NC State hires Dave Doeren [5:25 Update]

Click here for video designed to help you get more familiar with NC State’s new football coach.

5:25pm Update
NC State fans who were fearful of a long and drawn-out coaching search had nothing to worry about this year as Athletics Director, Debbie Yow moved exceptionally quickly to hire the candidate that we can only believe was her #1 candidate from the beginning. (Arkansas has only had about 8 months to prepare to hire a new coach).

Dave Doeren, most recently the Head Coach at Northern Illinois, will be publicly announced as the next NC State Head Football Coach at a press conference on Sunday afternoon at 4pm.

Northern Illinois won their second consecutive MAC Championship Doeren’s overall record at NIU over two years as head coach was 23-4 and 17-1 against Mid-American Conference (MAC) opponents, having won 21 of their last 22 games. NIU had the highest scoring differential (Scoring O-Scoring D) in the MAC this year with an astounding 23.0 points as they gave up only 17.5 points per game while scoring 40.5 points per game.

NC State fans across the internet are initially expressing satisfaction and appreciation of the hire; he is young, intelligent, dynamic and will embrace the NC State culture like Mark Gottfried did. The N&O’s Joe Giglio has tweeted that Doeren’s deal is worth $1.8 million per year for five years. So, make no mistake that Doeren will be expected to deliver results in return for the faith shown by Debbie Yow and NC State. SFN has not yet confirmed the early indications that Doeren will bring most of his staff with him. You can learn more about this staff by clicking here.

Doeren was also drawing attention from Auburn, Boston College and Purdue for their open coaching positions. (Link to Yahoo! Sports article)

One day after leading Northern Illinois to its second consecutive Mid-American Conference title and into contention for a BCS bowl berth, Dave Doeren has emerged as one of the hottest coaches in the country.

Auburn, North Carolina State and Purdue have all expressed interest in the second-year Huskies coach, industry sources told Yahoo! Sports.

Link to NC State’s announcement.

Dave Doeren, finalist for the 2012 National Collegiate Coach of the Year Award, sponsored by the Maxwell Football Club, has been named head football coach at NC State, Director of Athletics Deborah A. Yow announced today. He comes to the Wolfpack from his position as head football coach for the No. 18 nationally-ranked Northern Illinois University.

“Coach Dave Doeren is a highly motivated overachiever who shares our goals to pursue aggressively a high level of achievement in the classroom and on the field of competition,” stated Yow.

Doeren’s overall record at NIU over two years as head coach was 23-4 and 17-1 against Mid-American Conference (MAC) opponents. This season, Doeren led the Huskies to a school-record 12-win season that came on the heels of an 11-win season in 2011. With his recent win over Kent State, he captured his second MAC championship. NIU is the only NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision team to win 21 of its last 22 games.

In his two seasons at the helm, Coach Doeren’s prolific offense scored 40 points or more 16 times in 27 games. This season alone, the program scored 40.8 points per game and is in the Top 15 nationally in 4th down conversions (2nd), rushing offense (9th), scoring offense (10th), 3rd down conversions (15th), and total offense (15th).

“I am honored and excited to join the Wolfpack. NC State has world-class facilities and fans that are second to none,” Doeren said. “I want to thank Chancellor Woodson and Debbie Yow for this tremendous opportunity. My family and I can’t wait to get to Raleigh and become Wolfpackers. While I look forward to our future at State, I want to acknowledge and thank the Northern Illinois players and fans for their support the last two years, especially President Peters and Jeff Compher [athletic director].”

Doeren has mentored Heisman Trophy candidate Jordan Lynch, the most productive dual-threat quarterback in the nation, who gained 2,962 passing and 1,771 rushing yards with 43 TDs. Lynch currently ranks third nationally in total offense.

[snip]

Prior to becoming the head coach at Northern Illinois, Doeren served a five-year stint from 2006-2010 at the University of Wisconsin as the co-defensive coordinator, linebackers coach and recruiting coordinator. He finished his last three years as defensive coordinator and his defenses were consistently ranked in the Top 25. During Doeren’s time there, Wisconsin posted a 49-16 record and played in five bowl games (Rose Bowl, Outback Bowl, Capital One Bowl and twice in the Champs Sports Bowl).

Doeren arrived at Wisconsin after four seasons (2002-05) at the University of Kansas. He was the linebackers coach and recruiting coordinator for three seasons before being promoted to co-defensive coordinator. The Jayhawks led the Big 12 Conference and ranked No. 3 nationally in rushing defense in 2005 and were 11th nationally in total defense.

