The Wolfpacker: An Independent Magazine Covering NC State Sports
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Football 2013 During Doeren's 18 years in the coaching profession, his teams have won nearly 70 percent (157-69-1) of their games, with six conference titles and 12 postseason appearances. photo by ken martin "I think there are a lot of ways to do things as a coach. My way is different — it doesn't mean my way is better — but for what I like to get done, there have been a lot of things we had to change." ■ Head coach Dave Doeren hard, but it's been good for them, too. There have been some guys that have had their best GPAs who were close to flunking out when we got here; now they're succeeding." That's only where the accountability to teammates begins. Entire position groups are held responsible for the individual parts. For example, if a running back misses a class, it is posted in the running back meeting room. If that athlete misses again, the entire group has to show up at 6 a.m. to run — and they'll know the reason they are there at the early morning workout. "It hasn't been easy," Doeren admitted. "There have been a lot of tough days, but that's probably been the biggest change — that accountability and transparency. Not that the last staff didn't make guys do things — they did — but we make it where if a running back screws up, then all of the running backs have to run. There's a peer pressure part to that accountability, and that's a big deal." The tough transition has been eased by a contingent of positive presences among the players, as well as the coaching staff. In addition to the leadership council, the coaches selected a group of emerging leaders — younger guys who have shown moments of leadership or leadership qualities, but need to be developed. Both groups of selected players meet once every two weeks with leadership specialist Jeff Jansen. "It helps a lot to have strong leaders on the team, and that's something that we've been developing," Doeren said. "He meets with these guys and takes them through some things from a non-football coaching perspective that can really help them grow off the field." Completing The Puzzle The energetic group of assistant coaches — seven of whom are under the age of 36 — fill out the ensemble that has enabled the culture change. "They're willing coaches," Doeren said. "Some of them are young, some of them played in the NFL; all of them have been in big games. Some of them have more experience than others, but when I hire a staff, I look for like-minded people. It doesn't mean we're similar in what we like to do away from the building, but the way that we work, how we recruit, how we treat people and how we raise our families are similar. Those are the guys I like to be around. "We've made a lot of progress, but I really believe that leadership shows during adversity. Right now, things are good. There are going to be points in the season where we're down in a game or a player gets injured. It's about, 'How are we going to respond and handle that?'" Doeren knows what he is looking for. He has coached everywhere from Drake — a Football Championship Subdivision program in Iowa that is also the coach's alma mater — to USC. During his 18 years in the profession, his teams have won nearly 70 percent (157-69-1) of their games, with six conference titles and 12 postseason appearances. Since Doeren was named the co-defensive coordinator at Wisconsin prior to the 2006 campaign, teams with him on staff have gone an impressive 72-19 (.790 winning percentage). They have also played in a pair of BCS bowl games and claimed a trio of conference championships. "For all of those seven years, those teams were tough," the coach noted. "They were physical guys who really enjoyed football. They loved doing more than they were asked to do — watching film on their own, studying the game, putting in what we call overtime. "That's the one thing here we have to improve — not that we don't like what is happening, but there's a certain way to be special as a player. I think that's something that we're working on building here. It has gotten better, but we're not there yet." Doeren isn't in to making bold predictions. He'll say that he's not a genie and has never entered a campaign thinking that it would be a championship or rebuilding season — and he has experienced both ends of the spectrum. "We'll do everything we can to win every game we can win; that's our job," he said. "All we do right now is look at our guys and say, 'That's not good enough,' or, 'That's really good,' and try to keep building. I always like to look back at what we did, as opposed to guess where we're going to be." ■ July 2013 ■ 33 32-33.FB Team Overview.indd 33 7/1/13 9:24 AM