Todd Stansbury retired at NC State in April, which explains why they're suddenly no longer happy with mediocre at NC State.

There is now an increasingly large pool of hot seat adjacent ACC coaches. Nobody on the cooker full blast right now, but lots of people giving off smoke and an ugly losing streak away from the axe.

Dabo Swinney
Mike Norvell
Brent Key
Bill O'Brien
Fran Brown
Tavita Prichard
Bill Belichek

I hope that NCSU doesn’t hire Phillip Rivers. Great guy but it would be an awful mistake. Has any power conference team hired a HS coach as their head coach since Gerry Faust at Notre Dame? Faust, at least, was a renowned HS coach, unlike Rivers, but the experiment was a disaster for Notre Dame.

(10-26-2026 09:50 AM)Hallcity Wrote:  I hope that NCSU doesn’t hire Phillip Rivers. Great guy but it would be an awful mistake. Has any power conference team hired a HS coach as their head coach since Gerry Faust at Notre Dame? Faust, at least, was a renowned HS coach, unlike Rivers, but the experiment was a disaster for Notre Dame.

The last program I can think of that hired a person with no HC experience to lead a CFB program, it was when Coastal Carolina was a brand new program and their .com millionaire financier was made their head coach. He actually did above average, but was ultimately replaced.

(10-26-2026 09:50 AM)Hallcity Wrote:  I hope that NCSU doesn’t hire Phillip Rivers. Great guy but it would be an awful mistake. Has any power conference team hired a HS coach as their head coach since Gerry Faust at Notre Dame? Faust, at least, was a renowned HS coach, unlike Rivers, but the experiment was a disaster for Notre Dame.

If this was 2010, I would agree.

As much as I like Rivers he has zero coaching experience outside of HS. He did interview with the Bills earlier this year. He withdrew his name saying he didn't want to move his family.

FYI, his father (Steve) took a job at a Raleigh area high school while Philip was at State. Philip's son has signed with State. Philip has 10 kids, 6 are still at home age. That would be a big move.

Does the Pack have a list of potential HC yet?

Philip Rivers will be the next coach.

Philip makes so much sense. He will create excitement which will drive NIL. He is young, knowledgeable and has coaching in his blood. He will also be cheap as will his son who was already committed to Doeren.

Bigger than Rivers, NCSU has to get the GM and talent evaluation in better hands. Doeren and his GM (both now fired) were horrible at deciding who got rev share. Example: Doeren went all in on CJ Bailey at the expense of other talented players leaving. Horrible decision.

CJB is a decent QB but there are 50 other QBs that could do what he does at a fraction of the cost. Doeren was great at taking 3 star NC kids and making them good to great college football players. Unfortunately those days are gone. It's a yearly transaction these days which means you have to buy your roster and that involves a tremendous amount of portal evaluation and calculated NIL allocation. Neither of which was in DD's wheelhouse.

That's why I believe, with increased resources, Rivers will do fine in today's NIL climate. Would he have been the 1st choice under the old model? Probably not.

(10-26-2026 09:50 AM)Hallcity Wrote:  I hope that NCSU doesn’t hire Phillip Rivers. Great guy but it would be an awful mistake. Has any power conference team hired a HS coach as their head coach since Gerry Faust at Notre Dame? Faust, at least, was a renowned HS coach, unlike Rivers, but the experiment was a disaster for Notre Dame.

So, based on one example...Faust...and ND. Got it.
Apples to trucks.

(10-28-2026 05:52 AM)GoWulfPak Wrote:  Philip Rivers will be the next coach.

Philip makes so much sense. He will create excitement which will drive NIL. He is young, knowledgeable and has coaching in his blood. He will also be cheap as will his son who was already committed to Doeren.

Bigger than Rivers, NCSU has to get the GM and talent evaluation in better hands. Doeren and his GM (both now fired) were horrible at deciding who got rev share. Example: Doeren went all in on CJ Bailey at the expense of other talented players leaving. Horrible decision.

CJB is a decent QB but there are 50 other QBs that could do what he does at a fraction of the cost. Doeren was great at taking 3 star NC kids and making them good to great college football players. Unfortunately those days are gone. It's a yearly transaction these days which means you have to buy your roster and that involves a tremendous amount of portal evaluation and calculated NIL allocation. Neither of which was in DD's wheelhouse.

That's why I believe, with increased resources, Rivers will do fine in today's NIL climate. Would he have been the 1st choice under the old model? Probably not.

Pretty much. He'll hire someone he trusts, to manage the business side. Good to go.

(10-26-2026 04:49 PM)Lenvillecards Wrote:  Does the Pack have a list of potential HC yet?

Don't need one

(10-28-2026 01:10 PM)GoWulfPak Wrote:  

(10-26-2026 04:49 PM)Lenvillecards Wrote:  Does the Pack have a list of potential HC yet?

Don't need one

Wish the Pack nothing but luck with Rivers. He does make sense for the Pack but going from HS to P4 is a mighty big jump. Can’t think of any examples where that worked out but Rivers may have the chops to do it.

(10-26-2026 09:40 AM)georgia_tech_swagger Wrote:  There is now an increasingly large pool of hot seat adjacent ACC coaches. Nobody on the cooker full blast right now, but lots of people giving off smoke and an ugly losing streak away from the axe.

Dabo Swinney
Mike Norvell
Brent Key
Bill O'Brien
Fran Brown
Tavita Prichard
Bill Belichek

Funny how quickly Key ended up here.

