This week, NC State Wolfpack football head coach Dave Doeren did an interview with The Wolfpacker to discuss the upcoming season for the Pack.

It has been the most unusual of offseasons, and it continues to evolve. Doeren talked about trying to deal with a fluid situation while at the same time rebuilding after a challenging, injury-riddled season that resulted in NC State going 4-8 overall in 2019.

Here is Part I of highlights from our conversation with Doeren.

What competitions are you most interested in seeing in preseason camp?

“I think on the offensive line there are several of them, assuming we get everyone back healthy which right now it’s looking that way.

"Getting [Justin] Witt and Tyrone [Riley] back is awesome. What that does competition-wise with Icky [Ekwonu] coming off the year he had and Bryson Speas, has great competition in there. I think Dylan McMahon is going to be a guy that can really compete inside, so we’re liking that.

“The running backs, we’ve got talent there and experience now, so seeing who emerges as a lead back if we have one, or if it’s more of a rotation.

“On the defensive side of the ball, at linebacker and on d-line we’ve got depth and guys that all deserve to play. Who’s going to play the most comes down to who plays the best in these practices that we get.”

How much do the early season games against Louisville and Mississippi State amp things up?

“Thinking back to the year that we opened playing South Carolina, I could tell there was a lot more urgency in our football team during that summer workout. Without the guys being back yet I really can’t compare those two years yet, but I know in conversations with our players there is a lot more urgency about, ‘Hey, we are playing Louisville in [76] days.’

“They know who we’re playing, when we’re playing them. That’s a lot different than opening with a non-Power Five school for them. I think that’s the key: how they fell and not how I feel.

"As a coach you want to win every game and you put everything into every game and you say 1-0 and do all that. As a player, it’s different when you are playing a conference game to open the year or a Power Five game versus a non-Power Five.”

What’s the next step you want to see from quarterback Devin Leary?

“Ultimately start winning games, but the process to winning games is being consistent knowing where to go with the football. He needs more help around him, too. Our playmakers have to to make plays for the quarterback. You can go back to Ryan Finley, how many times were there circus catches made that changed our field position?

“We got to make some plays for our quarterback to help them, but I think the reps that Devin got, that Bailey [Hockman] got, I think both of them are going to be better players because of what they went through last year. They were both thrown into the fire as first-year starters without being starters in fall camp, without the lion’s share of reps that you get.

“We were in that position where it was a three-man competition last year, and now you’ve got a clear 1-2 … so they’re going to get a lot of reps in camp that they couldn’t get in last year’s fall’s camp. You want to see that transfer over into their performance.

"I think just being able to lean on what they went through last year would be very valuable for them.”

Would you describe the changes on offense as dramatic or subtle?

“I think that’s unknown to us because I think Tim [Beck] wanted the spring to know what he had, and he didn’t get the opportunity for two reasons. Not having the players that were hurt back for spring ball yet. They would have been back after spring break. And he only had five days to work with the rest of them.

“He has a snapshot. He watched every game, obviously.

“There’s going to be parts of the offense that look the same, there’s going to be parts that don’t. There are things that Tim does that he brings down here. There’s things that we’ve always done that he’s always done.

“I think there are going to be things that what we’ve run that he hasn’t done, and things we haven’t done that he’s been working on and wishes they could have done at Texas, but they didn’t have the personnel and we do. Our backfield is a lot different than what he had there. He had a great wide receiving corps, and all their tailbacks were hurt. They had one tight end.

“They played in that system the way they did and the personnel because of what he had to work with. We’ve got more tight ends and got more backs. He’s got more options now in a backfield standpoint than he had at Texas.

“That’s the thing happening right now, having that discussion about how we are going to use our players.”

What stood out about Tim Beck when you first met him while you were a coach at Kansas and he was a high school coach in Texas?

“He’s a magnetic personality. He treats everybody with respect. He’s very well-spoken, and he’s caring. I went into high school, and it was a high school that hadn’t won. He had built a very good program. He had a history with the head coach I was working for, Mark Mangino and him worked together at Kansas State.

“Mark told me to make sure you go see Tim. He had been a winning high school coach at other schools leading up to it. Got to know him and really liked how we interacted, and we just became friends. Respected him a lot. Went and watched him run practices and how his players looked up to him and how hard his players played for him.

“When I was at Kansas, and we had a receiver job open, Tim interviewed and got the job, and same thing. Our receivers played hard, he always had them doing the right thing. He cared a lot about them, and they respected him.

“I tried to hire him multiple times as a head coach. I’ve never had the success until now to get him.”

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