There is new blood on the coaching staff at N.C. State. First-year head coach Dave Doeren has assembled a staff he feels will lead the Wolfpack to greater heights in the coming seasons.
“The new coaches are the biggest difference in our program coming into the season,” senior redshirt wide receiver Rashard Smith said. “Having a new coaching staff and being able to adjust to them as coaches and as people that is the biggest adjustment we have to make. The coaches are doing a great job so far.”
Matt Canada enters his sixth season as an offensive coordinator, his first with N.C. State. The Indiana University graduate has been coaching for 22 years. Last season Canada helped lead Wisconsin—with former N.C. State quarterback Russell Wilson at the helm—to a conference title and a berth in the Rose Bowl. He has helped his running backs, a position N.C. State has struggled at for the past few seasons, earn accolades. Former Badger Montee Ball was a first-team All-American last season and won the Doak Walker Award as the nation’s top running back.
Doeren had Canada on his staff during his first season as coach at Northern Illinois and, like his assistant, spent time coaching at Wisconsin. Doeren, whose background is in defense, gave Canada explicit instructions when he took the job.
“Coaching at Wisconsin, I have a great appreciation for running the ball to be able to win,” Doeren said. “TCU was the team we played in the Rose Bowl the year I got that job, and defending their offense, you could tell their coach was a defensive coach that made their offense do everything that a defensive coach hates to see and have to defend. I made a list of everything I hate to see and gave it to Coach Canada. I said ‘These are 11 things all defensive coaches hate to see. Put them in our system.’”
On the other side of the ball, the new defensive coordinator is Dave Huxtable, a 31-year veteran, who has experience in both the ACC and the state of North Carolina, with previous stints at East Carolina, Georgia Tech, UNC-Chapel Hill and league newcomer Pittsburgh last season. The Panthers’ defense ended the 2012 season ranked 16th in the nation under Huxtable’s leadership.
“When I left Wisconsin [after the 2010 season], Dave [Huxtable] replaced me,” Doeren said. “Two of my college teammates were on the defensive staff with me—they were two of my best friends—and so, obviously, I am going to stay in touch with them. All they did was talk about how great he is. Players liked him. To get a guy who knows the ACC and the region, I just thought it was a really good fit.”
Heading into his first season as the head coach at State, Doeren said he is confident he has the right lieutenants to help lead the Wolfpack to success.
“It was an easy sell,” Doeren said about hiring his two coordinators. “If you don’t coach with passion, you can’t coach for me. It is a sport built on passion, competitiveness and fire. I don’t like being around guys who don’t have it.”
