The message was familiar. NC State football head coach Dave Doeren has said it time and time again — not as a motivational soundbite, but as a personal truth.
At NC State’s opening spring press conference in February, Doeren leaned into the microphone and spoke with the same steady conviction he’s had since his first day on campus.
“I expect to win every game.”
In a vacuum, it sounds like confidence. In context — after a 6-7 season and another year outside contention — it sounds like something else. Maybe belief. Maybe misalignment. Maybe both.
It’s a philosophy ingrained in the Wolfpack since Doeren arrived from Northern Illinois in 2013 — one that has helped him become the winningest coach in program history. The “1Pack1Goal” DNA has permeated both the football program and university, laying the bricks for something bigger than the field.
“NC State was the right fit for me,” Doeren said at the ACC Kickoff in July. “In my second year at NIU, we won a second straight conference championship. Our team was headed to the Orange Bowl. There were a lot of teams that were calling and asking if I would be interested. … And I found [the right fit] at North Carolina State.”
For more than a decade, that fit brought stability to a program that hadn’t seen much of it. 10 bowl appearances. 66 Academic All-ACC performers. 22 NFL Draft selections. A clear identity built on toughness, loyalty and development — all anchored in Doeren’s belief that the right culture could outpace resources or reputation.
And for a while, it did.
NC State won eight or more games in five of six seasons from 2017 to 2022. Doeren stayed loyal to Raleigh. Players bought in. Fans bought shirts. The mantra — 1Pack1Goal — wasn’t just branded. It was a blueprint.
And that belief still resonates with the players closest to him.
“I love playing for Coach Doeren,” said defensive tackle Brandon Cleveland. “People have their different viewpoints of him, but from a player’s standpoint, he’s very personal. I could go to him for anything … he’s a great coach and I love being around him. That’s why I’ve been here for four years.”
But somewhere along the way, the sport changed. And NC State didn’t. At least not fast enough.
In a sport where the goalposts keep moving, Doeren’s stayed steady. The words haven’t changed. The belief hasn’t wavered. But the gap between message and result has slowly widened.
“I expect to win every game,” he said this spring — just as he said last summer, and the summer before that. But NC State didn’t win every game. It lost seven — and with them, the momentum that once felt sustainable. It lost its bowl game, extending the drought to seven years. It was outscored by 65 points in two ranked matchups and hasn’t beaten a top-25 team since 2022.
In fact, Doeren holds an 8-29 record against top-25 opponents across his 13-year tenure, the third-lowest among returning ACC coaches. Against unranked teams, he’s 79-36.
That dichotomy — dominant against the middle, stuck against the top — doesn’t just summarize his tenure. It defines it. NC State rarely bottoms out under Doeren. But it rarely breaks through, either.
This isn’t about apathy or complacency. No one questions whether Dave Doeren wants to win. He works like someone who does. He speaks like someone who does. But in today’s version of college football, intent doesn’t always match outcome — especially when the rules change faster than the culture can.
“I don’t think pressure really exists,” Doeren said. “Every year I come into this job with the exact same expectations: to be the very best football team we can be and to win every game we can win.”
It’s a noble mindset — one rooted in belief. But in 2025, pressure exists whether you acknowledge it or not.
The fit that once set Doeren apart doesn’t hold the same weight anymore. NIL has changed the equation. The transfer portal has changed the pace. College football no longer rewards long-term foundation as much as it rewards short-term flexibility. The game is fast — and less forgiving.
“I had a lot of goals when I got here, and I’ve accomplished a lot of them,” Doeren said. “But there’s still meat on the bone. 10 plus wins, winning the ACC, being in the playoffs, these are all things that I think — and know — that we can do with the right players and right staff.”
It’s not that he doesn’t see the ceiling. It’s that he still believes he can reach it — with time, with culture, with continuity. But that belief now feels increasingly misaligned with the forces shaping the sport around him.
In that way, Doeren has become something of a symbol — not of failure, but of the college football middle class. Steady, competitive, respected. Good enough to matter. Rarely bad enough to force change. But rarely equipped to rise above the churn.
And that’s where the pressure builds. Not just from fans or outsiders, but from the man himself. Doeren’s own words — about championships, about winning every game — have helped raise the bar, setting a standard that may no longer reflect the reality of today’s landscape.
Built to last, not to rise — that’s been the shape of NC State football for most of the last decade. But if Doeren’s tenure has taught anything, it’s that fit still matters, even in an era defined by change.
“We look at this as our place,” Doeren said. “I care deeply about what we do. No one hurts more than I do when we don’t perform the way that I want us to. I’ve put a lot of blood, sweat and energy into this place.”
13 years in, that still counts for something. Whether it’s still enough — that’s what this season may reveal.
