New faces and new ideas for Wolfpack football this spring
Spring practice has been more for refining N.C. State’s football team recently than rebuilding.
After consecutive 9-win seasons, the Wolfpack has had more of an overhaul on the roster and coaching staff this offseason.
Spring practice opens on Saturday, and will conclude on April 6 with the Kay Yow Spring Game at Carter-Finley Stadium, and there will be an adjustment period for the new coaches on Dave Doeren’s staff and the new faces on the field for the Wolfpack.
N.C. State has to replace seven starters on offense, including quarterback Ryan Finley and a pair of 1,000-yard receivers. Playcaller and quarterbacks coach Eli Drinkwitz (Appalachian State) is gone, as is offensive line coach Dwayne Ledford (Louisville). There are also new position coaches for the tight ends and safeties.
The new faces on the staff have had a chance to work together for about a month, Doeren said, but more will get done in spring practice than on the recruiting trail.
“It’s really about getting to know each other,” Doeren said. “The chemistry piece is the challenge. Just like with your football team, you want your staff to have chemistry. So you have to create that through time shared.”
Kurt Roper, a longtime assistant at Duke and the SEC, was hired to replace Drinkwitz and will be tasked with sorting through a quarterback competition with four candidates.
Assistants Des Kitchings and George McDonald were promoted to co-offensive coordinators to take over the play-calling duties.
John Garrison was hired from Florida Atlantic to replace Ledford and will have to fill in three spots on the starting offensive line.
Todd Goebbel was hired from Marshall to coach the tight ends and as the new special teams coordinator. On the defensive side, Tony Gibson will coach the safeties and be co-defensive coordinator with Dave Huxtable.
Replacing Ryan Finley
Doeren, who replaced three assistants after the 2015 season, said a change on the coaching staff can be helpful.
“The new ideas that come in when you change people on your staff are great,” Doeren said. “Some of the problems that you’re looking at, now they can look at through a different lens.”
The top task this spring will be finding Finley’s replacement. Finley, first-team All-ACC in 2018, threw for 3,928 yards with 25 touchdowns and 11 interceptions. Finley was a three-year starter for Doeren and helped the Wolfpack go 9-4 in each of the past two seasons.
Sophomore Matt McKay, sophomore Bailey Hockman, redshirt freshman Devin Leary and freshman Ty Evans will compete for the starting job in the spring and likely all the way up until the season-opener against East Carolina on Aug. 31.
McKay and Leary were on the team last season with McKay serving as Finley’s backup while Leary redshirted. Hockman, who began his career at Florida State, transferred from a junior college and enrolled in January. Evans also enrolled in January.
Don’t expect Doeren to name a starter any time soon.
“We’re not going to rush the process,” Doeren said. “We’ve got a lot of time between the 15 practices, the meetings in between them, and then the summer program and then fall camp.”
Caution with Payton Wilson
N.C. State has 17 early enrollees from the recent recruiting class but will not be at full strength this spring. Running back Ricky Person is one of six players out for the spring while recovering from injuries and offseason surgery. Defensive tackle Larrell Murchison will be a limited in his participation.
Doeren did say on Tuesday that linebacker Payton Wilson “has been cleared to do everything” but will not go through contact drills.
Wilson, the top recruit from the 2018 class, missed last season with a knee injury. Doeren said they will be cautious with Wilson this spring.
“(The medical staff) is not going to let him do everything in the spring because we don’t play until August and you just want to be smart,” Doeren said. “But he will be in individual (drills) and, at some point, some of the noncontact (drills) but it will be a process.”
This story was originally published February 26, 2019 at 3:23 PM with the headline "New faces and new ideas for Wolfpack football this spring."
