After a number of years of salvaging his career with a flurry of late-season wins over mediocre opponents, a victory over UNC, and an appearance in a mid-tier bowl, Dave Doeren officially ran out of "get out of jail free" cards at NC State. Athletic director Boo Corrigan fired him less than 24 hours after the latest in a string of firing-worthy debacles, this time a rock-bottom loss at Stanford.
Despite playing one of the worst schedules imaginable, the Pack has been outscored by 34 points in the second halves of games this season as part of posting a 3-4 overall record and a 1-3 mark in league play. Everyone but Dave Doeren seemed to accept that everything was broken and nothing was salvageable.
So how will Doeren's tenure be remembered at NC State? He's a complicated figure among Wolfpack faithful: the all-time leader in victories as a coach, someone who understood and dominated the rivalry with the Tar Heels, a program manager who specialized in helping turn unheralded prospects into bonafide contributors.
But also a coach who tended to pass blame, struggled with clock and game management, made poor staff assignments, didn't allocate NIL resources efficiently, and overall was incapable of adjusting to the evolution of the sport.
There are a segment of Pack fans who'd like to tell you that Doeren did well with limited resources and represented the school well. And others who point out that he made $5.5 million per year and State actually ranks in the top half of the ACC in NIL budget, rendering an underdog narrative both inaccurate and misleading.
All that to say there were still a few folks on the fence about finally ending the 14-year Doeren era (fourth-longest tenure of any coach in college football). In our binary culture, some will try to convince you he's the worst coach of all time and others who will say he's the best NC State could do. The truth is in the middle: Doeren was a flawed coach who accomplished some good things in Raleigh but also never adapted to what his role demands.
There was a time you could take a two-star North Carolina kid, lock them into the strength & conditioning program under Dantonio Burnette, let them develop for three years, and have a two-year contributor and fringe NFL prospect at the end of the process. That's not how college football works anymore and Doeren simply wasn't capable of adjusting.
I'm sure Corrigan's conversation with Doeren on that fateful Saturday was difficult, and the stubbornness that made Dave a steady coach made it impossible for him to accept the inevitable, even after overseeing his team -- coming off a bye, mind you -- getting pantsed by the league's worst team running JV-level plays. Hence Doeren refusing to resign, forcing a school he said he loved to pay him $10 million it will struggle to afford, and making the AD shit-can him midseason.
While a national search for the next Wolfpack coach will certainly ensue, most expect State to make Philip Rivers say no before seriously considering other candidates. That being said, the vast majority of Pack fans would have preferred freshman quarterback Gunner Rivers be player-coach next year instead of seeing another season of Doeren on the sideline.
Dave Doeren finished his career with a 9-4 record against Cheater Hill, and that will buy him some warm regard with NC State fans as the years pass and the current frustration subsides. But it was beyond time for him to step down, and the way he chose to deny and handle that will be difficult to forget as well.
So yes, considering Doeren's legacy in the context of NC State football is complicated. What isn't is that the program instantly becomes less apathetic and more hopeful even in its current state -- without a permanent coach.
And that tells you everything you need to know about the end of this era.
