I have been struggling for a while to figure out how I feel about Dave Doeren and the football program at this point in his tenure. I don’t think I’ve felt more disconnected from the general mood of this fanbase
than I have in this case, because so many are fed up and I’m just … ambivalent, I guess. Maybe it’s because I like Dave the person too much, I don’t know. Even after the last bowl game, even after that cursed Virginia Tech game, you will not find me prepared to grab the nearest pitchfork.
Did my brain malfunction again? It’s possible. The circumstances are atypical, which is part of it—normally a discussion about changing coaches springs from a program bottoming out, but that is not the case for Dave’s NC State program, though late-stage Dave clearly is showing some strains. I struggle also because Dave generally has done well with the resources he’s had at his disposal, and moving on from someone still capable of delivering bowl seasons feels like taunting the football gods, like the next guy is gonna be guaranteed to bomb spectacularly. (That at least would be swift, though.)
I say all this while acknowledging that there are plenty of arguments for turning the page that I agree with. The air around the program has gone stale, there is no doubt about it. Dave’s staff is short on good recruiters, save a couple guys, and that is a huge problem. State’s flagging high school recruiting makes it difficult to be optimistic about the next few years, and that might be reason alone for a reset. And there has been a pretty consistent theme of underachievement relative to preseason expectations over the last four years:
(I went as far back as I could with reliable data; *current 2025 SP+ ranking.)
(Boy that whole thing is chaotic!)
So I get it. I totally understand why so many people have checked out. And yet … I just cannot stay mad at the man. It’s not in me. The notion of firing Dave Doeren feels wrong.
If it’s true that Dave is going to hang it up and move on to lake life full time at the end of this season, then the negative energy is wasted, anyhow. I think I’ve been treating this as a settled matter since the season started and have tamped down my emotional investment as a result, and I don’t mean that in a bad way. I’d imagine Dave would much prefer going out on his own terms rather than sticking around to a point where an unpleasant split would be needed, so this whole deal is gonna work itself out soon enough. Hopefully we can restore some good vibes in the process.
