To help reignite its stagnant football program, North Carolina State is turning to one of the greatest players in school history.
The Wolfpack are working to finalize a deal with former star quarterback Philip Rivers, USA TODAY Sports' John Brice has confirmed.
Rivers played at NC State from 2000-03 and earned ACC Player of the Year honors as a senior before embarking on an 18-year NFL career in which he was an eight-time Pro Bowler. His No. 17 jersey has been retired by the university.
Rivers replaces Dave Doeren, who was fired by NC State seven games into his 14th season at the school, with the Wolfpack at 3-4. Doeren went 98-74 at NC State, making
him the all-time winningest coach in program history by a sizable margin. In Doeren's final 12 full seasons at the school, his teams won at least eight games eight times.
The 44-year-old Rivers has never coached at the college level. For the past six seasons, he has been the head coach at St. Michael Catholic High School in Fairhope, Alabama, where he has gone 48-21. His 2026 team's season ended on Friday, Nov. 6 with a 42-35 loss to Glenwood High School in its first game of the state playoffs.
"Shoot, I don't know that," Rivers said to reporters after the game. "I don't know that. It has been a heck of a six years, I know that. Just trying to be where my feet are right now. Really was looking forward to this playoff run and it all comes to an end tonight. We'll see what the future holds."
The track record of coaches making the jump Rivers is making isn't great. but former UAB coach Trent Dilfer, who made a similar jump, believes Rivers is cut out for the job.
“Because he’ll be relational, he’ll be able to identify a good player from an overvalued recruit or player,” said Dilfer, who after three seasons at UAB now has returned to the high school ranks in Tennessee. “There’s tons of overvalued recruits. I think what we know from our NFL days is what true value is. It’s then having the resources to pay that number.
“If NC State’s willing to go all in on that, then Philip will be a home run because he’ll be able to evaluate them, recruit them, and now pay them. We could evaluate them as good as anybody. That’s true, just based on all the guys we had at UAB that are now Power-Four starters. We could recruit them because it’s relational, and we’re good at. We just couldn’t keep them. We couldn’t pay them, and we couldn’t get the ones out the portal because you don’t have the money.”
Rivers’ leadership has long been one of his calling cards. The 44-year-old even briefly returned to the NFL in 2025, making three starts for the Indianapolis Colts four full seasons after initially retiring following the 2020 season.
“Philip is one of the best leaders I’ve been around,” said Brian Bratton, a former Indianapolis Colts assistant coach who worked with Rivers and now wide receivers coach at Stanford. “Of course, it’s documented and has been evident throughout his career. The way he prepares, the way he leads, the way he motivates, it all gives you hope.
“He showed confidence and conviction and that’s what you want in your leader. The energy changed when he came into the building. We didn’t win a game, but I believed every week we were going to. He was great to be around and watch lead."
USA TODAY Sports reported Nov. 4that Rivers had begun assembling a staff. ESPN had previously reported fellow former NC State quarterback Russell Wilson had interviewed for the head coach vacancy, but that meeting occurred after Rivers had already started building his staff.
"They've been working on a deal the entire past week. Not finalized but it's getting there," one person close to the situation told USA TODAY Sports.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: NC State working to finalize hiring Philip Rivers as Wolfpack's head coach