(10-28-2026 12:06 PM)WhidbeyWolf Wrote:  

(10-26-2026 09:50 AM)Hallcity Wrote:  I hope that NCSU doesn’t hire Phillip Rivers. Great guy but it would be an awful mistake. Has any power conference team hired a HS coach as their head coach since Gerry Faust at Notre Dame? Faust, at least, was a renowned HS coach, unlike Rivers, but the experiment was a disaster for Notre Dame.

So, based on one example...Faust...and ND. Got it.
Apples to trucks.

More recently, Trent Dilfer went from HS HC to UAB* HC and failed.

* UAB joined the American Conference in 2023, Dilfer's 1st year as HC there. He posted a 9-21 record in 2.5 years.

(10-30-2026 06:49 PM)NJ2MDTerp Wrote:  

(10-28-2026 12:06 PM)WhidbeyWolf Wrote:  

(10-26-2026 09:50 AM)Hallcity Wrote:  I hope that NCSU doesn’t hire Phillip Rivers. Great guy but it would be an awful mistake. Has any power conference team hired a HS coach as their head coach since Gerry Faust at Notre Dame? Faust, at least, was a renowned HS coach, unlike Rivers, but the experiment was a disaster for Notre Dame.

So, based on one example...Faust...and ND. Got it.
Apples to trucks.

More recently, Trent Dilfer went from HS HC to UAB* HC and failed.

* UAB joined the American Conference in 2023, Dilfer's 1st year as HC there. He posted a 9-21 record in 2.5 years.

The man has lived in and around football and coaching. And he's returning to his alma mater, where his number is retired, and coaching his 4star son. Pretty darn incomparable.
Let him choo$e his OC, DC, and GM, and he'll at least better Doeren. Hell, win just one more game a year than Doeren, he'll pass Doeren's all-time State win record in about 10 years.

(10-31-2026 07:02 PM)WhidbeyWolf Wrote:  Hell, win just one more game a year than Doeren, he'll pass Doeren's all-time State win record in about 10 years.

Those are pretty big assumptions for a guy that's never coached in college before.

He likely won't win 1 more than Doeren, and likely won't be there 10 years.

There are plenty of examples in basketball where a school has hired one of their all star former players as HC because the job had become to unattractive to hire an up and coming or established HC. And they 99% almost all end badly. The only one I can think of that is remotely successful is Penny Hardaway at Memphis. But I don't think they've gone deep in the NCAA tournament yet.

(11-01-2026 12:45 AM)ChrisLords Wrote:  

(10-31-2026 07:02 PM)WhidbeyWolf Wrote:  Hell, win just one more game a year than Doeren, he'll pass Doeren's all-time State win record in about 10 years.

Those are pretty big assumptions for a guy that's never coached in college before.

He likely won't win 1 more than Doeren, and likely won't be there 10 years.

There are plenty of examples in basketball where a school has hired one of their all star former players as HC because the job had become to unattractive to hire an up and coming or established HC. And they 99% almost all end badly. The only one I can think of that is remotely successful is Penny Hardaway at Memphis. But I don't think they've gone deep in the NCAA tournament yet.

So, goal posts switched to baskets? Yes, we hired an alum hero in Sidney Lowe. He didn't work out well, but that was more of an incompetent AD shitting the bed on 5 other better candidates, including Cal and Barnes.
It's a new world. Past examples mean little, when money and greed are now in the open, and control everything.
And Phil has 9 kids to raise; more likely to want to stay awhile.

(10-26-2026 09:52 AM)georgia_tech_swagger Wrote:  

(10-26-2026 09:50 AM)Hallcity Wrote:  I hope that NCSU doesn’t hire Phillip Rivers. Great guy but it would be an awful mistake. Has any power conference team hired a HS coach as their head coach since Gerry Faust at Notre Dame? Faust, at least, was a renowned HS coach, unlike Rivers, but the experiment was a disaster for Notre Dame.

The last program I can think of that hired a person with no HC experience to lead a CFB program, it was when Coastal Carolina was a brand new program and their .com millionaire financier was made their head coach. He actually did above average, but was ultimately replaced.

VT hired Brent Pry.....

(11-04-2026 11:43 AM)ChrisLords Wrote:  

(10-26-2026 09:52 AM)georgia_tech_swagger Wrote:  

(10-26-2026 09:50 AM)Hallcity Wrote:  I hope that NCSU doesn’t hire Phillip Rivers. Great guy but it would be an awful mistake. Has any power conference team hired a HS coach as their head coach since Gerry Faust at Notre Dame? Faust, at least, was a renowned HS coach, unlike Rivers, but the experiment was a disaster for Notre Dame.

The last program I can think of that hired a person with no HC experience to lead a CFB program, it was when Coastal Carolina was a brand new program and their .com millionaire financier was made their head coach. He actually did above average, but was ultimately replaced.

VT hired Brent Pry.....

He may have meant to say no college coaching experience at all. Its quite common for programs to hire HC's with no head coaching experience. but almost all of those newly hired coaches with no head coaching experience at least had some kind of coordinator experience. Fran Brown at Syracuse didnt even have coordinator experience. He was a position coach.

(10-28-2026 09:57 PM)Lenvillecards Wrote:  

(10-28-2026 01:10 PM)GoWulfPak Wrote:  

(10-26-2026 04:49 PM)Lenvillecards Wrote:  Does the Pack have a list of potential HC yet?

Don't need one

Wish the Pack nothing but luck with Rivers. He does make sense for the Pack but going from HS to P4 is a mighty big jump. Can’t think of any examples where that worked out but Rivers may have the chops to do it.

It hasn't happened before because you didn't buy teams before....