Dave Doeren at the ACC Kickoff: “I’m Sick of Being Second”

NC State head coach Dave Doeren took the podium at the 2026 ACC Kickoff in Charlotte on Wednesday, and one message came through louder than any other.

He’s proud of what the Wolfpack has built.

But he’s no longer satisfied with finishing second.

You can read the full transcript below.

DAVE DOEREN: You guys are going to be really sad that you give me a microphone (smiling).

Four score and 14 years ago I got hired here (laughter). I came in really excited about running this program, and still am. Since that time the landscape of college football has changed a lot just within our own state. I think each school I go up against has had a minimum of three different head coaches at each university, and some of them more than that. I think that says a lot about what we’ve built.

As media, a lot of times your job is to talk about what we don’t do well. Today I get to talk about what we do do well. I think having staying power, being a consistent winner. Won the second most number of games in the ACC in the last six years. We’ve won the second most number of conference games and non-conference games.

With that being said, I’m sick of being second. These guys know that. We’re here to do more. That’s what drives us. It’s the competitive spirit of winning, the brotherhood that comes along with that that’s so special.

It’s a tough business. I mean, it’s not an equal lineup anymore from conference to conference, from school to school. Some people have more of this, some people have more of that.

What we have is a bunch of guys that have huge edge. They’re tough. I have so much respect for the leadership of our team, the way these guys have bought in to running the accountability part of what we do.

It’s not just the coaches that get on these guys anymore, they get on each other and lead the way when it comes to how things should look. If you want to be in that conversation at the end of the year, a lot of things have to go your way and you got to make a lot of those things go your way yourself.

There’s a lot of self-inflicted things in football. As you all know, it’s a contact sport, it’s a rough and rugged sport. You can lose players from time to time to injuries. But you can also beat yourself in a lot of ways.

That’s the one thing that this team is really excited about, is going out and earning our opportunity to be special at the end of the season, trying to keep that week to week to week to week. I think that’s one of the hardest things when competitor, is being the best you can be every single competition.

Coming off of a real high win, coming off of a real tough loss, it doesn’t matter. The next one matters the most. Trying to keep these staff, coaches, trainers, strength coaches, nutritionists, players, you name it, in that mode of one at a time.

It’s an awesome place. If you haven’t been to game day at the Carter, you’re missing out; 27 straight packed houses, and we can’t wait to get back into our stadium with our fans. And the city of Raleigh, I mean, what a year with the Hurricanes. So proud of Coach Brind’Amour and their team, the city, just how we celebrated safely. That city partied its butt off and had fun. The enthusiasm and the spirit.

They can’t wait for football to start. Our crowd is antsy and excited that we’re playing in Virginia instead of Brazil because they get to be a part of it now and go tailgate.

But this is a team that has a lot of new parts. There’s 50 new players. We’ll talk about them as you ask questions. Some unique pieces of it. I know CJ will talk bit, as well. When you lose good players, you have an opportunity as a coach to go recruit good players. So we lost some and we’ve added some.

Some of ’em come in with lifelong relationships where the chemistry him and Jojo Trader have or CJ and Davion Gause have. It’s unique because they grew up playing Pop Warner football together.

Yeah, you lost a good player, but we’ve added a good one and they’ve known each other longer. That’s how it goes.

We have a lot of talent coming back. It’s about proving who you are on that field. I think that’s the thing I’m most excited about is seeing the work that these guys have put in, getting on the grass with them, putting it all together, and in short time because we play week zero, as you guys know. It’s right around the corner.

This is such an incredible opportunity for this football team. We’re one of two schools in the ACC that can say they have a third-year starter at quarterback. As rare as it is to have a head coach for 14 years, it’s just as rare now to have a quarterback for three. It says a lot about this young man. I think it also says a lot about our culture.

For him to want to be in it means it’s right for him. Makes me feel good because it is an exclamation point that we are doing right things for people, giving them opportunities to grow into the best versions of who they are.

That’s why we do this as coaches. It’s not for the money. Most of us got into college football – at least I did – making $400 a month, and my rent was $390. It wasn’t because I was making money. It was loving the fact that I was helping guys get better at that sport, get better as men. I still get to do that. I get to do it with really good people.

