For 14 years, NC State employed Dave Doeren for millions of dollars — and never enjoyed a 10-win season.
The Wolfpack job, according to multiple people who spoke with USA TODAY Sports, could, should and potentially will be much more moving forward.
Especially after Doeren lost 74 games since 2013, including 16 of his final 33.
“It is a phenomenal job!,” a former NC State executive told USA TODAY Sports. “Especially if they decide to invest money.”
Enter Philip Rivers.
And enter Trent Dilfer, who knows better than most both the potential and the peril of making the leap Rivers could be contemplating.
After building
powerhouse Nashville private-school program Lipscomb Academy, Dilfer jumped directly from high school coaching to the FBS level, taking over UAB before the 2023 season. He was dismissed in mid-October 2025.
Now Rivers could follow a remarkably similar path. NC State football’s most famous alum is currently the head coach at Alabama private school St. Michael Catholic High School, where he coaches his son and four-star Wolfpack commitment Gunner Rivers.
That’s what makes Dilfer’s perspective particularly relevant. There will be things Rivers simply isn’t prepared for if he makes the jump, Dilfer says. The question is whether that should prevent NC State from betting on him.
“I think Philip has a history of being an incredible football mind, an elite leader, has strong conviction, and there’s going to be stuff he’s not ready for,” Dilfer said Monday, Oct. 26. “But neither is the defensive coordinator, neither is the next-best guy out there. You know what I mean? And you talk to the guys are having success right now. Will Stein at Kentucky, I bet if you called Will Stein right now he’s like, ‘Yeah, I’ve been learning on the fly. I have good people around me.’
“Where I failed, we didn’t fail in Xs and Os or with the recruiting. I failed in rallying the base. I just, I couldn’t get the UAB base rallied. But he’s such a more natural fit. I mean, the base will be psychotically rallied around their all-time greatest player being their head coach., if that’s indeed what happens.”
Dilfer’s experience also taught him that there is no way to fully prepare for everything Rivers would encounter.
“The old [Bill] Parcells quote that you’re never ready to be a head coach until you become a head coach, something like that; there’s no way you could anticipate or prepare for all the new things you’re going to have to learn on the fly,” said Dilfer, an elite postseason NFL quarterback who generated a 5-1 mark in six playoffs starts. “But there’s no way you can anticipate all the things you have to learn on the fly to become a pro quarterback, either, or deal with administrations in high school or parents. All of us that have gone on this journey have learned how to learn. I know that sounds esoteric, but I think you know, one common denominator between NFL quarterbacks is we’re all very pliable, and we all can learn.”
But Rivers’ readiness would be only part of the equation.
So what might the ceiling be at NC State, particularly with the possibility of a 24-team playoff looming?
“Still a top-half budget in the ACC,” a current Wolfpack staff member told USA TODAY Sports. “We absolutely would have benefited greatly from the expanded playoff.”
The larger issue is whether NC State would provide Rivers with enough resources to build and retain a roster capable of reaching that ceiling.
Dilfer stresses the fine line between valuing players and overvaluing them. The latter, he says, is wrecking budgets, if not rosters, throughout college football.
“There’s tons of overvalued recruits,” said Dilfer, who went 37-4 in his final three seasons at Lipscomb and then was courted to return to the program as head coach after his exit from UAB. “I think what we know from our NFL days is what true value is. It was not hard to find value. What guys are valuable? It’s then having the resources to pay that number.
“And 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. Look at the guys we had at UAB and they’re now Power-Four stars. We could recruit them, because it’s relational, and we’re good at it. We just couldn’t keep them. We couldn’t pay them, and we couldn’t get the ones out of the portal because you don’t have the money. We evaluated 150 guys and had to settle for the No. 61 3-technique. If Philip can get, say, the No. 17 3-tech, it’s a different story.”
And that may be the catch.
“It has been tough to retain talent,” the current Wolfpack staffer said. “We’ve been unable to match anywhere close to what top schools can offer.”
The former Wolfpack executive believes NC State leadership could be motivated to change that. The person pointed to Clemson’s struggles and the ACC once again shaping up as a one-bid league, perhaps the only P-4 conference to send just one representative to this year’s 12-team CFP.
“If Clemson catches wind that (NC State amplifying its commitment) would be in play,” the person said, “that puts a squeeze on them to win now, because the loss of power will continue to widen.
“Miami is already running away with the ACC.”
For Dilfer, it ultimately comes down to one word: commitment.
Revenue sharing, the assistant coaches’ salary pool and the operational budget all have to be “College Football Playoff-caliber.”
“I failed, but there was nothing in the entire time, including going to this new era of the transfer portal and not having resources, there was nothing you couldn’t figure out,” Dilfer said. “It was not hard. It wasn’t intellectually hard. It was frustrating more than hard. It was frustrating to know what a good team looks like, and to see what a good team costs, and know you couldn’t do it.
“But if you put Philip Rivers at NC State, he’s going to know what a good team looks like. He’s going to be able to put together a good team, and if he has the resources to pay for it, along with rallying the base, it’s a home run. But I would tell him, do not take a job unless they’re committed.”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trent Dilfer took the path Philip Rivers may follow. He learned a brutal lesson
