Doeren Offers Thoughts About Future With Wolfpack

After 13 seasons in charge of the NC State Wolfpack football program, head coach Dave Doeren offered a candid assessment of his current views on his life and football future during ACC Media Day on Friday. 

What Doeren said

Doeren joined the Ovies and Giglio Podcast at media day July 25 to discuss a number of topics surrounding NC State football. He was honest about the state of the sport at a collegiate level. 

“People think it’s getting better. It’s not, it’s still lacking leadership in some key area,” Doeren said. “For me, it’s about learning who I want to be in this space. Football has always been a relational thing. It’s now also a transactional thing.”

Doeren admitted he’s leaned into the competitive side of day-to-day coaching more than some of the new aspects of being a college football coach, such as NIL and the ‘transactional’ aspects he referred to during the interview. With more rules set to change, such as revenue sharing, those feelings of unfamiliarity are only likely to grow for Doeren. 

The future in Doeren’s eyes

Now 53, Doeren has been forthcoming in the past about the right time to retire and his waning interest in coaching. At media day, he added some context as to why he’s likely closer to stepping away from the game rather than diving in further.

“It’s one year at a time,” Doeren said. “I’m in a different place probably than other guys. Losing my father to alzheimers at a pretty young age, I don’t look at 65 and retiring as good because he retired in his 60s and three years later didn’t know his name.”