From the staff to the players, I mean, I’m blessed to come to work at a place like I am, one of the greatest places to live in the country with a fan base that’s just crazy, crazy good. We love that they show up. We love the night games. We’re looking forward to our opener on 9/11 on a Friday night.

So many things to talk about. I could ramble on here for a long time, but I don’t want to because I want to get home. I’ll open it up for any questions.

Q. There’s meat on the bone has been an expression that you kind of stuck with for the 2026 season. What is still on that bone and how do you clean it off this fall?

DAVE DOEREN: Last night, remember? Yeah, we went to the Crunkelton last night. You guys ever been there? Great steakhouse. They have tomahawk steak, big bone like this. You pick it up right at the end, take the knife and clean it off. That’s the best part of the steak if you didn’t know that.

It’s the same. Being second, there’s meat on the bone and as a position coach and as a head coach at the previous school, I’ve been on several teams now. Every school I’ve worked at, even as a player, won a championship, a conference championship. I was part of a National Championship. It’s what I came here to do.

I know that this school can reach that goal and those heights, so it drives me. I want to put this place, always wanted to leave NC State better than I found it, for sure. But I want to put it at a place where it’s special for everybody for a long, long time. That’s what this is about.

It’s definitely a driving force for me.

Q. I want to talk about the way your season ended last year. You rebounded nicely by winning out the way you did. When you look at the fact that you said a mouthful during your opening statement where you don’t want to finish second anymore, how much would it be important for you to not only win an ACC title but get to 10 wins? Talk about some of the new guys you brought in that will take a 7-5 record to get it to where you want to go.

DAVE DOEREN: What’s the question?

Q. The question is, how much progress have you made during the off-season to try to reach some of your goals to improve the football team from just mediocre to a lot better, elite status in the ACC because you obviously have a loaded conference?

DAVE DOEREN: Yeah, I think we’ve made a lot of progress. In the second year of our system defensively I think for those of you that were around our team, you know defensively we went through a lot last year.

It’s one thing when you change schemes from a 3-3 to a 3-4, have a new coordinator, new language, new players, then to go through what we did with Coach Eliot and his family and his loss, it was very challenging. Then to have nine defensive starters injured throughout the season, very challenging.

Fast forward that, we got a lot better on defense the last five weeks. There was a lot of momentum. We recruited well on that side of the football. I’m super excited about the returners we have and the additions.

The biggest area of improvement, to answer your question, defensively is our pass-rush. We have to get quarterbacks getting rid of the football before they want to, we got to have more sacks, more forced fumbles, more interceptions because of pass-rush.

We’ve added some pieces that we’re excited to see. That’s what training camp is going to be about, it’s going to be about what Harvey Dyson is going to be like. We saw him in the spring, sample what he is, but fall camp is a lot different than spring football because you’re on the field every day.

Really excited about the competitive depth in the secondary. Last year in the Pitt game we have four freshmen playing in that game. I think we had eight different starters throughout the year in the back end because of injuries. They’re all back. So now you have a lot of competitive depth. So those things are important.

Last year I think we went into a lot of games thinking we’re going to have to outscore people. That’s not normal for us. This has been a program that’s played really, really good defense over the years. Getting back to where we’re not just out scoring people but we’re stopping people and when we need to lean on a stop, we can.

We’ve added a lot of players. If there’s one in particular you want to ask about, happy to talk about him.

Q. Looking back at this off-season you gave Duke the No. 1 jersey pretty quickly. How conclusive was that? What made him worthy of wearing the No. 1 jersey?

DAVE DOEREN: It’s being that represents the totality of who we are. Obviously he’s got to be a really good player, which we all know Duke is a really good player, okay?

He’s got to be a guy in the off-season that’s a grinder, that just kills it in the off-season program, which he’s on the freak list, right? The guy’s gifted as an athlete, as a weight room guy.

He’s got to be a guy that treats people with respect. He’s a leader, cared about in the locker room. He’s got to be a guy that handles his academic load the right way. Really a total representation of a student-athlete.

It really wasn’t hard, to be honest. Sat down and thought about a lot of guys on the team. It’s really obvious when you get to know Duke. Duke doesn’t talk a lot. Getting to know Duke is hard sometimes, right?

He’s a special young man. I know he’s going to wear the number well. He’s earned the opportunity to wear it. I know that he’ll go out and play well for us in that number.