Dave Doeren Interview

I want to figure out if a rumor I've been told is true about our next guest. NC State head football coach Dave Doran is with us. Isn't that true, Dave Doran?

I appreciate your time, by the way. Yeah, I think that's true. I mean, obviously us fishermen can tell a pretty good story, but I love being on the water and one of my favorite things to do when I'm not coaching. What's the biggest catch you ever had?

Depends on what kind of species we're talking about. Probably one of my most proud catches was on the South Holston River with a good friend of mine over in Asheville, Teal Whitlock, who's got some NC State family members, but caught a 30-inch brown fly fishing over there that at the time was a state record. I don't think still is, but it was an awesome day. Prior to my being here, that was probably 15 years ago. Yeah, I spent a lot of time in eastern North Carolina.

Used to love going to Moorhead City and seeing the Big Rock blue marlin tournament they had over there, where you talk about 500-pounders being caught and such. So all about that, but let's get the football. Dave Doran with us here, NC State coach. When you are as banged up as you guys were up front a year ago, how difficult does that make the evaluation process for some of the quarterbacks you're looking at? Devin Leary and Bailey Hochman? How much difficult does it make it trying to evaluate what they did last year?

Yeah, I think all of it plays together. It wasn't just up front. We were missing offensive linemen, as you mentioned, but two of our tight ends, our fastest receiver. Our pailbacks were in and out of lineups all year, so there is kind of a musical chair lineup for us. We had 11 different starting lineups on offense last year because of injuries, not because we wanted to. That makes it hard on any quarterback, whether they're a returning starter or for those guys' first-time starters.

So it made it challenging. I thought all the guys battled and fought through it, and we've learned a lot from it. We've learned a lot from the guys that are difficult to plan for, particularly when they're happening week in and week out the way they were. Heading into camp last year, I just remember somebody telling me, you're going to want to keep an eye on this Leary kid. He has a tremendous personality. There's a moxie to him.

He's magnetic. So when you look at this guy as a rising sophomore and someone you said was the front-runner to be the starting quarterback heading into camp, what distinguishes Leary from other quarterbacks that you've worked with? Last year's camp, we had a three-way race between Matt McKay and Bailey Hawkman and Devin, and it's really hard in football to get three players ready at a position. So it was unfortunate really for all three of them. None of them really jumped out and just took it away where they could maximize the reps. It was kind of a back-and-forth through camp, and Matt ultimately won the job. And then it went to Bailey, and then it went to Devin through the course of games, and I thought all of them worked really hard.

We just didn't have the production out of the position, and it may be unfair to them. Just kept trying to find a guy that could lead our offense to score more points. But I think Devin's arm strength, his ability to get past a bad play very quickly.

He'll throw a pick and a practice, and the next play he throws a touchdown. He's just one of those guys that's very resilient. He's tough. The guys respect him.

He'll stand in there and take a hit. He's not a guy that makes excuses. He never throws players under the bus. He's very supportive of his teammates.

So he's got a lot of intangibles that guys like. Now it's just a matter of him having the on-field success on game day to help him. Panthers coach Matt Ruhl was with us a few weeks ago, and he was talking about when he was sold on Derek Brown being the seventh pick out of Auburn. And he said, I watched a game that they lost last year when there was no chance they were going to win. And this guy, he was playing in a game he probably didn't have to play because he knew he was going to be a top 10 pick.

And he said, I just saw how hard that he went. And I said, I want that guy on my football team. Is there any example of something positive you saw on tape last year? Something that sticks out where you're like, man, this is somebody when things are going well, I know I want to have on this squad. Yeah, there's a lot of them, you know, and I think that that's what's exciting about this team. You know, we were second in the nation for freshmen played in games last year in college football.

And a lot of those guys got reps prior to when they should be out there. And you just saw improvement from Jordan Houston, from Bam, Bam Knight. You know, throughout the season, Icky, our left tackle was just tremendous as the season went on for a true freshman to play left tackle the way that he played and competed. And those kind of things really get you excited about what's coming.

