By AARON BEARD AP Sports Writer
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — N.C. State coach Dave Doeren is returning for a 14th season with the Wolfpack.
Athletic director Boo Corrigan confirmed Doeren’s return on Sunday. The previous night, Doeren’s Wolfpack beat rival North Carolina for the fifth straight year and the program is headed to a bowl game for the 11th time in Doeren’s 13 seasons.
“Dave has built a program that is centered on culture and player development — on and off the field,” Corrigan said in a statement sent to The Associated Press. “You can see his passion for this program and the student-athletes in how hard our team plays and competes. I look forward to continuing to find new ways to support him and the football program.”
Doeren had been emphatic in public comments about his plans to return next season, including in shutting down rumors earlier this month that he might retire after the season. He did so again Sunday.
“I have full intention of being here,” Doeren said in an interview with the AP between recruiting visits as signing day looms Wednesday. “I love working for Boo Corrigan. I’m recruiting my (butt) off. … I’m all in.”
Doeren, who turns 54 on signing day, has posted a 94-70 record with the Wolfpack and became the program’s all-time winningest coach with a 2023 victory over Miami. That includes the Wolfpack reaching nine wins four times to flirt with becoming only the second 10-win team in program history.
And notably, that includes a 9-4 record against the rival Tar Heels. The most recent was a 42-19 win at home Saturday night, with the Wolfpack (7-5, 4-4 Atlantic Coast Conference) scoring touchdowns on all four first-half drives to roll a UNC team in its first season under NFL icon Bill Belichick — who coached the New England Patriots to six Super Bowl titles.
Doeren is the second-longest tenured coach in the Atlantic Coast Conference behind Clemson’s Dabo Swinney, and tied for the fifth-longest in the Bowl Subdivision ranks after the firing of Oklahoma State’s Mike Gundy in September.
“Boo and I are aligned,” Doeren said. “He’s doing everything he can to help us in the NIL space to be as aggressive as we can be, to retain and acquire as much talent as we can.”
The 2025 regular season had mixed results. Losses to Duke, Notre Dame, Pitt and Miami came by 12 or more points. There was also a home loss to a Virginia Tech team under an interim coach after the firing of Brent Pry.
Yet N.C. State also handed Georgia Tech its first loss after an 8-0 start brought the Yellow Jackets to Raleigh with a top-10 ranking. The Wolfpack also beat Virginia — which will play in the ACC championship game — in an unusual September nonconference game between longtime league members, one that didn’t count in the league race because it was added outside the ACC scheduling model.
N.C. State closed by beating Florida State for the fourth straight time and sixth time in seven years to secure bowl eligibility, followed by the lopsided win against the Tar Heels.
“I’m totally invested in this place,” Doeren said. “I love this school and I plan on finishing here.”