NC State coach Dave Doeren: ‘This will be the most different fall camp for any coach’
N.C. State doesn’t know who its first opponent will be. Dave Doeren and his 2020 Wolfpack don’t even know when that first game will be played. All they know is, for now, a season will take place, and a chance to get back on the grass is enough to make any coach giddy.
“It’s great to be coaching football again,” Doeren told members of the media on Zoom. “It’s been a long time and the guys had a lot of energy, as you would expect. They’ve missed being together. It’s fun to watch the coaches get out there with their players. We’ve all missed what we do for a living.”
The Wolfpack is the first local team to officially start fall camp, with the team going through a 90 minute practice Tuesday morning. The guys were in helmets and Doeren and his staff didn’t throw too much at them. To the players, it didn’t matter how much work they had to do, as long as they were back on the field.
“It definitely felt great,” junior linebacker Isaiah Moore said. “We’ve all been itching to play since we got shut down in the spring. Us all being out there on the field together today, it’s a great feeling and long awaited. We’re all excited about it.”
Of course, there were precautions because of COVID-19. Players couldn’t use a water bottle that didn’t have their name on it. New face shields on the helmet were an adjustment as Doeren pointed out they kept fogging up, but nothing a quick wipe down couldn’t fix. If they took off their helmets, players had to pull up their mask.
N.C. State has tested more than 500 players, coaches and staff members since June, with only seven positive results. It is unsure how many of those seven were football players. Doeren, though, had his whole team on the practice field on Tuesday as they prepare for what should be a unique couple of months. Doeren was pleased with the conditioning of his guys and expected the freshmen to lag a bit in their first college practice. A day after Hurricane Isaias hit the Carolinas, the temperatures in Raleigh were in the 80s by the time the team hit the field. Having to deal with both heat and COVID during preseason camp is something the medical staff has to keep in mind the next few weeks.
“I don’t mean this in a way that I am not respecting COVID, because there are so many precautions here for that,” Doeren said. “But I am more concerned about heat illness and season-ending injuries than I am about a virus that in most cases in our age group of guys is 3-5 days.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says an average recovery time is two weeks. Doeren stressed that his team, coaches and all staff have continued to take all the necessary precautions to combat spread of the disease.
PREPARING FOR WHO?
The ACC announced that its member schools can’t play games until the week of Sept. 7, so Doeren and company have more than a month to prepare. But for who? That’s still to be determined. The league hasn’t released schedules yet, just which five teams N.C. State will play at home and which five they will play on the road. So for the next few weeks, the Wolfpack will just focus on themselves.
The staff will spend the first week trying to get the players back into “football shape.” Doeren has the ability to space out how much work is put in, and ease into a game plan once the schedule becomes clearer. The staff realizes under these unique circumstances every player has to be ready. If a group of players have to go into quarantine, that means the second, third or even fourth guy could be thrown into action. Doeren said eyes lit up in the room when he brought that to the team’s attention.
“This will be the most different fall camp for any coach,” Doeren said. “There is no comparison. Like I told the team, we’re going to have to be very accepting of a lot of unknowns right now. It’s just kind of the way that the world is.”
What is known? The home opponents will be Duke, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Miami and Wake Forest. The road opponents will be UNC, Pittsburgh, Syracuse, Virginia and Virginia Tech. When and in what order is still to be determined. Right now it’s about installing the offense and defense.
“I’m excited to play teams we haven’t played in a long time,” Doeren said about the proposed ACC schedule. “Once I know the order that will help us start our planning and all those things that go with it.”
Doeren told the team that camp has to be a “day-by-day” thing with news and updates due to COVID-19 changing by the hour. Doeren doesn’t want his team to get too caught up in looking too far ahead on the calendar, not knowing what might or might not happen.
SOCIAL SACRIFICE
Most Power 5 conferences have adopted an adjusted schedule for 2020. COVID cases have hit some teams harder than others the last few months. Clemson and LSU put several players in quarantine this summer after positive tests.
Houston, Kansas State and UNC had to pause summer workouts at various points because of outbreaks. Rutgers football recently had an outbreak that was linked to an on-campus party. With N.C. State students moving onto campus the next few weeks, the threat of an outbreak among the team becomes more and more a possibility. The team has done a good job of taking the proper precautions during workouts, but it’s also been easier to isolate when the rest of the student body isn’t around. That’s going to change in the next few weeks and Doeren has to advise his guys to be smart when they are away from the football facility.
“The biggest thing is protect the mission,” Doeren said. “Wear a mask when you are in public, wash your hands, don’t go to parties where there are people who haven’t been tested. We talked about social sacrifice quite a bit. If you really want to have a season you’re going to have to give up some things you normally may not have to give up.”
Doeren emphasized not letting a selfish decision jeopardize a group of teammates for 14 days. The players seemed to be spreading the message as well.
“The word for the season is sacrifice,” Moore said. “With students coming back everyone is not going to take the same precautions as we are. It’s something we are going to have to uphold and hold each other accountable as we move throughout the season.”
Junior center Grant Gibson said everyone on the team wants to play, so they realize it’s going to take some changes to make that happen.
“We can’t go out,” Gibson said. “We are willing to give up some things in order to do that, if we can’t go out that’s fine with us because we want to get the chance to play.”
This story was originally published August 4, 2020 at 3:14 PM.
