Proctor, who also helps Coach Beck. But they do a nice job coaching those guys. They come in, they're hungry, they've got good skill sets, and they're improving.

And so it's nice to have that situation and look forward to continuing to work with all of them. It's almost fitting I ask that on the day after National Signing Day because I'm sure that's something you use. Hey, look at this Russell Wilson guy, that Jacoby Brissette guy. You know who that is. Well, he played here, as did Ryan Finley, as did Phillip Rivers, so on and so forth.

Give me a sense, though, for how different this process was. How many of the signees, Dave, haven't even been on campus before? Yeah, not very many. Most of them came down actually junior year or sophomore year in the process. So there are a couple, you know, the late pickup guys like Chandler Zavala. His mom actually works at NC State.

Transfer has not been here in person. But the guys that, you know, committed early or throughout the season, they had either come prior to, or they came up on their own with their parents, which they were allowed to do during that quarantine period, I guess you'd say, without us showing them around. So they just kind of gave themselves a self tour of the facilities and the campus.

I am fascinated by this. Dave Dorham with us here, NC State football coach. Talking about the 11 in-state kids that you signed, we've been pushing for the NCAA to take a look at the potential February period that's often a dead period, lifting that and allowing for coaches like you to watch high school football in this state on Friday nights that's supposed to start in February.

How are you handling that with the 11 kids? Are you giving them the opportunity to play out their senior seasons? Or do many of those guys say, listen, we're signed with the pack. We're moved on to trying to transition easier into the collegiate level. You know, most of them are graduating early. And that's not because we're asking them to. It's just most of them are fed up with not going to school, you know. And unfortunately, we can only take so many a semester. We actually filed a waiver with the NCAA and several of the schools in-state have signed it as well to try to get our in-state players that want to come early the ability to do so just because of COVID and how much they've lost in their careers already. The NCAA hasn't ruled on it yet. But there's a handful of kids that are trying to decide if they want to play their senior year. And we're not going to push them one way or the other.

I think that's a personal decision. We just give them the input on what the merits are of coming early, how they can gain some things out of it. One more thing I want to get to on signing day as we're chatting with Coach Doran here. I've had a lot of friends in the family that you have who have had children that you've recruited. And the thing they all tell me, Dave, is you guys are cutting edge when it comes to trying to get inside the kids' head or at least get on their radar screen, their consciousness, constantly being reached out to.

That's something you guys do really well. But in person is not really something you could really do in this recruitment process. So give me an example of one of the ways your creative team and yourself personalize the recruitment process with Zoom calls in the place of these official visits. Yeah, you know, I think I love our staff and I think, you know, we're real people here.

We don't get into the salesman piece of this thing. We're going to tell them who we are, what we're about, not in a conceited way at all. This is our program. Here's how we run it. Here's how we treat our players.

Here's the academic resources. If you're not excited about it, then find another place, you know. And if you are, then here we go.

And what I never want is a young man to come to school and play for me and feel like this is not what you told me, you know. So we're going to be real with them. We're going to be honest with them, same way we're going to coach them.

We're going to try to get everything we can out of them. So we show them everything we can over Zoom. We had basically what we called handoffs. We'd have guys all over campus, all over the facilities, and I'd get on there and say, hey, here's Coach Dorn. Check it out.

I'm at Carter-Finley Stadium, sending it over to D'Antonio Burnett in the weight room. And then he'd jump on Zoom and I'd mute my mic, you know, and he'd pop up. So we had guys everywhere from the library to the dining halls to the academic center to the dorms and just a way to give them a virtual tour with us present. And thank God that night Zoom didn't quit on us. That's fantastic. Dave Dorn, last thing for you. You had the great bit last night with the crew at the ACC Network involving the donuts and such. We've also heard about the maple syrup that you have for the big guys up front. But one of the things you said last night is you're not a guy who gets mad, you're a guy who gets even.

So it had me wondering for the last day, whether it's in sports or off the field, what's a good example of younger Dave Dorn getting even? Yeah, that's personal. That's personal. Yeah.

If I had my good friends here and if it wasn't public, we could talk stories like that, but I'm not doing that. But I do appreciate the question. Competitive guy. Even when you're out fishing, are you competitive? Oh, yeah.

Absolutely. OK. OK. Well, Coach Dorn, maybe off the air we can get some of those stories one of these times. Congratulations on a great season. Best of luck wherever you're going in the Bulls. And I'm sure we'll catch up sometime soon. Thanks for doing this. Yeah. I appreciate you having me. Go Pack. And with that, that is the head coach of the NC State Wolfpack, Dave Doran.