Dave Doeren ranked among top 25 Power Five coaches
CBS Sports’ Tom Fornelli has updated CBS Sports’ rankings of the Power Five coaches from 1 through 65, and NC State football’s Dave Doeren has risen up the list. After being No. 36 a year ago, Doeren is now checking in at No. 25.
“It’s been a slow, steady climb for Doeren in our rankings,” Fornelli wrote. “Some might say it’s been too slow. He’d built momentum following consecutive nine-win seasons in 2017 and 2018, but a 4-8 record in 2019 was a setback. Now, he’s gone 18-7 the last two seasons and turned NC State into one of the more formidable programs in the ACC. His reward is finally cracking the top 25.”
Among ACC coaches, Clemson’s Dabo Swinney led the way at No. 3, followed by Wake Forest’s Dave Clawson at No. 17. Like Doeren, Clawson jumped 11 spots in Fornelli’s rankings.
Conference newcomer Mario Cristobal checked in at No. 19 after his successful stint as head coach at Oregon. Then comes Mack Brown, head coach of NC State archrival UNC. Brown stumbled eight spots in the rankings from No. 12.
Doeren and NC State defeated Brown and UNC, 34-30, in a memorable regular season finale that turned out to be the last game of the Wolfpack’s 9-3 season a year ago.
“While Brown is one of the few active coaches with a national title to his name, 2005 is a long time ago in the minds of our voters,” Fornelli noted. “Plus, since the 2010 season at Texas, Brown’s teams have gone 51-38.”
The ACC had the two bottom coaches in the rankings in newcomers Brent Pry at Virginia Tech and Mike Elko at Duke. Virginia’s Tony Elliott was not much higher at No. 60. All three are making their head coaching debuts.
Georgia Tech’s Geoff Collins (No. 58) and Syracuse’s Dino Babers (56) had rankings that perhaps reflect their status on the hot seats at their respective schools.
Doeren and NC State will host Pry and the Hokies and play at Babers and the Orange.
Pittsburgh’s Pat Narduzzi (No. 27), Boston College’s Jeff Hafley (No. 34), Louisville’s Scott Satterfield (No. 43) and Florida State’s Mike Norvell (47) round out the league’s coaches in the rankings. BC and FSU come to NC State this season, while Doeren will lead the Pack on the road at Louisville.
Dave Doeren’s Strong Track Record At NC State Football
Dave Doeren has completed nine seasons as the NC State football head coach, and he is 64-49 in that time. Over four of the past five seasons, Doeren’s teams have won at least eight games and in three of them have accumulated nine wins. He’s also had an above .500 ACC record in each of those campaigns and won a school-best seven conference games in 2020.
His career wins total and tenure are second longest in school history behind Earle Edwards (77 wins from 1954-70).
Two of those four teams also finished the year in the final top 25, including this past year when NC State was No. 20 in the last Associated Press poll and 19th in the coaches’ version.
The Wolfpack is expected to be ranked in the preseason polls this summer.
Doeren has taken NC State to seven bowl games, and he has seven winning seasons among his nine years in Raleigh.
Prior to coming to NC State, Doeren coached two seasons at Northern Illinois, where he went 23-4 overall and 15-1 in the MAC. His second team earned a bid to the Orange Bowl.
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