Doeren: 2020 Recruiting Class And The Need For Speed

The 17-man class Dave Doeren introduced on the opening day of college football's early signing period was smaller than expected thanks some recruiting misses and a few committed players that flipped to other schools.

At the same time, the NC State coach said that his Class of 2020 still managed to address several immediate needs -- especially the addition of speed on both sides of the ball -- while emphasizing that he and his staff are "still hunting" for more players that can help the Wolfpack rebound from this year's 4-8 disappointment.

The class, as currently constructed, consists of nine offensive players, seven defensive players and one kicker.

Here is what Doeren had to say about the newest additions to his program, along with other highlights from his press conference at Carter-Finley Stadium on Wednesday:

"Welcome to our signing day, first one of two as you know. It’s a bunch of guys that we’re excited about and thankful for -- 17 young men that represent seven states and multiple position groups.

"I think the biggest part as we got into this as a staff was to try to get some more team speed. I'm feeling like that’s an area, particularly on offense with our receiving corps, getting some more guys that can run and we addressed that. There’s four kids in this class that have verified times, whether they’re track times, same thing with some of the DBs, or they were verified times in our camps. But it’s guys that can really run, separate and create some explosive plays for us.

"(We got) three really good, tough, smart offensive linemen, high-character guys, two linebackers that can run and hit, a defensive lineman in Davin Vann that’s a very flexible guy that can play multiple positions. You see him even running down on kickoffs, an All-State player.

"Our quarterback, obviously, we know a lot about not just Ben [Finley] but his family and his pedigree and his mentality, the way he was raised and his family. (We got) a tight end that’s got great bloodlines, but also has incredible size. He’s going to be a guy that we can build up in our program. And then (there's) a punter, kicker and a kickoff guy that can help us behind the specialists we have to compete with those guys.

"A lot of work went into this class and I’m very excited about these young men and their opportunity to come to NC State."

"We were looking for tough guys, competitive guys, loyal guys that love to train. I think that’s the one thing in our program, we have to develop players. Obviously, we are going to compete for every good player that we can get that has the grades and the character, but we want young men that want to train so they look a lot different after a couple years with Coach Thunder (Dantonio Burnette) and his staff -- that have that work ethic, that desire and that love.

"That’s what this class is all about. As you go through it you’ll see the class, 17 guys. The state of North Carolina is where we got most of our kids, with six guys, eight of them are early enrollees, two of them are All-State, two of them are state champions. And Devon Betty’s team is actually playing in the national championship in Las Vegas this Saturday against St. Louis High School from Hawaii. So it's pretty awesome to have that going on for him and their team down at St. Thomas Aquinas. Four Shrine Bowl invitees are down there right now in (Devan) Boykin, (Davin) Vann, (Jalen) Coit and (Ezemdi) Udoh and then (Porter) Rooks was in the World Bowl.

"(There's) a bunch of guys that were multi-sport athletes, guys that played basketball, track, wrestling, golf, soccer. (There's) two with brothers in the NFL. Obviously, Ryan Finley and now Ben Finley, and then our tight end Udoh and his brother that’s playing in the NFL right now. A lot of good bloodlines in there. A lot of good people. I’m excited to get them here.

"Unlike last year where about 90 percent of our class was here in January, eight of the 17, so a little less than half will be here Jan. 2. So I can’t wait to get them here and I look forward to coaching them and building on what we’ve done in this program."

Four receivers and four defensive backs were among the 17 players that were added to the program on Wednesday. Doeren was asked if that was the product of need or simply a case of taking the best players available regardless of position:

"I think you always start with your needs. But you’re not going to take a guy to take a guy. We still have the ability to go get more, we have five left that we can sign, so whether we’re looking at graduates, whether we’re looking at junior college players, whether we’re looking at high school players that didn’t sign, you start with your needs (and) we still have some needs.

"The thing you need to look at is ‘alright, if we’re going to take this many receivers, what do they have to have? If we’re going to take a DB, what do they have to have? What makes us better than where we are today?’ I think the one thing we saw watching us on the field this year, we need to get more separation. We need to have more runs after the catch, so adding some competition in that (receivers) room with those skill sets was important."

Doeren addressed the needs his team still has left as he and his staff continue work on filling out this 2020 class:

"I think on the line of scrimmage we’ll be looking. On the O-line and the D-lines, I think those are two spots where we’ll be continuing to look probably more than any. As you go through it and as you look at the grad transfer guys that come out of nowhere and is there a guy that we think is better than what we’re playing with. If that happens, then yeah, we need to look at that player. It’s kind of case by case in some cases. On the O-line and D-line, I don’t think you can ever have enough really good big guys on your football team.

State originally had 19 players committed to this class, but several -- including offensive lineman Austin Blaske on Tuesday -- changed their minds and signed with other programs. Doeren was philosophical about the situation, saying that it happens to everyone:

"My focus is on the ones we got and not the ones we didn’t. I think that’s a part of recruiting. Obviously I have players on my team that we flipped and that’s just a part of it. I don’t think coaches stop until we can’t. Once they sign, we can’t recruit them. When a kid commits, we’re going to reach out to them and say ‘we’re going to continue to recruit you’ unless he says ‘I don’t want you to.’

"That’s just the nature of the business right now. Until they make it different, where a kid can sign whenever he wants, kids are going to be recruited. How do we handle that? We tell them ‘don’t commit if you want to keep looking.’ I say those words to our guys. Once you hear you have a scholarship, by committing we stop recruiting other players at your position when it fills up. Most of the kids hear me loud and clear. Some of them don’t. That’s the system we have right now."

Doeren was asked if he thought he'd be able to redshirt more members of this class than he did with last year's group because of the large number of players the Wolfpack has returning:

"After what I just went through, I don’t think I can answer probably that in an accurate way. I’m still trying to overcome 15 starters out for the year or whatever it was. I tell all these kids the same thing. I want them to come in here and try to win a job. If they’re not ready or the competition in front of them is better, then they can redshirt. But their mentality needs to be that they’re coming in to play.

"They need to be ready to compete, and they need to come in ready to learn our systems, to get to know our staff, to do well in school and be the best they can be. If they’re not ready, that’s what the redshirt is for. That’s the way I want them to approach it and all our players, to come in here with that competitive edge."

Finally, Doeren was asked is he plans on adding any more players to this year's class:

"Not today, but we have until the next signing day to add. We’re still hunting and we will and we’ll see where it ends up. Really we have until August to add guys. That’s how it happened with (former grad transfer center) Joe Scelfo, that was a late addition a few years back. There’s some things that can still happen late,

"The way that kids are transferring, there’s some guys that you can find that for some reason want to find a new home. We’ve just got to make sure we do that at the right position groups if we add them."

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