NC State football coach Dave Doeren isn’t a fan of the timing that allows players to opt to leave their team right before the bowl season. He discussed the Military Bowl, his holiday shopping strategy and more with Adam Gold on 99.9 FM the Fan.

Dave Dorn is the head coach at NC State sir How many shopping days do you need to get ready for the holiday Zero I’m ready Oh really I’m so impressed Everybody says I’m not ready You when did you start Oh man I don’t know You know I just sometimes you find things you want to give people sometimes you don’t and it’s just one of those years you know but I’m looking forward to the family time for sure Yeah How do you how do you your game is after the holiday The Military bowl is the 28th So how do you work How do you work the holiday and making sure that the guys get a chance uh to spend quality time with their loved ones You as well you need that you need that time as well I know you’re a family guy Uh how do you balance all this Yeah that’s a great question Uh you know I try to uh look at the calendar figure out the number of days we need to get in How many of them are developmental how many of them are are game specific and then how much time Can we give them Well it’s not too much time because you wanna keep the skills and the game plan somewhat ready Um and then when can you get to the bowl game to polish it back up and obviously enjoy the activities the bowl games offer So it is a balancing act and and we’ve changed a little bit this year from other years just felt like there are some things that you know we’ve lost some close bowl games here recently I really wanted to find a way to get over the top and and so a lot of research in the off season just how we can do things a little differently and hopefully finish with a win Uh There’s a lot of things I want to uh I wanna get to first of all Annapolis is such a cool city and having spent for me about 10 years in the Baltimore Washington area uh right out of school I mean I’m very familiar with just how beautiful Annapolis is how historic Annapolis is when you guys are up there How much of the city will you guys take in Well we’re staying in DC and so we’re not in Annapolis to play there Obviously the the hotel is in DC So you know we will get a lot of DC and there’s several tours that our guys are gonna get to be a part of and see the nation’s capital So we’re excited about that Um really won’t see Annapolis until game day Um and obviously my athletic director has a lot of history at West Point and that rivalry So he’s given me a lot of intel about what we’re gonna see But uh a couple of my coaches I know my D line coach Charlie Walls has played in this game twice and has been there so he’s given us some as well but looking forward to it I’ve never been there Um been to West Point have not been to Annapolis So personally looking forward to playing there on game day It is it is an absolutely gorgeous seaside city You’ll love it Uh The the development of CJ Bailey uh I know the plan was not to need CJ Bailey this year And then because the the uh the injuries to Grayson mccall the ultimate retirement from the game Um What have you seen from CJ Certainly a dynamic player with an incredible future ahead of him What have you seen from him Yeah hunger to learn uh has a great growth mindset wants to improve Loves the game loves studying the game Has a lot of spirit He’s got a charismatic charismatic uh magnetic personality that you like being around I mean I really enjoy coaching him Um and he takes ownership like when he makes mistakes he doesn’t point fingers he doesn’t blame others Uh There’s no excuses He does all those things naturally And so he has all the intangibles and he has the height he has the athletic ability So you know there’s a ton of upside still but he’s improved immensely over the year and and even when he has made mistakes he’s come back and gotten better from them So we’re really excited and uh look forward to CJ being here when you recruit somebody like anybody But you know specifically uh the position of quarterback do you know that there’s a love of the game And there’s a like a you know he’s a tape junkie or stuff like that where he um because not everybody is I mean they’re just sometimes they’re just great athletes who play the game So do you know that I mean that’s something we try to do I mean I tell you the recruiting calendar has made this harder and harder getting to know these guys the way that we really want to know them But you know our coaches do a really good job of asking a lot of questions when we do get to go out on the road trying to get the intel that matters to our program Everybody’s programs are different how they evaluate but we wanna see it like I think in person live Evals are critical in the evaluation stage He be there for meetings if you can if they’re having player meetings with their coaches at the high school level being able to sit in those seeing how he handles coaching If you can go to a game and see how he handles his teammates how he comes back from a tough series or an interception all those things So the more you can see the better and uh we definitely try to be very diligent in that because the last thing I want is a guy at that position that doesn’t love the stuff behind the scenes Dave Dorn is joining us here on the Adam Gold show You talked about the calendar and I was going to get to that So let’s do it here The portal opens up before bowl season now I don’t think it’s necessarily impacted you that much a little bit Uh But certainly like uh duke down the road is out of quarterbacks I don’t know who’s gonna play quarterback for them uh in the Gator Bowl Uh How do how does how does this get fixed where the portal doesn’t open until after everything is done Yeah I mean I think what’s happening right now is tragic and uh it’s broken it’s impacting my team a lot Uh It’s impacting everyone’s team and it’s not necessarily always star players that you’re missing But you know I mean if you got 20 guys that leave your team even walk on you leaving teams because they wanna get on the field somewhere it impacts practice you know and your scout teams it impacts your depth charts on special teams So all of it you know I mean last year when we played Kansas State between the two teams there was 45 guys that didn’t play you know and so there’s a huge impact and how do you fix it I think you start the season earlier you finish the season earlier before the second semester begins including bowl games have the national championship game beyond January 1st Uh so that it is a one se semester sport and you put the portal window after the bowl games That’s my opinion Uh I I don’t know another way because right now it’s designed for people not to finish and the finish matters Like winning bowl games matters winning playoff games matters and but it’s designed in a terrible way for these guys because if they want to transfer and be somewhere for their second semester which I would understand why it’s before they play all these championship games you know But yeah I mean these kids are here in the summer time I we could start our season a month earlier and be done a month earlier and the guys would have a chance at the end of the season and same with coaches you know don’t let a coach leave until seasons are over Just like the NFL does make people