I’ve been skeptical of Dave Doeren for a number of years. Where were the signature wins, and top 20 finishes? After 7 seasons and coming off a 4-8 year, Doeren was feeling his seat getting a little warmer. Then COVID hit. Doeren’s job was probably safe, but try telling the former coaches at South Carolina and Vanderbilt that. Another bad season, and would Doeren be in big trouble?
2020 ended any talk of that.
We asked @mattzemek a couple of weeks ago, if this was Dave Doeren’s best coached season at NC State.
With the regular season now complete, Doeren responded with what I believe was his best coaching job while at NC State.
It gives him a shot at the ACC COY award. I’d probably have Manny Diaz and Brian Kelly ahead of him, but after an 8-3 regular season Doeren deserves recognition and serious consideration.
Every program out there has had to deal with postponed games, cancellations, COVID cases and players being out due to due contact tracing.
Some coaches and programs wilted under the circumstances. You know who they are – the Michigans, the Penn States, and Florida States are some examples. Others like NC State under Doeren played the deck handed to them, proved resilient and persevered. If you think NC State was more fortunate, they had COVID clusters and cancelled games too.
They lost their starting QB Devin Leary for the season. Bailey Hockman didn’t look like the answer early in replacing Leary, but became a player the Wolfpack could win with.
Here’s what they did though… They won 5 games by 10 points or less, and were victorious in their final 4 games. This was after a heartbreaking 44-41 loss to Miami. NC State as they have done all year persevered.
Dave Doeren controlled what he could control this year. NC State won with very good special teams. Chris Dunn had All-ACC type season kicking FGs. They won with tough defense and limiting mistakes. Saturday in a close game with Georgia Tech, the Yellow Jackets nearly doubled the Wolfpack in penalty yardage.
In close games, sometimes that makes all the difference.
It wasn’t always pretty this year for NC State, but who cares? Most of the country would be thrilled with the season the Wolfpack have put together.
A nice bowl may await, and the Wolfpack team deserves it.
