With NC State football primed to have its biggest, most important season yet in 2022, on-the-field stars such as redshirt junior quarterback Devin Leary, junior linebacker Drake Thomas and graduate linebacker Isaiah Moore are at the forefront of the Pack’s campaign to win the ACC for the first time since 1979. But with talent covering every inch of NC State’s roster, it’s important to remember how it got there and how NC State is in position to have its most successful, exciting and highly anticipated season in recent memory.

And spoiler alert: it’s because of head coach Dave Doeren.

Doeren, whose job was called for after a disappointing 2019 season, has now guided the program to new heights in just three seasons thereafter. By crafting an excellent roster and beating some of the best teams and coaches in the ACC, all while being consistently undervalued by the national media and fans alike, Doeren is solidifying his legacy as one of the best head coaches in NC State football history right before our very eyes.

That three-year turnaround has perhaps been the most impressive part of Doeren’s tenure in Raleigh. After the Pack’s dismal 4-8 record in 2019, he’s been able to guide the red-and-white as far as the No. 13 spot in this year’s AP college football rankings. The consistent and momentous improvement in NC State’s roster, coaching and on-the-field execution can all be attributed to Doeren.

Bringing a team back from the brink of failure is always a positive sign. However, Doeren bringing the Pack back from the bottom of the ACC standings to the top in just three short seasons was an entirely different feat. This was largely due to the revolutionized roster that Doeren was able to engineer amidst the COVID-19 pandemic and while battling NC State’s interconference and national recruiting disadvantage.

Year in and year out, NC State falls behind its strongest ACC competition when it comes to recruiting. Despite having an average recruiting class grade of 44th in the nation from 2019 to 2022, Doeren has still earned his team a top spot in this season’s preseason rankings, beating out programs from all across the country in terms of talent development and recruiting efficiency. What’s more, is that the Pack’s ACC rivals such as UNC-Chapel Hill, Clemson, Florida State and even Duke are perennially recruiting at a higher level than NC State, but somehow the Wolfpack has a 5-1 record against those teams in the last two years.

Simply said, Doeren’s doing more with less. NC State is now ranked ahead of the rest of the ACC except for Clemson, even after beating the Tigers in last year’s thrilling matchup at Carter-Finley Stadium. That victory, which was perhaps Doeren’s signature win as head coach, was a turning point in his tenure. It showed he could not only beat Clemson in terms of team-building efficiency, but beat them on the field as well, something the red-and-white had not done since 2011.

So if Doeren has brought the Pack back from the brink, has shown to do more with less when it comes to recruiting and has beaten some of the best teams in the ACC, what’s holding him back from being the best coach in NC State’s history? He’s been able to transform the program and become one of the winningest coaches in school history, so what’s the holdup? Well for now, it’s the all-important ACC title that other Wolfpack coaches can hold over Doeren’s head.

Coaches such as Lou Holtz and Bo Rein won one each in the ‘70s, but Doeren’s already eclipsed their win totals with his 69-50 record over his nine years with the Wolfpack. But it’ll be hard for anyone to ever pass the legendary Earle Edwards in ACC Championships, who led NC State to five titles between 1957 and 1968.

So while Doeren still has some catching up to do in terms of conference championships, especially compared to Edwards, he still boasts a .580 win percentage and has the chance to overtake Edwards’ 77 wins in 2022 despite having coached seven fewer seasons.

With Doeren now locked in with the Pack through at least 2026, he’ll likely become the winningest coach in school history, but that conference title still remains the final piece of the puzzle in Doeren’s career at NC State. If he’s able to lead the Wolfpack to its first ACC Championship in 43 years, there’s no doubt he’ll be dubbed the best coach in school history since Edwards.

However, even if Doeren and the Pack aren’t raising the trophy in December, NC State will still look toward a bright future, knowing that he’ll be in Raleigh for the long run, always keeping the red-and-white in the hunt for that elusive ACC Championship.

But with its best roster in years, expectations through the roof and Doeren in his prime, this year is largely considered to be the Pack’s best shot to win the conference. And if Doeren gets it done, he won’t just emerge as one of the best coaches in the nation, but he’ll also cement his legacy as one of the best head coaches in NC State history.