finish what they start How hard is it to retain your roster because you gotta recruit your own roster these days Now That’s challenging Yeah I mean I for everybody you know your first week after the season is Exit interviews with your players and finding out where they stand and whether they’re gonna come back And yeah it’s it’s different and it’s year to year on how hard that may be You know and it’s probably program the program we’ve had a great deal of success and retention and uh and sometimes you’ll lose a guy here and there But for the most part you know we’ve had a lot of success here because of the success of our program and stability of it But I think it’s hard for all coaches and what makes it harder is there’s a lot of illegal stuff going on on the outside where schools are using agents to contact players or families to try to lure them away And to me it’s sad that that’s happening in college football Dave Doran is joining us here on the Adam Gold Show Um I do want to ask you about two coaches that uh you know 11 just left and the others coming in real quick Your thoughts on maybe why As much as the fact that Dave Clawson announced his resignation yesterday Uh Dave has been a great coach in this league for more than a decade uh contemporary You guys are you guys basically got here about the same time I think you got here maybe a shade earlier Uh but I mean he’s had a great run here uh and he’s talked about the changing landscape Your thoughts on Dave Clawson stepping down Yeah Well I have a lot of respect for Dave We coached against each other in the Mac prior to being here I got here one year ahead of him and we’ve had a lot of good games against each other I I texted him yesterday Congratulations And that I was gonna miss competing against him because II I really respect him Uh I think it’s not my place to say why he did what he did That’s his place You know obviously you saw what Tony Bennett said at Virginia I’m sure there’s some carry over in that and I look forward to reading his comments whenever they come out if they haven’t already Uh And the other guy and you’ve got a a really good you’ve had a good relationship Uh um I think there’s been a respect that Bill Belichick has shown you and your program over the years and now you’re gonna compete against him Uh What’s that gonna be like Oh I mean look I have great respect for all the guys I compete against And obviously coach Belichick was the gold standard of the NFL And uh he’s gracious enough to allow me to come up and visit uh one of their OTAs and actually Kobe Bryant was there that day and spoke to their team and I gotta learn a lot watching him do what he does He’s he’s one of the best ever uh to coach football And I’m excited to compete against them you know really excited and and no different than when Coach Brown came in I was excited to compete against Coach Brown I mean he’s all fame coach To me it motivates me And I told Coach Brown that he made me a better coach because I knew I had to do what I had to do to win uh against him That’s what I owe this university And same thing when you coach against Dabo like you’re going to go against a really really good football coach a Hall of Fame coach one day and you got to step up your game and it’s no different Now I’m excited to compete against coach Belichick and have nothing but respect for him All right two more things and then we will let you go The first is uh while you weren’t a part of it this year What do you think ultimately Has this been a good year One of the college football playoff Oh I know it’s gonna be an exciting month I’m really excited to see the on campus playoff games and the atmospheres of mine It’s gonna be awesome uh as far as the selections and all those things I I be honest I haven’t even paid attention to some of that stuff I’ve been kind of worried about my own program but I think it’s gonna be great to see these games on campuses I’m I’m being a former F CS coach when I was at Montana we had home field advantage and we were in a lot of playoff games there It was fun I mean uh you talk about live atmospheres man It’s gonna be a lot of fun to see these games II I had totally forgotten that you were in Montana You see the final four of the F CS It’s South Dakota State South Dakota North Dakota State and Montana State What does what does the big sky know that nobody else does It’s a good football league man I mean really good When when I was there we won the Big Sky twice and and that was before the Dakotas were in it you know uh at that time it’s usually us or eastern Washington they were kind in the tops of the league but uh it’s a really good league there’s good coaches they do a great job you know fan base wise selling out games and quality football and yeah I I really enjoyed my two years at the University of Montana All right Final thing Tony Gibson now uh no longer with you Uh how big I mean it’s a big loss I mean your defenses have been great I mean I know this year wasn’t the year that you you or Tony would have wanted It’s tough to replace Peyton Wilson I think we found that out Um what uh what are your thoughts On Tony Moving on I’m really happy for Tony Uh he’s earned the right to be a head coach And uh it’s a great opportunity for him to go back to his home state run a program with tradition history and expectations I know he’s walking into a Hornet’s nest What’s happened there in the portal But he’ll get it right And that’s one thing he knows how to do is galvanize people and recruit and coach So Tony will do a great job there And obviously any time you lose a coach he’ll miss that coach that did a job like Tony did But it’s an opportunity for somebody now to come in and continue what we’ve done to make us better sir I wish you the best in the military bowl against East Carolina That’s interesting if you close this season against them and you start next season against them does it it it probably makes this bowl better uh because it is a kind of a rivalry game No you know people keep saying that to me a rival is a team We play every year Um we play ECU every three years and so some of our players you know that’s an end state game So there’s definitely stakes Don’t get me wrong that our rival is the team we play every year that wears that ugly color you know and so that’s how we look at rivalry but we definitely look at this as a big Inst State game Ok I need to I need to ask this I’m sorry to keep you uh for one more thing but you said I don’t know about a month ago that you’re contractually not allowed to wear blue Are you serious It’s in your deal No it’s not in my deal I mean that was just an agreement Handshakes is getting his contract in my opinion So yeah he told me when I was hired don’t ever show up wearing navy blue and I get it I won’t so dark only dark wash jeans Is that it I guess so Yeah what are you gonna do You gotta wear blue jeans don’t you Hey thank you very much Good luck up there Merry Christmas to you and yours All right Take care happy holidays and go back You got it Dave Doran here on the Adam Cole Show II I almost forgot to ask that I like the clarification It’s good to have the clarifications agreement because the contract is public record We saw Bill Belichick’s contract and I read it and there is nothing in there that says he cannot wear red but he’s a man of his word and his handshake I like it