Dave Doeren pleased with first scrimmage for NC State

NC State football held its first scrimmage of fall camp Saturday. It will hold another Thursday, two weeks before its season opener on Sept. 2 against visiting South Florida.

Head coach Dave Doeren’s first priority of the scrimmage: come out healthy.

Thus far, camp seemingly has consisted of the typical bumps and bruises. Doeren noted during his media availability Monday that two of the top four linebackers, preseason first-team All-ACC redshirt sophomore Payton Wilson and reserve redshirt junior Levi Jones, have been out recently with what the coach termed “minor stuff,” but the coach was optimistic both would return by Tuesday’s practice.

In their absences, sophomore Jaylon Scott and freshman Devon Betty have received valuable reps.

Doeren’s staff has wrestled with the question of how to balance the workload for established veterans, like the linebacker corps that also consists of redshirt junior Isaiah Moore and sophomore Drake Thomas, while also keeping them healthy for the opener.

“How many reps does Isaiah Moore need?” Doeren asked. “He's played a lot of football. Well, he needs enough. And what is enough? Probably 30 or 40 reps, where they're in there, their heart is beating or they're getting a lot of good situational work.”

A good chunk of the scrimmage was devoted to younger players who might be able to add contributions to the veteran core and formerly injured players trying to get back into proper game conditioning.

"The younger players, we're trying to get them into the 50-60 rep count, where we can put those guys through it and see if they are ready to help us,” Doeren noted. “To get [receiver] Julian Gray a bunch of reps, a guy that's been impressive in camp. To get [running back] Demie Sumo a bunch of reps.

"Then for guys that were hurt last year that are trying to get back into game shape, they need reps. So, it helps to get [offensive tackle] Tim McKay a bunch of reps because he missed a lot of time last year on the field.

“But it's a player-by-player discussion, and something that we really look at from a rep count.”

The overall reaction from the scrimmage: it was productive, and most importantly everyone stayed healthy.

“It was really good back and forth on the field,” Doeren noted. “There were some explosive plays offensively that were fun to watch. There were some takeaways on defense and really good plays made. [Cornerback] Teshaun Smith, it was great having him out there, had a really nice fumble that he stripped out.

"You got to see the completion of plays. I thought at quarterback position, which is what probably everyone wants to know, that Devin [Leary] played very well, very poised. I really thought the three quarterbacks showed good poise in the scrimmage, and made some good plays, protected the ball and didn't throw any interceptions.”

The scrimmage placed a heavy emphasis on in-game situations.

"We get backed up, we hit red zone, we hit short yardage,” Doeren listed. “We hit two minutes, and then we had just some regular move-the-ball series. So the guys were able to get into those situations. You just need to get them enough where they're ready for game day.”