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Dave Doeren expects to play football, just doesn't know when

NC State football head coach Dave Doeren believes the Wolfpack will take the field at some point this year at Carter-Finley Stadium.

He’s just not sure when.

“We need to play football,” Doeren said. “I think that’s the one thing that everybody recognizes from a financial standpoint in college athletics, for universities and probably just [the] nation’s morale. When that happens, I don’t care. I think [it should be] whatever is best for the health of our athletes and for the country. You don’t want to put them out there before all this stuff is taken care of.

“Whether it’s delayed a month, two months, three months, whatever it is, I think it will be a blessing to have these guys back, be able to work with them, get out there and compete. I expect that to happen. I just don’t know when. I am hearing the same things you guys are. The information changes a lot. Whenever it does happen, we’ll be ready.”

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NC State Wolfpack football head coach Dave Doeren leads the team onto the field.
Doeren is looking forward to leading the team out of the tunnel again. (USA Today Sports)

For Doeren, spring football “seems like forever ago now,” and it’s probably hard to wrap his mind around football X’s and O’s with more pressing needs to comprehend. He leans on director of athletics Boo Corrigan for guidance on what his staff can and cannot do, but when he does look back at the spring, he has fond memories.

It was going to be a challenging spring practice with five new assistant coaches, including two new coordinators — Tim Beck on offense and Tony Gibson on defense. However, Doeren saw natural chemistry between the coaches and a lot of positive teaching.

“The players had tremendous energy,” he recalled. “They were hungry to be out there. I thought they worked well together. There was good progress being made in the installation. One of the focuses defensively was getting takeaways, and that was showing up. I thought we were making some nice plays on the football.”

“Probably the best thing I saw was just the interaction between offensive and defensive players in how they were competing, but also trying to help each other get better in a competitive but cooperative manner,” Doeren added.

Most eyes were on the quarterback back then, and that’ll still be the case whenever football starts up again. Doeren reiterated that it is redshirt sophomore Devin Leary’s job to lose. Leary started the final five games of last season.

But Doeren also expects redshirt junior Bailey Hockman to compete “his butt off.” Hockman, Leary and Matt McKay, who transferred in the offseason to Montana State, handled the quarterback duties at various times in 2019.

Doeren also likes the potential shown by redshirt freshman Ty Evans and true freshman early enrollee Ben Finley.

“Really you have two guys that played significant reps that we’re counting on, and two young guys that we want to see get better that have great ability,” Doeren said. “I like where we’re at. We just need the opportunity to coach them now.”

Doeren noted that more spring practices would have been, understatedly, beneficial for the group.

“Every year is a unique year, and obviously last year was different at quarterback because of the three different scenarios we went through," Doeren said. "And on top of that, the injuries that were around those players made it hard, I think, for that player to show [his capability] no matter which one it was in some cases,” Doeren said. “But I think for all of those guys, even Matt who is not with us anymore, they are going to learn from that experience.”

Finley was one of seven early enrollees that Doeren and his staff had a chance to get an early evaluation on in the spring, even for a brief time. The others were offensive linemen Sean Hill and Ethan Lane, receivers Jalen Coit and Porter Rooks and defensive backs Devan Boykin and Nehki Meredith.

Of that group, Boykin was a standout.

“I thought Devan Boykin really showed up, did a lot of positive things,” Doeren said. “Very athletic defensive back, excited about him. He’s a guy that could play early for us and probably will.”

Of course, the million-dollar question is when will Boykin and others make their debut, and when will Leary get an opportunity to lead an offense onto the field. The answer, for now, is beyond anyone.

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