11/4/2019 football Edit

Dave Doeren is taking a week-to-week approach with young Wolfpack squad

Matt Carter • TheWolfpackCentral

Editor

All you need to see to understand the monumental challenge facing NC State’s football team Saturday against national-title contender and defending champ Clemson is the line from Las Vegas — the Tigers are favored by over four touchdowns.

Wolfpack head coach Dave Doeren has a full appreciation for the level of talent coming to Carter-Finley Stadium for NC State’s first Saturday home game since Sept. 21. Doeren also knows that NCSU can’t compete unless it starts taking care of its own shortcomings first.

The main priority for now and the rest of the season, Doeren said, is getting his young team to make progress, especially after a pair of lopsided road losses at Boston College and Wake Forest.

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“We’re injured, and we're young,” Doeren said. “We’re going through some challenges … but I love the challenge and love when cur backs are up against the wall. I know this — our guys aren't going to flinch. They're going to fight, and we're going to fight as a program to get better.

“I think that’s the biggest thing for us. It's not who we play. It's what we do to get better every day, and how we play. That's what we have to focus on and continue to focus on, regardless of where we're at with our injury report.

“That's going to be, for the next four weeks, what you hear me talk about.”

NC State has started a different lineup on offense and defense in all but one game this year — the exception being when the defense had the same starting 11 at Florida State on Sept. 28 and then at home against Syracuse on Oct. 10.

Against Wake Forest, freshmen (31.0 percent) accounted for more snaps than any other class for NC State, followed by sophomores (27.9 percent), juniors (21.7 percent) and seniors (19.5 percent). By comparison, Wake Forest’s seniors received 32.7 percent of their snaps, and the freshmen only 15.9 percent.

Much of the youth movement has been forced onto Doeren by injuries. Twenty players have missed at least one game this year for health reasons (all but six have been out for multiple contests), including 12 who have previously started at least one contest.

Despite that, Doeren sees the potential of what lies ahead for his program.

“I think when you're playing the second most number of freshmen in the country, and you're seeing [linebacker] Drake Thomas get better," Doeren noted. "You're seeing [linebacker] Payton Wilson get better. You're seeing [defensive tackle] Josh Harris, [defensive end] Savion Jackson. You're seeing [running back] Bam [Knight]. I thought [running back] Jordan Houston ran as hard as he's run in a game . That's exciting.

“It's painful right now because we're not getting to enjoy the improvement, but it's exciting. I've been through this. We went through it here when [Bradley] Chubb and [Jerod] Fernandez and all those guys were freshmen. It was painful. They all ended up being really good players for us because they went through it.

“You don't walk on hot coals and come out of it with nothing burned on your feet. It's going to hurt for a while, but I'm very optimistic.

"We recruited two really good classes back-to-back that are now being forced into not just playing time, but very important roles on our football team. We have four seniors listed on the two deep on our entire roster, and they're being asked to lead and play.”

Doeren also sees some progressl in the development process. He noted that a player can make the right play one snap and then on the same call a few plays later miss his assignment. It's the inconsistency that's to be expected when freshmen and sophomores are taking most of the snaps.

His hope is to see a loose group of players take a step forward fundamentally Saturday.

“We have nothing to lose in this football game,” Doeren said. “Just go play as hard as we can, be better than we were week before and finish plays better than we did the week before. Anything can happen.

"That’s got to be our mindset each week, just try to find a way to be better.”

Other tidbits

• Redshirt freshman quarterback Devin Leary had a tough first start, with NC State falling behind 21-0 in the first quarter and being forced to throw into a defense expecting passes. The result was Leary completing 17 of 45 attempts for 149 yards and two picks with one TD.

Doeren, though, appreciates how Leary approaches the job.

“The thing you like, other than how well he can throw football, is just how competitive, how into it, how coachable he is, and the conversations that you're able to have with him,” Doeren noted.

“The mistakes that he makes are going to happen. You don't want them to happen, but that was his first start.

“He made some really good throws, I thought he had a great corner ball throw to [tight end] Cary [Angeline] on the sideline. He missed an easy out route throw, which he’s thrown a million times in practice.

"We just need to get him consistent. I think they did a good job sitting on some routes, which probably made him a little bit nervous on some throws. He's just got to learn how to get through that.

“I think that game is going to be a huge piece for him to grow from. I just like how he comes to work every day. I like how you're talking to him, and he gives you feedback. He's not ever in a panic. He's just, ‘Here's what I saw. Here's what I did.’ All right, let's talk about it."

• Three years, a young NC State football team went to Clemson and nearly stunned the Tigers on the road. That team was mainly sophomores that would become the core of teams that would win nine games each of the next two seasons.

Doeren also was quick to note another major difference between that squad and this one.

“The thing that's similar is that we had a very talented young group of guys on that roster,” Doeren said. “But we had the same lineup almost every game that year.”

• At least three NC State players left the Wake Forest game with injuries — freshman running back Zonovan “Bam” Knight, redshirt freshman running back Trent Pennix and redshirt sophomore linebacker Isaiah Moore.

Doeren had no updates on the conditions of the two running backs during Monday’s press conference.