WRALSportsFan
NC State coach Dave Doeren talks about Thursday's game against UConn
N.C. State University football coach Dave Doeren and players speak ahead of Thursday's game.
Well, I mean, his daily just strain and the way he plays the game plays really, really hard impact he has on the line of scrimmage, the disruption that he creates the way he led in the weight room. He got the summer program award for being the hardest worker, strongest player. So it's off the field and then just the way he's grown as a leader, you know, similar to how Bradley was here, he's a high spirited guy. He plays with an edge, you know, and sometimes that's a double edged sword for guys, you know, he's learned how to use that the right way. So I'm really proud of his growth, you know, on and off the field to wear that you have to be dominant in many ways and who's the right pick? Ok. Comes back, Chris Toodle. Good. Chris Toole has had a really good camp, been very consistent. You can see trusts, you know, his body. Now he's using his arms, using his shoulders. He's doing some good things in the run game that is progress for him. He's always been a ball catcher for us in that position, but he's really improved himself. As a blocker. Trent has been in and out of camp with some minor things. He's been great this week. So it's good to have him back in there but hasn't been able to go through the entire thing like Chris Toodle has so should have both of them going into the first game and just kind of build on it as we go as far as imposing more. Yeah. Well, there's a lot of unknowns, you think, you know what you have going into the first game, but under the lights, there's gamers, sometimes guys emerge and sometimes guys shrink, you know, and so I'm anxious to see the guys on game day. I'm excited to see them play. They've worked hard. It's a really close knit team. And so for me, it's more anxious, just kind of want to see it. You know, I want to get out there with them on the grass and once we know how they are, got to get the jitters out of some of the younger guys that are playing, know that it's going to get better as it goes. Last year's games. Don't mean anything, you know, last year's teams don't win this year's games. And so we know uconn is a better football team. We know they're a different football team, we're also a different football team. And so we got to go prove whatever the score is, you know, we got to earn that and we know they're probably talking about it. Right. They want to play better than they did and I know they will watching their film. They were a much better football team as the year went on. Is there any significant differences or challenges? Well, there's always home field advantage. You know, they were five and one at home last year. We've been a really good home team. So, you know, when you go to someone else's environment, you have to get used to it. You know, a foreign locker room, stadiums, different sidelines, maybe tier looser. As far as the space down there, you're in a hotel instead of your own bed. So there's some different things about playing on the road and once you start the game, it's the same, right? But it's all the things that lead up to it, sometimes guys can lose focus. So it will be a good test to get on the road and see how mature we are. Realize. How is the process of the state football game? What are you guys kinda go through to get that done? I mean, we have everybody's games. I mean, everyone in college football, it doesn't matter what level. Each week we get everybody's film. We get every NFL game too. So you don't have to struggle to find film like you used to where you had to get it sent to you in the mail on A VHS. It's all online. So, yeah, we've watched all that film and obviously had a chance to see him compete against a lot of people and he's a good quarterback, he knows their offense. He's got good size poise in the pocket and he's a guy that can move around and he's not necessarily a guy that's going to run all day on you, but he runs well enough to hurt you. He and the offensive coordinator have a history together. So there's some similarity there and certainly similar to what we have with Brennan and Robert, you know, where they're going to be able to work back on games. They've coached and played in together and have some recall on their game planning. See you on growth as here. What did you see that makes them more dangerous and, and how do you think that, well, they're a really good running football team, you know, they're a physical team on offense, it doesn't turn the ball over, they rush the ball. Well, they have really talented tailbacks. I think those two backs could play in our league for anybody. They're really good players defensively. They got better and better as the year went on and they returned 10 out of 11 starters. You can see, they just got used to what coach Moore wants in a team. You know, they are physical football teams, just like any coach that takes over. It's hard at the beginning to get everybody on the same page. And over the course of the year, you can see that those kids started to believe and they were sick of losing up there and they started listening and doing the right things and they've got a good team. They really do. You can see there's a reason they won five of their last seven games, beat Boston College, beat Liberty. So it's a good football team. Yeah. All right. Thank you guys. Thank you.