North Carolina State hires Northern Illinois' Dave Doeren as coach
One day after leading Northern Illinois to its second consecutive Mid-American Conference title and into contention for a BCS bowl berth, Dave Doeren has agreed to become the next coach of North Carolina State, the school announced Saturday.
Doeren met with a contingent of N.C. State athletic department officials, including athletic director Debbie Yow, Saturday in DeKalb, Ill. Doeren had declined to discuss job openings until after Friday’s MAC title game, but settled quickly on trying to rebuild the ACC program and declined other overtures.
Auburn and Purdue, among other schools, had also expressed initial interests, but Doeren believes in the potential of the Wolfpack, who fired Tom O’Brien after six years.
[Related: Kent State BCS dreams die in overtime]
Doeren was set to fly to Raleigh, N.C., Saturday afternoon on a university plane.
Doeren went 23-4 in two years as head coach at NIU, winning the conference both times. His current team is 12-1, with its only blemish a one-point loss to Iowa back in September. The Huskies, ranked No. 21 last week, still have a shot at reaching a BCS bowl game if the standings shake out on Sunday.
Despite Doeren's background coaching defense, NIU’s offense has been superb, averaging 40.8 points a game this season. Doeren also was an assistant at Kansas from 2002-05 before going to Wisconsin from 2006-10.
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