NC State football coach Dave Doeren has been trying to get his players ready to play Saturday, but is also cognizant if some have family members that could be caught up in Hurricane Dorian.
NCSU redshirt junior left guard Joe Sculthorpe and freshman wide receiver Chris Toudle are both from the Wilmington, N.C., area, with Sculthorpe from Hampstead, N.C. The Sculthorpe family are grizzled veterans of several past Hurricanes, including Florence last year.
“We are watching it very closely,” Doeren said. “It isn’t just the guys that are on our team, but we have a lot of friends and family from the team, the coaching staff and we know thousands of coaches that live in those areas.
“We are monitoring it as closely as we can. There is a lot of prayers from this state to the ones getting it.”
Doeren definitely saw areas of improvement and knows he had the players’ attention at practice this week. The team wasn’t going to rest on the laurels of its 34-6 win over East Carolina.
“There was a lot,” Doeren said. “There was a punt block we should have blocked. We had a guy lined in the wrong gap. There were multitude of plays on both sides of the ball where you had a guy eyeing this instead of this, and the targets we want to hit in the run game.”
The little things will add up when the level of competition starts to rise.
“Some of it didn’t hurt us, but some could have been first downs or big plays. It is just taking advantage of lining up right, getting your eyes right and executing.”
NC State played 10 true freshmen against East Carolina, which is a trend that will continue against Western Carolina. Doeren wants to take advantage of the NCAA rule that players can play in four contests and still be redshirted. He pointed out that sophomore cornerback Teshaun Smith was a great example on taking advantage of his opportunities last year after first appearing that a redshirt season was likely.
“Last year I really liked it,” Doeren said. “We had some guys that were injured that we couldn’t play. Any of the redshirt guys that were healthy [last year] played in four games. It helps their confidence.
“We are going to play all of them four games if we can. Some of them will play in all of the games if they are healthy.”
Two freshmen not expected to make their debuts against Western Carolina include injured defensive tackles C.J. Clark and Joshua Harris. They are starting to run and lift weights.
“They aren’t ready yet, but they’ll get there,” Doeren said. “We had hoped to get Josh for this game. He just isn’t ready yet.
The youthfulness is what has Doeren excited about what the team could be with patience and improvement.
“For this football team more than any that I’ve had here, we have to improve every week to have a chance,” Doeren said. “We are so young. Our version of us can be so much better as we go if we take that approach.”
Redshirt sophomore wide receiver Max Fisher and redshirt freshmen Devin Carter and Josiah Provillon will all be counted on for more in light of redshirt junior receiver C.J. Riley’s season-ending ACL tear.
“Max had a really good week,” Doeren said. “Devin has been really consistent all the way through camp. I expect him to be ready to take on that role. Josiah is the one that we really need to take the next step for us. Dropping that pass, I know he’s ready to make up for that.”
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