NC State football coach Dave Doeren said Thursday that he is not considering retirement after the 2025 season.
“No, I think about winning games, trying to find ways to get better, trying to help this football team, trying to help this university, trying to help my coaches, trying to be a good dad, trying to not get my wife mad at me,” said Doeren, who is in his 13th season as head coach at NC State.
“That’s what I think about. Do I have plans down the road someday to retire? Sure, but I don’t have any plans to do that. I’m gonna keep coaching. I’ve got four years left on my contract.”
Doeren, the program’s all-time leader in victories, is under contract through the 2029 season. He is paid more than $6.1 million this season. If NC State were to fire him after this season, he would be owed more than $12 million. Doeren is 91-69 at NC State.
NC State (4-4 overall and 1-3 in the ACC) and has lost four of its last five games. The Wolfpack hosts No. 8 Georgia Tech (8-0, 5-0) on Saturday at Carter-Finley Stadium.
“I want this place to be as good as it can be,” said Doeren, who turns 54 in December. “That’s what I want. And I’ve done a lot. We’ve done a lot here to make this a stable, successful, competitive program. And I love these kids.”
Doeren has, since the spring, discussed how much fun this year’s team is to coach and how likeable the team is.
“I’m so fortunate, so I’m having fun,” Doeren said. “I mean, I know losing sucks and it hurts and I’m pissed as hell on Sunday and Monday, but I’m having fun going to practice with this football team.”
Doeren said that he “hated” coaching last year’s team on his radio show that aired Wednesday night, according to On3.
“Last year’s team was hard,” he said Thursday. “This is not last year and I think no different than [NC State athletics director] Boo [Corrigan] or any other person that is in charge of something, at the end of every year, you look at it and, you’re like, man that was really hard or I really enjoyed that but what can we do better? I’m going to worry about it at the end of the season, and what can I do better than I did last year?
“Sometimes you got to step away from it and give yourself a little breath and not make emotional decisions. Right now, it’s ain’t about that. It’s about trying to beat a really good Georgia Tech team.”
Doeren said earlier in the week that the team’s recent struggles made him more eager to fight for his squad.
““Adversity brings out who you are,” Doeren said Monday. “In a lot of cases, it’s easy to be this front-running dude when you’re winning. So we’ve lost four out of five games. So what now?
“We got to go fight again. Let’s go fight harder. That’s who coaches this football team. And if that’s not good enough at some point, then they’ll do what they got to do. But that’s who they have leading the program. They got a guy that doesn’t quit, that fights his ass off and that loves his players.”+