Dana Bible literally spent his honeymoon with NC State football. In January, 1983, just three weeks after he was hired to be Tom Reed’s wide receivers coach, Bible went back to Ohio for his long-planned wedding to Nancy Huber.
They returned to Raleigh, bought their first town house in Cary and Bible went back to work recruiting for national signing day in February.
Things have changed mightily since then, including the arrival of his children, Adele and Logan. Bible left with the rest of Reed’s staff in 1985, and traveled around the way football assistant coaches do during a career. But he was thrilled with the opportunity to return last December, when Tom O’Brien was hired to be NC State’s head football coach.
Now, Bible is in charge of the Wolfpack offense and coaches the quarterbacks. He talked with GoPack.com managing editor Tim Peeler about the NC State offense, heading into Saturday’s season-opener against Central Florida.
GoPack.com: Just talk a little about where you think the offense is going into the first game.
Bible: The offense has grown quite a bit from the spring. We have better handle on what our players are capable of doing, what their strengths are and of what areas we can feature. We understand our depth better. We feel more confident of what our players can do.
GoPack.com: How would you describe the current incarnation of the Dana Bible/NC State offense?
Bible: It’s a work in progress. This season will be a period of growth and development. We hope to be better at what we do offensively as the season goes on. We feel good about where we are right now, but we know we will improve as we continue.
GoPack.com: What are your perceived strengths and weaknesses on offense right now?
Bible: For me, it’s more about competition for the positions than it is about strengths and weaknesses. One of the foundations for Coach O’Brien’s program is one competition for playing time. That is very real. You may be the starter this game, but not the next. If you haven’t earned it, you don’t deserve it. The fact that any decision at any position at any point in time was more about letting the players have the best opportunity to show what they can do. It will continue throughout the rest of the season. Nobody owns a position.
GoPack.com: What did you learn about Daniel Evans, Harrison Beck and Justin Burke in the preseason?
Bible: Everything. We were starting at the very beginning. Spring ball, particularly the first spring ball when you go somewhere new, it is tough to evaluate positions because they are just trying to learn our system and Coach O’Brien’s style of doing things. We allowed that period of time to let them get familiar with the way Coach wants it done. When we got to preseason camp, after they had been around us for six months, we were in a position to better judge them as a football player. It’s not quite as simple as saying all the evaluation was done in preseason camp – the evaluation process began the day Coach O’Brien got here – but the picture became clearer once we got into camp.
GoPack.com: You have some experience at the offensive line, but you also lost three starters from last year. How is the development there coming along?
Bible: We have given players plenty of opportunity to compete. We have tried various combinations. We feel good about the players that we have in place. We are working to develop quality depth at the positions. It’s an area that has the potential for a lot of growth and improvement. We need to keep building on the successes and correct the areas that might not have been strong.
GoPack.com: For depth on the offensive line, will you have a couple of floaters who can play a couple of positions or will you have a backup for every position?
Bible: We work hard to develop enough quality depth to have someone at every position. Sometimes that is not feasible, but that is our goal. We will use any combination that is necessary. A lot of it will be dependent on who we are playing against. It’s a situation where the combinations can go a couple of different directions.
GoPack.com: You have some veteran wide receivers and some young guys. How are they coming along?
Bible: We feel real good about the veteran receivers, John Dunlap and Darrell Blackman. They have been in games and they have made plays and gotten the job done. Donald Bowens has also been in some games and gotten some experience. But we also have a lot of young guys, so this too will be a position where we play a lot of combinations. We will keep them out there on the field and will use quite a few of them. We will do that to bring that position up to speed, because we need to develop our players and develop our depth. The story is pretty much the same at all the positions all across the offense. We are working hard to get the youngsters experience and get them ready for what they are going to step into. We have worked hard to get the veteran players ready to go, to be strong and to give us great leadership. Coach O’Brien’s philosophy is that if you practice well and prepare well, you are going to get the chance to get on the field and you are going to play. But our expectation is that you will play well, or you won’t stay out there. That’s where ownership of the team comes into play.
GoPack.com: So, do you feel comfortable with your squad going into the first game?
Bible: I understand the questions that people have. To be honest with you, they are some of the same questions that the coaching staff has. All I can tell you is that we have worked really hard to put ourselves in position to win. We have worked hard to make the right decisions. We are at the point right now that it is time to play. We will then go from there. Right now, there are more questions and speculation than there are answers and things you can grab onto. But that is one of the beauties of college football.
GoPack.com: Does this even seem like the same place you coached from 1982-85?
Bible: I don’t focus on it very much, but there are times there are flashbacks to then. I don’t see it coming a lot of times. It just strikes me. As I was over on campus one day, I walked between Reynolds Coliseum and the track and I looked down a the track, and I all but expected Erik Kramer or Haywood Jeffires to walk down the sidewalk and tap me on the shoulder. There have been plenty of those moments.
GoPack.com: What do you recall about first coming to NC State back in 1983?
Bible: I came down with Coach Reed and went recruiting for three weeks, and then I went back up to Ohio and got married on one of the off-weekends in January. The wedding was great and then we came back down here to finish off recruiting for signing day. We bought our first town home in Cary. When we got here, it was all new and exciting. One of the things that has been really fun on a personal note is that a number of those coaches from Coach Reed’s staff are still in this area. Tom Reed is still here. Offensive coordinator Tom Landsittel is still here. Tight ends coach Johnny Rogers is still here. We never, ever broke those ties. It’s been nice to be around some of our friends that way. That has helped the transition.
GoPack.com: Looking over at Carter-Finley Stadium, you probably don’t get too many flashbacks to the 1980s, do you?
Bible: It’s definitely not the same place. I will tell you one other thing that is different – there is just a really positive vibe surrounding NC State football that wasn’t here before. There is just really good energy in the area. That’s one of the big differences that hit me as quickly as we got here.
You may contact Tim Peeler at tim_peeler@ncsu.edu.
Courtesy: Tim Peeler
