NC State football coach Dave Doeren prides his defense being a sound tackling squad, but leading up to a season opener is an interesting tight rope for any college coach.

On the one hand, the Wolfpack need to tackle and hit during fall camp in order to not have a rash of missed tackles Saturday against East Carolina. However, tackling in fall camp can also lead to potential injuries, and that is where the two worlds collide and where fall camps aren’t quite the same as decades ago.

Doeren cited the philosophy of former Montana coach Joe Glenn, where he coached linebackers for in 2000-01. Glenn eventually became the head coach at Wyoming and then South Dakota.

“I’ve learned as I’ve gone,” Doeren said. “I was fortunate that I learned at Montana under Coach Glenn, who said ‘You can’t win the race without your horses at the gate.’ You have to understand what do they need to prove they are ready.

“Once you’ve seen enough, you have to back off to keep them safe.”

Having team scrimmages earlier in camp is another subtle move Doeren thinks makes a difference.

“You want a lot of your tackling earlier on but as you get closer to the game, you have to do it in big situational things where you don’t have big body pileups,” Doeren said.

NCSU also does “tackling circuits” but Doeren admitted the coaches have to be careful on how much is too much.

“The minimal bodies on the ground is kind of the goal,” Doeren said.

The Florida-Miami contest last Saturday showed how important is sound tackling. Several of the “big plays” came after the offensive player broke several tackles.

“Every day at our practice is going to be tackling fundamentals and taking the ball away,” Doeren said. “Those two things are paramount.”

Another aspect that usually happens early in the season is that some players perform better when the “lights are on” and full blown physical football is on display.

“Sometimes a guy will show himself that, ‘Hey man, this wasn’t something we saw in practice,’” Doeren said. "You have to coach through it. I feel good about the preparation we’ve had.”

The youthful Wolfpack will have several new starters and some playing at Carter-Finley Stadium for the first time Saturday.

“I’ve told them I want them to enjoy it,” Doeren said. “That is why they’ve worked so hard to have an environment like that. They’ve earned that, but to not let it get into their head.

“That is what makes NC State and Carter-Finley so special, we have that here and not many people do.”

Some of the newcomers will be at running back, where three freshmen — two true freshmen and a redshirt freshman — join sophomore Ricky Person Jr. in the backfield. Doeren fully expects to play freshmen Zonovan Knight and Jordan Houston to play.

“As you guys have seen in our spring game last year, [Knight] is a top-end speed running back, who has learned our offense,” Doeren said. “He is not thinking as much as he was.”

A recruit that slipped away was ECU sophomore quarterback Holton Ahlers, who had extensive family ties to the Pirates’ program. Doeren said Ahlers is the face of their program and he knows that East Carolina players will be fired up Saturday.

“I told my staff and our team how much I respect him as a competitor,” Doeren said.

How new ECU coach Mike Houston will use Ahlers will be part of the first-game drama. Does he completely turn Ahlers loose, or try and have balance on offense.

“They’ll be a feeling out period in the game, whether they are going to use him as a true runner a lot or just here and there — short yardage and red zone,” Doeren said.

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