One coach who began the season quietly on the hot seat was Dave Doeren at North Carolina State. He began his 14th season this year in Raleigh and is the winningest coach in program history for the Wolfpack, but the writing was slowly on the wall that his seat might be getting hotter.
NC State was 3-3 heading out West to Stanford for a game on Friday night, and it felt like a must-win for the Wolfpack. They lost and on Saturday when they landed back in North Carolina, Doeren was fired by athletic Boo Corrigan.
NC State Dave Doeren is the first ACC coach fired this season
Truth be told, it wasn't surprising that Doeren was fired, but it might have been surprising that he was the first one fired. If you asked any ACC fans, they likely would have said Mike Norvell at Florida State or Bill O'Brien at Boston College. As it turns out, Norvell is still the coach of the Seminoles while O'Brien and the Eagles are blowing out Georgia Tech in Atlanta this weekend. Go figure.
Doeren has suffered some head-scratching losses during his tenure at NC State, but Friday night was the final straw for Corrigan. Special teams coordinator Todd Goebbel will be the interim coach for the remainder of the 2026 season while a search for Doeren's replacement will be looked for.
Doeren went 98-73 overall in charge of the Wolfpack and 52-57 in the ACC. He was 4-6 in bowl games, but if North Carolina State is going to get there this year, then they will have to win three of their final five games against a tough schedule. They host California next weekend and have games against Duke, Syracuse, Florida State, and North Carolina.
This season, NC State opened the season getting blown out at Virginia in Week 0, but a loss in September at Vanderbilt is one that they haven't seemed to recover from. Quarterback C.J. Bailey fumbled the ball in the end zone on the final play with a lead, which led to a loss. Then the loss in Northern California was what did it for Doeren.
Last season, two weeks after Virginia Tech fired former head coach Brent Pry, a depleted Hokie roster went into Raleigh and pulled off an upset. Somehow, he survived that loss that upset the fanbase, but losing to Stanford was it.
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