ReportWire

Tag: Dave Doeren

  • A young fan met Dave Doeren last week. Why he loves the NC State coach

    Jackston McDuffie, 12, hugs head coach Dave Doeren after the Wolfpack’s 21-11 victory over Florida State at Carter-Finley Stadium in Raleigh, North Carolina, on Friday, Nov. 21, 2025.

    Jackston McDuffie, 12, hugs head coach Dave Doeren after the Wolfpack’s 21-11 victory over Florida State at Carter-Finley Stadium in Raleigh, North Carolina, on Friday, Nov. 21, 2025.


    Ethan Hyman

    ehyman@newsobserver.com

    RALEIGH

    Thousands of N.C. State football fans rushed the field at Carter-Finley Stadium on Nov. 1 when the Wolfpack upset then-undefeated Georgia Tech, 48-36.

    One young fan was not among them, but received a special opportunity last week to fulfill one of his dreams.

    Defensive lineman Brandon Cleveland noticed Jackston McDuffie, 12, celebrating in the stands, rubbing his belly in the same way Cleveland does after big plays, and invited him onto the field in a random act of kindness.

    So after N.C. State’s 21-11 win over Florida State, McDuffie jumped over the railing into Cleveland’s arms and had a personal field storm experience. He called his father, Joseph McDuffie, from the grass.

    “Dad, I’m on the field,” Joseph McDuffie recalled his son saying. “Brandon Cleveland told me to come down.”

    Jackston, in a flood of excitement, ran toward head coach Dave Doeren, shirtless, tears in his eyes and arms stretched wide for a hug. Doeren met the boy with a smile and a quip about how Cleveland needed to sign McDuffie’s stomach.

    Jackston McDuffie, 12, runs to hug head coach Dave Doeren after the Wolfpack’s 21-11 victory over Florida State at Carter-Finley Stadium in Raleigh, North Carolina, on Friday, Nov. 21, 2025.
    Jackston McDuffie, 12, runs to hug head coach Dave Doeren after the Wolfpack’s 21-11 victory over Florida State at Carter-Finley Stadium in Raleigh, North Carolina, on Friday, Nov. 21, 2025. Ethan Hyman ehyman@newsobserver.com

    It was the best day of McDuffie’s life, he said.

    “I loved it. It was really nice,” the boy said. “He’s one of my favorite coaches. He’s a good coach. He has beat UNC four years in a row, trying to make it five years tomorrow, and he brought us to bowl games.”

    Joseph McDuffie grew up cheering for N.C. State and went to his first game as a child. He later attended the university from 1995 to 2000 and took Jackston to his first game day as a toddler.

    The family had season tickets when it lived in Raleigh, Joseph McDuffie said, but it now lives in Richmond, Virginia. He tries to bring Jackston for one or two games per season. The two originally received tickets to attend the Georgia Tech game, but they weren’t able to make the trip. Jackston was “bummed” to miss the game and especially disappointed he wasn’t able to join everyone on the field. That was one of his longtime goals.

    When they got tickets for last week’s game, the family — which includes Jackston’s mother and sister — postponed a trip to Myrtle Beach by one day so they could be in Raleigh. Joseph McDuffie agreed to rush the field with his son if it happened.

    It didn’t, at least not on a broad scale, but Jackston still lived his dream. And, the unexpected postgame extracurricular activities made N.C. State’s win that much sweeter. He lost his voice from screaming but still told everyone on the family’s weekend getaway about the experience.

    “He cleared his bucket list of so many things just from one game,” Joseph McDuffie said. “We told him he had to come up with new bucket list items.”

    McDuffie originally said quarterback CJ Bailey and tight end Justin Joly were some of his favorite players for the Wolfpack, but Cleveland overtook the offensive duo — for obvious reasons. (No offense, guys.)

    It meant a lot to see Cleveland and Doeren make time for his son, Joseph McDuffie said, and he’s grateful they were able to provide a special moment for his son.

    “I thought it was great,” Joseph McDuffie said of Jackston’s interaction with Doeren. “It says a lot about a coach that he wasn’t standoffish. He embraced it. … It was a great, great experience and said a lot about his character as a person.”

