There’s an alternate reality that’s not particularly far-fetched: Dave Doeren is on a different sideline at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte on Saturday.
As it stands, he will lead his No. 23 NC State football team into a matchup against No. 12 Tennessee in what should be one of the most exciting games of the second week of the 2024 college football season.
Since being hired by the Wolfpack in December 2012, Doeren has become a mainstay of the NC State program. He is just one game into his 12th season at the helm in Raleigh, making him the Wolfpack’s longest-tenured coach in over 50 years.
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If circumstances had changed even a little bit a few years ago, he would have gone into the Tennessee-NC State game wearing orange and a Power T-shirt.
Doeren was one of the candidates for the Vols’ coaching position in 2017, a job that ultimately went to Jeremy Pruitt after a lengthy search.
Although Doeren chose to stay at NC State, his name will always be linked to Tennessee in some way, especially as his team prepares to face the Vols for the first time since that alleged flirtation.
Before games against Tennessee and NC State begin Saturday night, here’s what you need to know about Doeren and his involvement in the Vols’ coaching search seven years ago:
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Dave Doeren Tennessee coaching search
In November 2017, with two games left in the season, Tennessee fired football coach Butch Jones shortly after the Vols lost 50-17 to Missouri and fell to 4-6, the latest disappointing turn in a season that saw them ranked in the top 25 nationally.
Jones had improved Tennessee over the course of his tenure, highlighted by back-to-back nine-win seasons in 2015 and 2016, but his teams never appeared in the SEC Championship Game or finished a season ranked in the top 20 during his five-year tenure. The Vols and their fans understandably wanted more from a team that already had two national championships under its belt.
“We need to hire someone who understands the magnitude of the job of a football coach at the University of Tennessee,” then-Tennessee athletic director John Currie said at the time.
What followed, however, was a search that can only be described as disastrous.
It began, as coaching searches in Tennessee tend to do, with rumors that Jon Gruden might coach the Vols, but that talk quickly fizzled out. Dan Mullen, then head coach of Mississippi State, had talked to Currie about the position but chose the Florida job instead. A number of other names — Mike Gundy, Jeff Brohm and Scott Frost, among others — were linked to the job.
After these various twists and turns, the Vols focused their attention on their target — Ohio State’s then-defensive coordinator, with whom they were close to making a deal. However, news of the impending agreement leaked out, sparking a revolt from fans, donors and even state politicians. In the face of this outcry, Tennessee eventually backed down.
With Schiano out of the game and Currie’s search restarted, Doeren’s name came into play.
According to documents obtained by the USA TODAY Network, Currie contacted Doeren’s agent, Jordan Bazant, who wrote to Tennessee’s athletic director saying his client was “excited” about the opportunity to coach the Vols. Currie even flew to Raleigh to meet with Doeren.
Like Schiano, however, there was resistance to Doeren when it was announced he was in the running for the position. His NC State team went 9-4 in 2017 and won the Sun Bowl, but he managed just a 25-26 record in his first four seasons with the Wolfpack.
Talks never progressed. On Nov. 30, NC State announced it had signed Doeren to a new contract. The five-year, $15 million deal Doeren was set to receive was worth at least $1 million less per year than what Tennessee had offered him, according to a report at the time in the Raleigh News & Observer.
“My heart is with NC State,” Doeren said in a press release announcing the new contract.
His previous contract with the Wolfpack, which paid him $2.21 million annually, ran through the 2020 season. USA TODAY’s Dan Wolken reported at the time that Doeren had been at a standoff with NC State athletic director Debbie Yow over a contract extension, suggesting Tennessee may have been used as a bargaining chip.
Regardless of the details of the negotiations, Doeren’s hiring in Tennessee may never have happened even if both sides had wanted it. Within 48 hours of talking to Doeren about the job, Currie was no longer the Vols’ athletic director after just eight months.
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Dave Doeren Record
In the years since his affair with Tennessee, Doeren’s NC State teams have improved.
After going 25-26 in his first four seasons, Doeren has since posted a 57-32 record, including four nine-win seasons.
Going into Saturday’s game against Tennessee, Doeren is 82-58 at NC State and 105-62 in his career. He joined the Wolfpack after two seasons at Northern Illinois, where he went 23-4 and helped lead the team to the Orange Bowl in his final season.
