Information has emerged regarding the future for current Wolfpack football head coach Dave Doeren in the past couple of days. While nothing is set in ink quite yet, it is expected that Doeren will be offered a contract extension of at least two years to his current contract, locking him up through 2025.
Doeren has become a bit of a polarizing character in his tenure as head coach for NC State’s football team, drawing his fair share of criticisms. Many of those critics will not be pleased to hear of Doeren’s most recent contract update, holding the belief that the ceiling for a Doeren-coached program is mediocrity.
The above tweet composed by USA Today Sports columnist Dan Wolken sparks a conversation where many Wolfpack fans will have varying opinions. That eight-win line in college football tends to be the marker of mediocrity, which is a point for critics of Doeren. However, it seems rather uninformed to make a claim based on that average rather than viewing the trajectory of the football program as a whole over the Doeren era.
Doeren inherited an underperforming Wolfpack program in 2013 after the departure of Tom O’Brien. Despite going 40-35 in his six seasons, O’Brien let the program down in the Atlantic Division of the ACC with an 11-19 record that included an atrocious 1-14 record on the road. It was clear that the Pack needed a change, and Doeren was called upon to take on the task.
Despite the lows suffered throughout his first season at NC State when he went 3-9, which is clearly not a great record but is not completely unexpected for a first-year coach, Doeren has led this team in the right direction. Over his time at NC State, excluding that first year, Doeren boasts a 58.43% win rate with an average win total of between seven and eight wins per year.
Critics of Doeren hold these numbers against the standards of college football’s greatest, such as Alabama’s Nick Saban or Clemson’s Dabo Swinney. While it is true that NC State competes against top-tier programs each year, there is a clear disparity between the few top football programs in the country and those who compete for a top-five finish in their conference each year.
Historically, NC State falls within that second group, battling it out in the ACC but rarely ever contending for college football’s top spots. It would be extremely optimistic to say that Doeren gives this program the opportunity to reach the upper echelon of college football, but he has already led NC State to six bowl games over his eight seasons.
The potential of this NC State program to blossom under Doeren in the next few years was on full display early into the 2020 season where the Pack was nationally ranked going into its game against UNC. The team showed enormous effort throughout the season despite multiple star players going down with injuries and a rigorous ACC schedule.
An 8-4 finish for last year’s program was far-and-away better than what was projected, and with many players returning, Doeren gets the chance to learn from the mistakes and improve. A contract extension allows Doeren to continue the comparative success to years past at NC State and build a winning culture.
Regardless of how high one’s standards are for this football team, Doeren adding two years to his deal is a net positive for the program. As was seen in the spring game a few days ago, this team is approaching being fully healthy again and has shown no signs of backing down from the aggression it displayed early into last season.
Keeping Doeren through 2025 is also a huge boost to the recruiting resume for NC State, which would guarantee that 2021 commits will get their four years under the same head coach. The stability that this contract creates will benefit the program in more ways than one, promoting a Dave Doeren-fueled culture for years to come.
Despite the positives associated with this new deal, Wolfpack fans will continue to be harsh critics of Doeren and the program as a whole. With 20 starters returning to the team for this upcoming year, including a healthy quarterback in redshirt sophomore Devin Leary, Doeren has all the tools to make this extension well worth it to the school. Only time will tell how he can size up to the task, but be certain that Doeren is here to stay.