    Doeren, finishing his 13th season at N.C. State, has coached N.C. State for Jackston’s entire life. He is 8-4 against the Tar Heels, with three of the four most recent wins decided by one possession and a combined 12 points.

    “I probably wouldn’t be here if I didn’t, and that’s the reality,” Doeren said Wednesday. “These games mean a lot. They mean a lot to everybody who supports these programs. … The rivalry game matters, matters a lot. I take a lot of pride in it.”

    The McDuffies won’t be in Raleigh for the regular-season finale, and there won’t be another field storm for Jackston, but he will be locked in from home. And he has one message for the team:

    “Beat UNC and hopefully make it five years. I love beating UNC.”

    This story was originally published November 28, 2025 at 2:31 PM.

    Related Stories from Raleigh News & Observer

    Jadyn Watson-Fisher

    Source link

  • Scott, Bailey power NC State to 48-36 upset of No. 8 Georgia Tech for Yellow Jackets’ 1st loss :: WRALSportsFan.com

    By AARON BEARD, AP Sports Writer

    RALEIGH, N.C. — RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Duke Scott ran for a career-best 196 yards in place of injured Atlantic Coast Conference rushing leader Hollywood Smothers to help N.C. State stun No. 8 Georgia Tech 48-36 on Saturday night, ending the Yellow Jackets’ unbeaten run.

    Scott broke loose around the left side for a 30-yard TD with 4:07 left to effectively seal this one. The redshirt freshman ran tough all night and having home fans roaring “Duuuuuuuke!” after several of his gains.

    CJ Bailey threw for 340 yards and two touchdowns while running for another for the Wolfpack (5-4, 2-3 ACC), which rode a crisp offensive showing from the opening possession to the program’s first win against a top-10 opponent in more than four years.

    And it ended with Wolfpack fans storming to midfield to celebrate a massive win.

    Georgia Tech (8-1, 5-1) entered with its first 8-0 start since 1966 and joined No. 15 Virginia as the only teams unbeaten in ACC play.

    In an unusual twist, N.C. State has now beaten both. The Wolfpack handed the Cavaliers their lone loss in September, though that was in a nonconference matchup added outside the league’s scheduling model and doesn’t count in the ACC standings.

    Haynes King threw for two scores and ran for two more for Georgia Tech.

    ___

    Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here and here (AP News mobile app). AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-football

    Source link

  • Doeren on retirement talk: ‘I’m gonna keep coaching. I got four years left on my contract’

    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.”+

    Source link

  • NC State aims to reset and refocus ahead of Pitt to kickstart season finish :: WRALSportsFan.com

    By Chris Lea, WRAL sports reporter

    NC State needed their bye-week for a couple of reasons.

    First, the ability to rest and get healthy is always welcomed. But mostly, the team needed to reset and refocus as they’re headed into the final five-game stretch of the season.

    “After seven weeks, (there’s) a lot of things to look at in all three phases,” Head coach Dave Doeren told the media Monday in his weekly virtual press conference.

    The Pack sit at 4-3 this season, but feel as if they should be 6-1.

    “We haven’t played complimentary football yet this year for four quarters,” Doeren said.

    That’s a sentiment that was echoed by Wolfpack linebacker Caden Fordham after the team’s 36-7 loss to Notre Dame the last time the Pack played a game back on October 11th. However, the Virginia Tech and Duke losses are the ones that sting the most.

    “These games that we’re losing (like) the one possession games that happened earlier with Duke and Virginia Tech, (if) two or three plays of the game (go our way), those are different games,” Doeren said.

    Doeren and his team believe that they haven’t put together a complete game where all three phases of the ball are mistake free this season. That’s their goal this Saturday as they face 5-2 Pitt on the road. Doeren is a perfect 3-0 versus the Panthers at NC State and wants to make it 4-0 to get the team to their ultimate goals this season.

    “We’ve got a lot to play for,” Doeren said. “Like I told them today, I expect to win every game we play. We have five games left to play. If you go 5-0 in those five games, you’re at nine wins.”

    The Pack have 10 turnovers in their first seven games of the season and are hoping to be completely mistake free Saturday.

