Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/108303
■pack perspective Dave Doeren Takes A Dual Approach To His First Recruiting Class F By Tim Peeler irst recruiting classes are always difficult. A new football or basketball coach has a big decision to make right out of the gate, whether to stay the course, bring in the players willing to maintain their commitments to the previous staff, while the new staff learns the lay of the land and essentially sits out the first season before going after the players that will be the future of the program. The new coaches tend to spend as much or more time re-recruiting the commitments made to the previous staff. It's not a bad strategy: That's how Chuck Amato retained two of the greatest players at their positions in NC State football history, quarterback Philip Rivers and wide receiver Jerricho Cotchery. Both had been recruited by assistant coach Joe Pate on behalf of head coach Mike O'Cain. But Pate continued to recruit the two future All-ACC players during the protracted 44-day gap between O'Cain's departure, the day after Thanksgiving, 1999, and Amato's arrival, the day after he help Florida State win the BCS national championship. Or, new coaches can jump in feet first, try to find as many unpolished gems, transfers and uncommitted pure athletes as possible, hoping to fit them into the program they want to build. Dick Sheridan, when he was hired in December 1985, immediately changed course from the recruiting strategy of his predecessor, Tom Reed, going after players in Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina that he knew would fit into the program he ran so successfully at Division I-AA Furman. Reed spent more of his recruiting time in Ohio and the Tidewater JUMP TO CONTENTS Doeren re-recruited and held onto many of the top prospects that had committed to NC State prior to his hiring, and he also went out and landed players who could provide the Pack with immediate depth. photo by larry blankenship Page 32 area of Virginia. He brought in talented players, but could not find success on the field. That doesn't mean a coach has to write off his first season, a time when he has the benefit of a honeymoon period with both his fans and administration. Neither Sheridan nor Amato did that, en route to taking their initial teams to bowl appearances. In 1986, Sheridan put together one of the most exciting seasons in Wolfpack football history, inheriting a squad that had strung together three consecutive 3-8 seasons and taking it to within one win of an ACC championship. The Pack finished tied for second in the conference and qualified for the New Peach Bowl, the school's first postseason appearance since 1978. Though Sheridan had a losing season in his second year, that inaugural success and good will from his Division I coaching debut was huge in building a program that later went to five consecutive bowl games. Amato, too, generated a strong first season, utilizing the inherited talent like linebacker Levar Fisher, wide receiver Koren Robinson and running back Ray Robinson as a solid foundation. Convincing Rivers to skip his final semester of high school and enroll in January so he could participate in spring drills became a program-changing decision that paid off for the next four years, when the Pack went bowling all four times. New Wolfpack head coach Dave Doeren had a dual philosophy in his class of recruits, which he announced Wednesday during a National Signing Day press conference at the Murphy Center. It's a large class of 25 players (including two transfers), many of whom could compete immediately for the new coaching staff.