Doeren coached the secondary at NCAA Division I-AA (now Football Championship Subdivision) power Montana for two seasons in 2000 and 2001 and was the Grizzlies’ recruiting coordinator for one year. Montana won the I-AA national championship in 2001 and went 28-3 with two conference titles in Doeren’s two seasons there.

He started his college coaching career as an assistant at Drake from 1995-97, where he coached linebackers before adding defensive coordinator responsibilities in 1997.

A four-year letterwinner at Drake (1990-93), Doeren earned Academic All-America honors as a senior and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in pre-medical biology and a master’s degree in educational leadership.

Doeren was an assistant at Kansas and Wisconsin before taking the Northern Illinois job in Dec. 2010. His background is as a linebackers’ coach and defensive coordinator but the Huskies run a version of the spread offense and rank 12th in the country in scoring (40.5 points per game) and 16th in total offense (482.5 yards per game).

 

What they are saying:
* BC Interruption (link)

For Boston College, this eliminates one of the prime MAC coaching candidates from the Eagles’ wish list. May we see a rematch of the 2012 MAC Championship Game coaching match-up as an ACC Atlantic Division showdown in 2013?

* Sports Illustrated’s Stewart Mandel chimed in with a positive response (link)

 

Previous entry
Last night, Northern Illinois’ Head Coach just won his second consecutive conference championship. Today, Doeren may be in the process of cashing in on his success with a new job at NC State.

After the News & Observer shared that Debbie Yow is meeting with Doeren this afternoon, WRAL’s Jeff Gravely just tweeted a more substantial comment. Gravely is known to have developed a strong relationship with NC State’s Debbie Yow, so this comment could have some significance:

Not to be out done, WTVD’s Mark Armstrong just followed up with the following:

A little bit more than 24 hours ago I was discounting the potential that Northern Illinois’ Dave Doeren could be NC State’s next head coach. For those that don’t know, Jerry Kill was the head coach at Northern Illinois before taking the Minnesota job two years ago. Kill was beset with health issues (seizures) throughout the 2012 season. During this past week some insiders in the MAC and Big Ten part of the country were speculating that Kill would retire due to medical reasons and Doeren would step in at Minnesota as the obvious fit for continuity reasons.

Link from yesterday’s Washington Post article titled, “Kill’s seizures haven’t gone away, but determined Gophers coach has school backing.”

For an NC State-centric Q&A focused on Doeren you can click here.

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Dave Doeren NCS Football

41 Responses to NC State hires Dave Doeren [5:25 Update]

  1. Wufpacker 12/01/2012 at 3:55 PM #

    “The Wolfpacker ‏@TheWolfpacker – NC State has confirmed that Northern Illinois coach Dave Doeren has been hired, and the press conference is Sunday. “

  2. FunPack 12/01/2012 at 4:03 PM #

    Give ’em hell Dave. We’ll be rooting for you.

  3. eas 12/01/2012 at 4:03 PM #

    Solid choice overall. Very motivated and passionate coach that the players will love. Still risky but all the choices were as well. I was looking forward to some no huddle offense bit oh well.

  4. PackMan 12/01/2012 at 4:06 PM #

    I don’t understand… Isn’t Yow supposed to fumble around for a month, loose 25 lbs from the stress of the search and ultimately hire a third tier candidate?

  5. Wufpacker 12/01/2012 at 4:09 PM #

    He’ll do well in the SEC 😉

  6. runwiththepack 12/01/2012 at 4:11 PM #

    That’s who Yow wanted all along! Maybe so, actually. Who knows?

    The hire looks good to me. Really good.

  7. gcpack 12/01/2012 at 4:20 PM #

    Where is the southern recruiting connection?
    Forgive me but I am underwhelmed.
    Yawn
    Nevertheless, best of luck Coach Doeren.

  8. TOBtime 12/01/2012 at 4:20 PM #

    Good hire. The NIU offense has been prolific but the D was FLYING around last night. His defenses weren’t half bad at UW either!

    Welcome Coach Dave! We’re glad to have you!

  9. Wolfman 9806 12/01/2012 at 4:26 PM #

    Excellent hire. Good job Pack!

  10. PoppaJohn 12/01/2012 at 4:32 PM #

    Based.on those candidates we were aware of, I like this guy a lot. Good luck Coach!!!

  11. PacknSack 12/01/2012 at 4:46 PM #

    Do you think he keeps Tenuta?

  12. Pack78 12/01/2012 at 4:47 PM #

    Time will tell, but this looks like a very good hire…Go Pack!

  13. Virginia Wolf 12/01/2012 at 4:52 PM #

    Welcome to the family, coach Dave. Can’t wait until next season!

