9/21/2021 football Edit

Dave Doeren radio show recap

Matt Carter • TheWolfpackCentral

Editor

The weekly Dave Doeren Radio Show is streamed live on NC State's Facebook account at around 5:30 p.m. every Tuesday and then also broadcast on Wednesday at 7 p.m. on various affiliates across the state.

The show begins with offensive line coach John Garrison. He joked that while playing at Nebraska he was one of the smaller guys on the line and had a quicker metabolism than he does now at 41 years old.

• The biggest thing for the offensive line is consistency and efficiency, Garrison said. They did not do a good job setting up the offense for success at Mississippi State, he thought, and that’s something they are working on going forward.

• Fifth-year Chandler Zavala is a “tremendous person,” Garrison said. Zavala is all about working hard, and Garrison told him that just focus on being yourself and not fitting in on the team. The Mississippi State game was a learning experience, but Zavala bounced back. He was the ACC Co-Offensive Lineman of the Week after having 10 pancake blocks against Furman.

Garrison reminded that Zavala is new to football who only played one year of high school football before going to Fairmont State, and Garrison wished he had the grad transfer for another year to tap into that potential. Zavala is very physically gifted and very conscientious.

• Garrison always played seven to eight offensive linemen even going back to his Nebraska coaching days. He believes linemen will play better at the end of the year if you can find some snaps to save for them. He does not rotate centers, however.

• Garrison joked it’s not cheap to buy meals on Thursday for the linemen, and he thinks if he pays the plane ticket for Zavala’s father, who is an award-winning chef, it’ll be cheaper to do that than actually buy the meals.

As a coach, he loves spending those time with the linemen on those Thursday meals and getting to know them better.

• Offensive coordinator Tim Beck always asks Garrison what he saw after a drive, particularly in the run game. Garrison noted that Beck usually already knows what Garrison is seeing but it’s good to reinforce it. The two worked previously together at Nebraska and know each other well.

• Sophomore left tackle Ikem Ekwonu is the same person every day, Garrison noted, and that’s what he tells the NFL scouts that are calling about him. Ekwonu does not have a bad day, Garrison added.

“Nothing ever takes his joy,” Garrison said.

Garrison also noted he has not seen that out of anybody before. Garrison calls Ekwonu the “thermostat” of the offensive lineman, which is what makes him special besides his physical talent.

NC State Wolfpack football coach Dave Doeren — Doeren and the Wolfpack will host Clemson Saturday at Carter-Finley Stadium. (Rob Kinnan-USA TODAY Sports)

Dave Doeren segment

Head coach Dave Doeren can recall having to waste time during a lightning delay while coaching at Northern Illinois like Clemson and Georgia Tech went through this past weekend. A lot of what you can do really depends on if you are home or not, but it is challenging regardless.

• Mississippi State opened some eyes on the coaching staff, Doeren said. There were some selfish acts, especially on offense where guys were worried about how many touches that they might get. To the players credit, Doeren said, they learned from it.

It was still frustrating for Doeren, because he recalled how they talked about in training camp about that because of the depth there would be some players who may not play or get as many touches as they want.

Against Furman, it looked like they played for each other again.

• Doeren was really impressed with how the defense went from defending an Air Raid to a triple option. They were total opposites to defend, and yet the starters pitched a shutout with a three and out on seven straight drives against Furman and an interception on the eighth.

• When talking about the Thomas brothers, sophomore linebacker Drake Thomas and redshirt junior receiver Thayer Thomas, Doeren said it starts with the family.

“Their parents are phenomenal. … They are incredible parents. They are great people. The apple doesn’t fall from the tree,” Doeren said.

Doeren added the Thomas family has a lot of competitiveness in it.

• Drake Thomas has played linebacker for a “long, long time,” Doeren added. Through that, Thomas sees things quickly on the field. Usually a linebacker coming out of high school has bad habits or comes from a completely different scheme. Thomas was unusual, Doeren noted, because of how fundamentally sound and physically developed he was out of high school.

