Philip Rivers is finalizing a deal to return to Raleigh as NC State's next coach, returning to the school where he became a star in college to try to revive the Wolfpack in the ACC, 247Sports reports.
Rivers would take over for Dave Doeren, who was fired following a Week 8 loss to Stanford that brought his career record in Raleigh to 98-73, and he will be tasked with getting the Wolfpack to the next level as an ACC contender. The NC State job will be Rivers' first college coaching position, but he's coached high school football at St. Michael Catholic in Fairhope, Alabama, since 2021.
A gamble on star power
Rather than take a swing on a rising star coordinator or try to bring in an established head coach, NC State is opting to go a third route with a Wolfpack legend to try and get more investment into the program. What Rivers lacks in experience, NC State hopes he can make up for with enthusiasm and by getting the Wolfpack's top boosters to open their wallets a bit more to build a roster that can compete in the ACC.
Rivers was a four-year starter at NC State from 2000 to 2003, completing 63.6% of his passes for 13,484 yards, 95 touchdowns and 34 interceptions in his time playing for the late Chuck Amato. The 2002 season remains the high point of NC State's history as a program, going 11-3 with a Gator Bowl win. That season stands as the only time the Wolfpack have won 10 games in a campaign.
Under Doeren, NC State won nine games five times but could never break through that 10-win barrier. Doeren unquestionably raised the floor at NC State, making the Wolfpack a consistent bowl team and a perennial top-25 team for much of his tenure. Over the past three seasons, that standard had slipped, and there was a sense of apathy around the program, with fans resigned to their fate as members of the ACC's middle class.
In the NIL era, apathy from the fan base isn't something a program can afford, and Rivers' first job will be to rally the donor base and secure a cash influx to quickly upgrade the roster. Unlike a new coach coming in from another program, Rivers won't be able to bring a roster with him in the portal that knows his system, which means if NC State is going to hit the ground running in his first season, they're going to need investment to bring in upgrades from the portal.
While Rivers is a bit of a mystery in terms of scheme, he'll have a familiar face joining him in Raleigh. His son, four-star quarterback Gunner Rivers, remains committed to the Wolfpack and will be quite familiar with his father's offense after four years of running it at the high school level.
Can Rivers spark a new era?
If nothing else, the Rivers experiment will be fascinating to watch. Will he be a Deion Sanders type? A coach who can inject immediate life into a program (with the help of a highly touted quarterback for a son) but may struggle to sustain that, especially once his son moves on. Will he be a Trent Dilfer? A former NFL quarterback turned high school coach who ends up in over his head in terms of running a college program.
Or perhaps he can eclipse both of them and become an NC State legend a second time by leading the Wolfpack to a new level of success in the 24-team College Football Playoff era. Time will tell, but there will be no shortage of eyeballs on what Rivers does in Raleigh, more than 20 years after he starred for them.
