Gray: I have never claimed to have insider information. As you say, anyone who is not the Chancellor, the AD or a handful of big money donors, and DD really knew that situation. DD may not have known it either. Some of those may have a strong desire for revisionist history based on a current situation.
Ray: You make a great argument but most of your argument is comparing CTC’s 7th season with DD’s 4th season. Amato’s teams finished 5–6 in 2004, 7–5 in 2005, and 3–9 in 2006. Amato had no saving grace. He just endured his 3rd straight loss and was 3-9 overall to the holes.
Amato came into the job with a lot of enthusiasm and excitement and it was contagious. I know I was excited and enthusiastic. He brought in a great group of coaches. While he had no previous HC experience, he had been Bowden’s right-hand man for years literally managing the FSU program.
Doeren OTOH came in with little or no HC experience, no great group of coaches. As a matter of fact Doeren was behind the 8-ball for coaches when his DC took the HC job at Northern Illinois and about half the assistants stayed with him.
Fans don’t know squat about recruiting. We think each year coaches go out and talk recruits into coming to our or another school. The Sabans. Sweemeys, and others have programs within the overall football program that benefit the recruits/players and prepare them for life. They create a culture inside their programs. Not many new coaches have this knowledge and ability.
Doeren wasn’t hired because of his record at NI and he wasn’t hired because he was a charismatic recruiter who could talk recruits into flipping to NC State. He was hired because somebody clued Debbie Yow in on his knowledge of how to build a program that had integrity, was academically sound, rock solid and sustainable. And when other schools are interested in Doeren, that is what they are coveting.
Just as the other programs knew what they were after in Doeren, Debbie knew it too. Fortunately she didn’t think his first 4 year W/L record was the measure of the man as a head coach.
This analogy might make clear what I’m talking about. Some fans/ADs can see gold nuggets when they look at a w/l record but can’t see the nuggets looking at the ore That contains nuggets. To further the analogy Doeren’s recruiting staff is bringing in the raw ore for the coaches to look through for nuggets.
I truly believe the day will come when NC State will be bringing in richer ore to process (4 & 5-star recruits). Doeren has put together a staff that can process the ore (strength and conditioning staff), create useful products (position coaches turning out draftees) and will reap the benefits of the hard work (Championship and play-off contenders, major bowls, etc.).
The W/L is ultimately important but we have got to stop pulling the young carrots out of the ground to see how they are developing.
