After 157 games, the Dave Doeren era has run its course at NC State. Doeren remains at the helm and the Pack still has seven games on the schedule, but the result is already clear — NC State football is a lifeless program in 2025.
Despite a wide-open ACC and a plethora of offensive stars assembled in Raleigh, the Wolfpack is just 3-2 after an embarrassing 23-21 loss to Virginia Tech — a Hokie squad that already punted on the season and fired former head coach Brent Pry. In just four games, the Hokies failed to show any signs of positivity, suffering home blowout losses to both Old Dominion and Vanderbilt. Yet the Hokies had no problem walking into Carter-Finley Stadium on Saturday night and earning a victory.
In the past, there have been plenty of excuses for disastrous losses — injuries, questionable officiating, tough road environments and more. There’s no excuse for the loss to the Hokies, however — a home night game in year 13 of a head coaching tenure should be a layup against a directionless team led by an interim coach.
Yet for NC State, it was just the latest embarrassing loss.
There’s no doubt, Doeren has done plenty of good with the Wolfpack. From posting an impressive 8-4 record over rival UNC to posting seven seasons with eight or more wins, Doeren successfully elevated the floor of NC State’s program and deserves credit for that.
With success comes raised expectations, though, and one of those expectations is consistent success in winnable games against struggling teams. Unfortunately for the Wolfpack, it’s an expectation that the red-and-white has failed to meet under Doeren.
The Virginia Tech loss is just the latest example of Doeren’s teams dropping a game to an opponent that looks lifeless. Some of the most glaring examples include a 2022 senior day loss to Boston College and a 2016 loss at ECU — both teams that finished their seasons 3-9, respectively. The Hokies appear to be on a similar trajectory. Unlike ECU, though, this loss came at home and, unlike Boston College, NC State isn’t dealing with quarterback injuries — there are no excuses for this one.
The schedule only gets harder for NC State from here. The Pack has yet to face an elite team, but has four on the horizon, including trips to No. 3 Miami and No. 21 Notre Dame, plus home games against No. 17 Georgia Tech and No. 18 Florida State. There’s little reason for optimism in any of those games for the Wolfpack, a major red flag for a program with such an experienced coach.
The problems for NC State’s program are widespread, as the team is backsliding quickly in the NIL and transfer portal era. To his credit, Doeren did a good job under the traditional college football model, posting winning records from 2014-2018. His success continued into the early stages of the transfer portal, winning eight or more games from 2020-2023. However, with the changing landscape of college football, Doeren’s success has faded as teams depend more heavily on NIL, revenue sharing and the transfer portal.
In a world where flexibility and adaptability are king, Doeren’s team-building methods have failed. Since 2022, the Wolfpack has had just one recruiting class inside the top 40 nationally, per 247Sports, failing to bring in the blue-chip talent necessary to compete at the top of the ACC. In years past, Doeren and the Wolfpack landed elite talent, such as linebacker Payton Wilson, defensive tackle Alim McNeill, and running back Nyheim Hines. From 2014-2021, Doeren’s recruiting classes reflected this ability to land stars with five top-40-ranked recruiting classes.
With the inability to build rosters as he did early in his tenure, NC State’s program is quickly becoming stagnant. A trip to Carter-Finley Stadium was once a daunting date for opposing teams to see on the schedule — now it’s a winnable game for even the ACC’s bottom feeders. College football success always comes from having the Jimmys and the Joes, and right now, Doeren is failing to deliver a roster up to the standard he set at the start of his tenure in Raleigh. The result is a broken football program.