Doeren thought it was a good job by the officials to overturn Thomas’ targeting flag, adding it would have been detrimental to NC State. Doeren thinks it’s a “ridiculous rule” to carry targeting over to the next game. If he had it his way, it would be two targeting penalties and you are then ejected for the rest of the game, but not the next contest.

• Third down success comes down to execution on defense, Doeren pointed out. They have done a good job of mixing in blitzes and disguises coverages, but they need to improve on getting to the quarterback more on third downs. He added they have only played one team, Mississippi State, that could really throw the football.

• The defense is getting off the field, so there is success and you cannot be too critical of the defense, Doeren said, but they need to get to the quarterback and hit him a few times before he throws because you can force some turnovers.

Nevertheless, the hurries and hits add up on a quarterback in a game, even if you are not getting sacks.

• NC State is second in the ACC for least penalized teams, and thus having officials at every practice has paid off, Doeren noted. It was a point of emphasis to eliminate pre-snap and emotional penalties. They had a couple at Mississippi State that they cannot have.

• The sideline will be pumped Saturday against Clemson, Doeren said. That is one of the four phases of the team: sideline energy. He wants the fanbase to be louder on third downs when the defense is on the field. He does not want the opposing offense to be able to make checks too easily.

• Doeren told all the coaches and players to be ready to play at halftime of the Furman game. Once they got the turnover and TD to start the second half, that allowed them to get the reserves in there after that.

Doeren noted “it was awesome” to get so many players on the field. He called in invaluable for their experience and confidence.

• Redshirt freshman defensive end Terrell Dawkins just came back two weeks ago, and Doeren said they need to get him back into football shape before he should be able to get into the rotation for them going forward.

• Running backs coach Kurt Roper has a plan to split the carries, Doeren confirmed. Roper tries to use the strengths of sophomore Zonovan Knight and junior Ricky Person Jr. the most, too. NC State is going to need the depth, and Doeren reminds that sophomore Jordan Houston is part of that group.

• They want to grow the package of Knight and Person on the field at the same time.

• Freshman receiver Anthony Smith is the fastest player on the roster, Doeren said. Smith has caught the ball in practice well, and it was good to see him connect on a deep pass with redshirt sophomore quarterback Devin Leary on Saturday against Furman. Smith is a 6-foot-2 speedster who can take the top off the coverage.

• Doeren is happy for sixth-year senior tight end Dylan Parham. Parham had some goals he felt like he still wanted to accomplish, and one of them was scoring a touchdown. Doeren thought it was awesome that Parham caught a TD Saturday.

Parham and the tight ends are valuable in the blocking game.

• The tight end group is a good one that coach Todd Goebbel is developing. Doeren noted how well redshirt freshman Chris Toudle is playing, and Doeren thinks that redshirt sophomore Trent Pennix still will make an impact on the offense.

Doeren is also excited about the potential of second-year freshman Ezemdi Udoh.

• if you want to play more, you have to prove how good you are without the football, Doeren said. He added you are not going to the NFL as a receiver or running back if you cannot block because that is half of what you do. They also have to be able to play on special teams if they want to reach their goals in football.

• Clemson played a great team in Georgia in its opener with a bunch of new players, Doeren said, adding that’s hard and called for “a little bit of growing pains.” Doeren added that Georgia Tech surprised Clemson with its schemes on defense, which were completely different.

That said, Doeren noted that Clemson's players are still all four and five-star guys, and Clemson will figure it out on offense. He just hopes they don’t figure it out against NC State.

• Obviously NC State recruited Clemson freshman running back Will Shipley and they knew he would be a special player, with Doeren adding Shipley has all the intangibles you want. Doeren added that it is unfortunate for the Pack that they are going to have to be playing against Shipley for a while.

• Special teams will be an equalizer in this game because of field position. Kick coverage obviously hurt at Mississippi State, Doeren noted, and that phase is going to play into Saturday’s game against Clemson “big-time.”

• Defensive coordinator Tony Gibson always mixes it up in his calls and coverage. The offense though may look vanilla Saturday simply because Clemson’s defense is that good. Thus far, no offense has done anything against Clemson. NC State will try to do what they think will work, but they are going to have to make some plays, break tackles and make guys miss.