NC State coach Dave Doeren aware of Marshall’s mindset ahead of this weekend’s game

NC State coach Dave Doeren has a unique perspective of the Wolfpack’s game against Marshall this weekend. While both are FBS programs, the Thundering Herd are from the Group of Five, where Doeren coached for two years at Northern Illinois before he arrived in Raleigh. 

While Doeren led the Huskies, which play in the Mid-American Conference, they played four contests against Power Five teams: at Kansas and a neutral-site game against Wisconsin in 2011, and a neutral site bout with Iowa and a home date with Kansas in 2012. 

Of those four games, Northern Illinois won one: its home game with Kansas, a 30-23 result. 

So as the Thundering Herd, a Sun Belt Conference foe, visit Carter-Finley Stadium on Saturday afternoon, the 11th-year NC State coach knows what to expect — Marshall has a chip on its shoulder. 

“These were the games that we had circled on our schedule at Northern [Illinois,]” Doeren said Thursday. “We made a huge deal out of playing Power Five teams. Kids on our team were slighted in recruiting is how we talked to them, ‘Nobody wanted you on that roster, nobody recruited you on that roster.’”

While the Thundering Herd will bring that energy with them, they do have some Power Five flavor with 18 transfers from those respective schools on the roster. And just because Marshall hails from the Sun Belt, that doesn’t mean the Herd can’t hang with the best of them. 

The green and white are among the best in the Group of Five, one of five undefeated squads left among those schools, and already own a 24-17 win over Virginia Tech this season. Marshall also holds a victory at Notre Dame from last season. 

With that in mind, Doeren said he told his team what to expect from the Herd’s mentality, even if they already had an idea. It’s a point he drove home. 

“We’re going to get Marshall’s best,” Doeren said. “You can point to the wins they’ve already had with Virginia Tech, last year at Notre Dame. And then just the history of us playing them. When I was there [in 2018] we went down 13-3, 20-10, and then had to come back to win the game.”

But while the Thundering Herd have found success against the Power Five teams, the program does not label itself as the team that takes down bigger-named squads. 

“I don’t think of us as the Power Five team beaters,” Marshall coach Charles Huff said earlier this week on the Sun Belt Conference Coaches Zoom media availability. “We just try to play the best we can each week.”

Since Doeren took over as the Wolfpack’s coach in 2013, his NC State teams have only lost two games to Group of Five opponents — both were against East Carolina. 

Doeren said he’s talked with his team about the Thundering Herd, and he’s confident that the Wolfpack will not overlook Marshall with the heart of ACC play on the horizon. 

“We know, our team knows that we’re playing a good football team,” Doeren said. “They’re well-coached, they’ve got good players, and they’ll come in here ready to play.”