Dave Doeren owes Clemson defensive coordinator Brent Venables a favor for helping him with his coaching career. However, NC State’s head coach will not let his longtime friend cash in on that favor this week, not with his No. 15 Wolfpack coming to Clemson on Saturday to face the third-ranked Tigers.
Venables and Doeren have been friends since they were young graduate assistant coaches back in the mid-1990s. Doeren was a graduate assistant at Drake, while Venables was at Kansas State.
“We used to clinic each other,” Venables said. “We used to get together and talk football, linebacker play, defense … we did that for a number of years until we had to start facing each other.