    “It’s a fun group to coach,” Doeren said. “There’s no pouting, there’s no pointing fingers, there’s no blame, it’s just owning what they do and wanting to get better.”

    Running back Hollywood Smothers and the run game is a key to victory for the Wolfpack. Smothers leads the ACC in rushing yards with 739 yards. That’s also sixth best in FBS Football. Controlling time of possession and cutting down on turnovers will be a huge piece to the Pack’s success for the rest of the season.

    “They all know that we’ve given away two games,” Doeren said. “Winning always starts with not beating yourself.”

    NC State and Pitt kick off at 3:30 Saturday at Acrisure Stadium in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

    Source link

  • NC State falls to Tennessee in Duke’s Mayo Classic, 51-10 :: WRALSportsFan.com

    NC State falls to Tennessee in Duke’s Mayo Classic, 51-10 :: WRALSportsFan.com

    By Steve Reed, Associated Press

    CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Quarterback Nico Iamaleava combined for 276 yards and three touchdowns, former walk-on safety Will Brooks had a momentum-turning 85-yard interception return for a score and No. 14 Tennessee trounced No. 24 North Carolina State 51-10 on Saturday night in the Duke’s Mayo Classic.

    Iamaleava threw touchdown passes to Miles Kitselman and Holden Staes and ran for a 31-yard score as the Vols scored on eight of their 11 possessions with the redshirt freshman under center.

    Dylan Sampson ran for 132 yards and two touchdowns as Tennessee (2-0, 0-0 SEC) outgained NC State, 460-143.

    North Carolina State quarterback Grayson McCall was limited to 104 yards passing and had three turnovers. The Vols held the Wolfpack to 39 yards rushing on 28 carries.

    Iamaleava didn’t take long to show off his skillset, breaking the pocket and outracing two defenders to pick up 12 yards on a third-and-7 play to keep the Vols’ opening drive alive.

    Tennessee would break through on its second drive with a series of short completions by Iamaleava before Sampson raced nine yards up the middle for a touchdown.

    After the teams traded field goals, NC State (1-1, 0-0 ACC) drove deep into Tennessee territory before McCall overthrew tight end Justin Joly in the flat and Brooks grabbed the first interception of his career and raced untouched down the left sideline for the touchdown and a 17-3 lead. It was the 10th-longest INT return for a touchdown in school history and the longest since Daniel Bituli’s 97-yarder against Alabama in 2017.

    Max Gilbert tacked on a 45-yard field goal at the end of the first half to give the Vols a 17-point lead at the break.

    Things quickly went from bad to worse for NC State in the second half.

    On Tennessee’s opening possession of the third quarter, Iamaleava moved the chains with a fourth-down run and then found a wide-open Kitselman down the left sideline for a touchdown.

    Dominic Bailey followed with a strip of McCall and recovered at the NC State 22-yard line leading to Gilbert’s third field of the game and 30-3 lead.

    And when NC State was stuffed on a desperation fourth-and-1 run in its own territory, Iamaleava put the game away with a burst up the middle on a QB draw with 4:07 left in the third quarter. Iamaleava finished with 65 yards rushing on eight carries.

    Iamaleava wasn’t all perfect.

    His arm was hit late in the third quarter by Davin Vann, resulting in an 87-yard interception return touchdown for Aydan White. Iamaleava threw two interceptions.

    Following NC State’s defensive score, Sampson would run for a 34-yard touchdown and Iamaleava connected on an 18-yarder to Staes to finish his night 16 of 23 for 211 yards.

    The takeaway

    Tennessee: The Vols’ up-tempo offense was clicking on all cylinders after the game’s first drive and their defense was outstanding. This has the look of a team that has the potential to compete for a national championship.

    NC State: The Wolfpack offense looked completely out of sync as it managed just 27 yards in the second half and turned it over three times. Unlike last week against FCS school Western Carolina, NC State wasn’t able to mount a fourth-quarter rally.

    Poll implications

    With a strong showing against a Top 25 team, the Vols are likely to move up in the rankings possibly into the Top 10. The Wolfpack can say goodbye to their Top 25 ranking after a lackluster performance last week against Western Carolina and this debacle.