And there were flashes from Drake Thomas flashes from Peyton Wilson. Just a lot of things that get you excited, you know, as excited as you can be when you're not winning games, you know, but knowing that they're all freshmen and they're all back and they've all been battle tested. I think, you know, definitely gives you some hope. Before I'm with us here at NC State head football coach, I want to talk about recruiting because you view things in a different way than most. One thing you said last year to us that stood out, you were talking about, or this might have been two years ago, you were talking about how you viewed the growth of the city of Raleigh as being a selling point for you, you would talk to kids and prospects about tech jobs that were coming to Raleigh and reasons why Raleigh was a great place to live and how the state of North Carolina really has grown. When I look at the 2021 class and I see this state is just loaded with talent this particular year, and it doesn't seem like that's going to slow down into 2022 or 2023. How related is state growth with overall talent, you think?

I think it's very related. You know, I think it started with Charlotte 10 years ago being one of the fastest growing cities, and now it's Raleigh that's one of the fastest growing cities. So our populations are expanding. The high schools are being built and opened and, you know, there's just massive growth in the major cities of the state and it's attracting corporations to plant their seeds and headquarter. And I think the number of really quality academic universities in the state attracts different corporations here, too, because the applicants that they can get locally for their, you know, for their corporations and the internships that have been, you know, available to our guys is second to none. And quality of life, I think something that really gets understated and recruiting. And for us, it's a strength and we take advantage of that.

Raleigh is just a great place to live. And it's so accessible to out of state recruits as well, just because of RDU being as close as it is to our campus. Mac Brown, he says he views Clemson as the biggest opponent in recruiting because they've won titles and that's ultimately what everybody wants to do. Do you agree with that or do you view that the in-state teams are the ones that you kind of need to protect against as you try to recruit the best roster you can? There's a lot of competition in our state, you know, and I think Clemson's one of the top teams around and has been for my tenure at NC State, you know, going through seven years, it's been Clemson or Florida State that has won the conference and been a part of the playoffs. So obviously that's a team that you have to contend with. I think having four ACC schools in the state, you're going to have those schools and then, you know, you've got your bordering states from Tennessee to Virginia and then Georgia and Florida come up. So there's a lot of competition here and they will remain that way. I just think, you know, when you look at the number of players from the state of North Carolina, they're actively in the NFL.

I think it's seventh in the country for NFL players. And so there's a reason people are coming here. And the good thing for us is a lot of these young men want to stay home where their families can be close by and be a part of the experience. Dave Doran with us here on Sports Hub Triad. I've read you are confident, very confident that games are going to be played this year in college football. Just because you have resources and access that we don't with Boo Corrigan, ACC officials, what gives you, what's the root of your confidence that we're going to be playing games this fall?

You know, I don't have any inside scoop that you guys aren't getting. It's just, I know how important football is and the athletic world for keeping the doors open, not for universities, but for athletic departments. And it's just such a revenue generator that I think it's very critical for the university value for the athletic departments to function the way that they want to function. And then I think, you know, just big picture wise, out of all of the tough things we've come out of in our country, I think sports has always been the one thing that kind of brought us all back together. And, you know, I know in 9-11 football was a big part of that, just having been a part of college football when that happened and what it does for our country. I mean, you could see it probably in the ratings this weekend, watching the golf match with Tiger and Phil, with Brady and Eli or Peyton. I just think it's such a big deal for sports to be there.

And I'm not saying it should trump our safety or any of those things, but, you know, just very hopeful and optimistic that it will. Does Dave Doran's golf game look more like Tiger Woods or Tom Brady? Definitely Tom Brady's. Not even close. He did have a heck of a chip-in from the fairway, though.

I have not played any golf during the quarantine. I've been fishing when I have free time and living in the Zoom world, man, trying to keep this thing going, you know, virtually as best we can. Yeah, Tom Brady has the 150-yard chip and you got the 30-pound Brown.

I mean, one or the other, you can take your pick. But, Coach, I just hope things are going well. I hope you're safe. Look forward to chatting sometime soon before the start of the season. Thanks so much for joining us in the dry end today. Thanks for having me on. I appreciate it. And go Pack. There you go. That's Coach of the NC State Wolf Pack, Dave Doran, kind enough to join us.

And it seems, Robert, my suspicion was so that I had good information that Doran, pretty big fisherman when he could get out on the lake. I don't know if he's Ed Harden now. Ed would wax him.

Still need to figure it out. Still need to figure out a time that I can get out on the boat with Ed Harden because I'm taking him up on that offer. Also, we need to have Stan Cotton on. I need to finally go over to the Radio Ranch and watch The Outlaw, Josie Wales, his favorite Clint Eastwood movie. Haven't seen that before.