Philip Rivers is officially the head coach at NC State, completing a courtship with his alma mater that had seemed inevitable for weeks. Nearly every conversation with industry sources about the Wolfpack opening began and ended with Rivers, even as ESPN reported that CBS Sports analyst Russell Wilson interviewed for the position.
The hire is widely seen as a move to energize donors and boosters and generate goodwill around the program, both locally and nationally. Rivers' son Gunner is committed to play quarterback for his father, extending the family's quarterback legacy in Raleigh. Rivers interviewed for the Buffalo Bills job last year after briefly coming out of retirement to quarterback the Colts, but his coaching background beyond that was limited to the high school level.
Whether Rivers will succeed is uncertain, but the recent history of former high-level NFL players taking college jobs with slim resumes is not encouraging. Here is how some of the most notable names have fared.
Deion Sanders is the most prominent example, with a 46-33 record at Jackson State and Colorado. He started fast at Jackson State, reaching back-to-back Celebration Bowls with son Shedeur at quarterback and Travis Hunter starring as a two-way player. At Colorado, he made an aggressive splash in the transfer portal and opened 3-1 before finishing 4-8. The Buffaloes rebounded in 2024 during Hunter's Heisman season with a genuine run at the Big 12 championship, but results in 2025 and 2026 have been poor, with the team at 3-6 amid weekly on-field gaffes, special teams problems and a second year of quarterback shuffling.
Trent Dilfer went 9-21 at UAB and was fired midway through 2025, having inherited a program that had produced six straight winning seasons under Bill Clark. His only prior coaching experience was at a Tennessee high school. Dilfer quickly alienated high school coaches in his new state and drew criticism for remarks such as, "It's not like this is freakin' Alabama," made while justifying his grandson sitting beside him at a press conference after a 2024 loss. The athletic director who hired him, Mark Ingram, is no longer with the program.
Ed Reed never coached a game at Bethune-Cookman. The school declined to ratify his contract after about a month on the job in 2023, during which Reed publicly complained on social media about the campus, the football facilities and his contract, and called athletic director Reggie Theus "evil." A school spokesperson said at the time, "As we continued to observe him, we felt that his behavior was not aligned with the traditions of our founder, Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune, and the university."
Eddie George holds a 24-22 record and remains active. He lifted Tennessee State to the FCS playoffs in 2024, his fourth season, ending a decade of struggles, then took over at Bowling Green after former coach Scott Loeffler departed in mid-February. George's Falcons went 4-8 in 2025 and are 2-7 so far this season.
Marshall Faulk is 2-4 at Southern after spending a year on Sanders' Colorado staff as running backs coach. He announced in October that he had been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease and had been living with it for 18 months. He continues to coach while receiving treatment, telling reporters, "I'm functioning. I'm good. You know, I just I think I caught it early. I'm in a good place."
Michael Vick is 5-17 at Norfolk State, where he was hired in 2025 after interning at a Chiefs training camp and serving a short stint as offensive coordinator in the Alliance of American Football. The Spartans have improved to at least four wins this season, but Vick infamously lost a game to North Carolina Central when he believed he had instructed his coaches to use the victory formation, only to see his offense run a live play that ended in a fumble returned for the winning score. He has yet to win a conference game.
DeSean Jackson has been the clearest success, posting a 14-8 record at Delaware State after one year as a high school offensive coordinator. He inherited a program that had managed just two winning seasons since 2007, went 8-4 in his first year and is 6-4 near the end of his second. A Celebration Bowl berth remains a long shot, requiring a win over South Carolina State and help from North Carolina Central. Jackson has also drawn attention for a work-smarter approach as a CEO-style coach, with some days running from 6:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., rejecting the sport's live-in-the-office culture. "I spent 15 years playing in the league," he said in September. "The last thing I want to do is go have a long schedule, 8 in the morning till 10 at night."