    Up next

    Tennessee: Will be a big favorite on Saturday when it hosts Kent State.

    NC State: Returns home to play Louisiana Tech on Saturday.

    Source link

  • No. 24 NC State keeps posting 8- and 9-win years. Coach Dave Doeren is chasing a breakthrough moment

    No. 24 NC State keeps posting 8- and 9-win years. Coach Dave Doeren is chasing a breakthrough moment

    RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina State keeps putting together successful seasons that flirt with accomplishing even more. That has coach Dave Doeren firmly entrenched with a winning program yet invigorated by the thought of what else could be within reach.

    There have been four straight seasons with eight or nine wins, bringing the 24th-ranked Wolfpack to the verge of its second 10-win season ever and first since 2002. And if N.C. State can do that, it could have Doeren’s squad challenging for the Atlantic Coast Conference title.

    “What we did last year and the year before and the year before is good,” Doeren said. “Winning nine games is good. We don’t want to be good, we want to be the best at what we do. These guys understand that.”

    Doeren is entering his 12th season after becoming the program’s all-time winningest coach last season. He’s been chasing the program’s first ACC title since 1979, and this year’s team is picked to finish fourth in the expanded 17-team league.

    N.C. State returns roughly half its offensive and defensive starters, but also added a veteran class from the transfer portal that includes a new starting quarterback in Grayson McCall from Coastal Carolina.

    The season comes amid a wild run of success for Wolfpack athletics: men’s basketball winning its first ACC title since 1987 and then reaching its first Final Four since 1983, women’s basketball reaching its first Final Four since 1998, and baseball returning to the College World Series.

    Doeren’s team would love to add to that list.

    “The buzz has been buzzing. Our fan base has been electric,” defensive end Davin Vann said. “I wouldn’t really call it pressure, but we’re enjoying the energy they’re bringing.”

    The new QB

    This is the second straight season that the Wolfpack will start the season looking to a transfer to lead the offense. Last year it was Virginia graduate transfer Brennan Armstrong. Now it’s McCall, a a sixth-year graduate with more than 10,000 career passing yards.

    “It’s refreshing to be in a new spot,” said McCall, who has shown a knack for avoiding mistakes. He threw 77 touchdown passes with just eight interceptions from 2020-22.

    “He’s got great touch on the football, his game-management skills, his clock management and everything — he’s a vet,” Doeren said. “And he’s a great fit for our program.”

    Top threat

    KC Concepcion grew into a starring role for the Wolfpack in the team’s second-half surge last season. The sophomore enters this year as N.C. State’s top weapon.

    Concepcion had 71 catches for 839 yards with 10 touchdowns, and he also ran for 320 yards. He closed last year with three straight games of seven catches.

    Next defensive steps

    The defense has been reliable for the Wolfpack in recent years, ranking in the top 30 nationally in scoring (20.8) and total defense (332.1).

    But that unit has multiple departed starters, notably Payton Wilson — The Associated Press league defensive player of the year, the Butkus Award winner as the nation’s top linebacker and the Bednarik Award for the nation’s top overall defensive player.

    “Just with Tony Gibson being defensive coordinator, I feel like we’re always going to have a high-caliber defense,” cornerback Aydan White said.

    Bolstered experience

    N.C. State ranked 18th nationally in 247Sports’ transfer classes, with newcomers that included a proven runner in Duke back Jordan Waters, receiver help in Ohio State’s Noah Rogers and a veteran center in Notre Dame’s Zeke Correll (31 starts).

    The Wolfpack brought in more than 40 new players this year.

    The schedule

    N.C. State opens at home against Western Carolina on Aug. 29 before playing a marquee nonconference game against No. 15 Tennessee in Charlotte on Sept. 7.

    The ACC schedule begins at No. 14 Clemson (Sept. 21), while two of the three new league schools appear on the slate with a trip to California (Oct. 19) and a visit from Stanford (Nov. 2). N.C. State faces Duke in its home finale (Nov. 9) and visits rival North Carolina on Nov. 30.

    ___

    AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-football. Sign up for the AP’s college football newsletter: https://apnews.com/cfbtop25

    Source link