  14. albunde6 12/01/2012 at 5:00 PM #

    Watched part of the NIU/Kent State game . Both looked fast. Like the big 10 experience, like defensive background, but no connection to GA or FL.

  15. bill.onthebeach 12/01/2012 at 5:03 PM #

    Well …. all I can say is this….

    He looks like one of us !!!

    watched his game last night and IDK… hard to tell anything from one game but I do have one question …

    Who’s our QB next year….??

    Better find one quick…. cause I don’t think he’s in Rawlee at the moment.

    Great Job Dr. Debbie…..GO PACK !!!!

  16. old13 12/01/2012 at 5:08 PM #

    He’s from Shawnee Mission KS (KC Metro), my neighborhood! So he does know a good style of bar-b-q! Welcome aboard, Dave!

    According to his NIU bio his BS is in pre-med biology from Drake U. Sounds like a good academic fit!

    Think how many great football coaches have come out of the MAC. There is a trend there!

  17. Prowling Woofie 12/01/2012 at 5:19 PM #

    From what I saw last night, looks like Stocker will have a leg up on Thomas at QB. More dual-threat capable…

  18. sundropdrinker13 12/01/2012 at 5:32 PM #

    Good Lord people, it’s called hiring the right coaches to help out with recruiting. Quit acting as if only the HC does any recruiting.

    TOB had just his UVA ties. Yawn. Lou Holtz. Yawn. Bo Rein. Another yawn I guess. Please. And it wasn’t lack of Southern ties that killed TOB recruiting. It was TOB, Bible, and Archer that killed TOB’s recruiting.

  19. ADVENTUROO 12/01/2012 at 5:42 PM #

    After doing a LOT of reading of feature, as well as some sidebar, articles about the final four on Debbie’s list….I thought that Dave Doeren was the hands down favorite. He will maintain the quality of the recruits and the “program”. That is something that each of us should be thankful to Coach O’Brien for improving.

    He also has the best mix of football moxie, style and aggressiveness that we need. There has never been a whiff of any off field issues.

    I think that Debbie Yow made the best choice and that, when she did the pro’s and con’s spreadsheet, he had very few, if any con’s and the lion’s share of the pro’s

    I sincerely wish Sonny Dykes the best in his quest…..I also hope that the LATech fans are less “aggressive” in their haste to assist him with his departure from Ruston. If the CA job does not work out, there will be plenty of “making up” to do since he was seen late at night with that brunette hussy from NCSU and then later in the evening with that blonde tramp from the west coast. His “Ruston” wife will not forgive these supposed harmless flirtations for a LONG time.

    Only time will telll….

    BUT, we should be about as happy as any fan base should be. We have a great incoming coach and the process did not look like it was run from a lake side house….

  20. PackFamily 12/01/2012 at 5:48 PM #

    From everything we know right now, I think this hiring deserves an ‘A’. Of course, that will mean nothing in 1 year. Got him airtime cheaper than I was expecting, which leaves room to pay more if he turns out to be good.

    This was the guy I was most interested in after some on here highlighted him. I am excited about this. Best all around package of strong O and D. And the guy is a foat out winner

  21. MrPlywood 12/01/2012 at 5:50 PM #

    I dont even care if DD is looking at NCSU as a stepping stone – I’m just glad State got someone who is on the way up and planning his career instead of planning his retirement…

  22. blpack 12/01/2012 at 6:14 PM #

    Looks like a good hire to me. Energetic, scholar, family man, winner. One of us.

  23. old13 12/01/2012 at 6:14 PM #

    My take is that IF DD becomes a success at NCSU/major conference FB, and IF he should turn NCSU into a FB powerhouse (possible!) in time, and IF he should really like it in Raleigh, then I think that DY would open the coffers (with help from prime donators, of course) to keep him in Raleigh as a destination job. And then I do tend to dream about such things! But wouldn’t it be GREAT!

    I do think that who he hires as staff is most important from both the O and D approaches and for recruiting as DD is not a player now in our recruiting area. I’d really like to see the RB, WR, DB and S&C coaches retained as they are younger (a need, as I see it) and seem most competent, good at recruiting, and very effective in their coaching positions.

  24. JohnGalt78 12/01/2012 at 6:15 PM #

    GREAT hire! We will not regret this one. Southern connection? Really? Yawn? Really? Just listen to the guy talk to his players. He connects. He will be successful recruiting anywhere he chooses. I’m not AT ALL worried about his ability to go after and get top student athletes.

  25. howlie 12/01/2012 at 6:19 PM #

    I counted 6 kids from FL on the roster (1 from Charlotte!).

    It’s a lot shorter reach to FL from here than from Illinois…

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