NC State has fired head football coach Dave Doeren after 14 seasons, launching the program's first coaching search since 2012. The dismissal was announced Saturday, one day after the Wolfpack dropped to 3-4 with a loss to Stanford.
Doeren leaves Raleigh as the winningest coach in school history, having compiled a 98-74 record during his tenure. He guided NC State to four bowl victories, but the program never won a conference title under his leadership and never finished a season ranked better than 20th in the final AP Poll.
Whoever takes over will be tasked with lifting the Wolfpack above the middle tier of the ACC, the level where the program has largely resided in recent years. The opening is expected to draw interest from a range of candidates as the search gets underway.
PackPower, the 247Sports affiliate that covers the Wolfpack, has released an initial hot board for the search. The site, whose staff is led by Cory Smith, identified James Madison head coach Billy Napier as one potential target for NC State.
Napier is in his first season at James Madison, where the Dukes sit at 7-2 despite dropping back-to-back games to Appalachian State and Troy. Before arriving at JMU, he spent four seasons at Florida, finishing one game under .500 at 22-23, though he had the Gators ranked as high as No. 13 in the AP Poll during his time in Gainesville.
Napier first drew national attention at Louisiana, where he coached from 2018 to 2021 and was twice named Sun Belt Coach of the Year. He produced three seasons with double-digit wins and won two bowl games with the Ragin' Cajuns. Overall, Napier owns a 69-36 career record as a head coach, including a 3-2 mark in bowl games, and his teams have authored three upset victories over top-10 ranked opponents.
Napier also has deep ties to the Carolinas. A former quarterback at Furman, he spent eight years as an assistant coach at Clemson and South Carolina State before later working five seasons under Nick Saban at Alabama, where he earned two national championship rings.
The remainder of the hot board includes several other possibilities, among them one coach described as a risky option who could nonetheless raise a sizable amount of NIL money for the program. NC State's search is only beginning, with the school looking for the person who can finally push the Wolfpack past their long-standing place in the ACC's middle class.
