Few teams may benefit more from a 12-team College Football Playoff than the NC State Wolfpack, who have hovered just outside of the sport’s upper echolon for nearly a decade, thanks to the efforts of Dave Doeren.
Doeren has been good enough to put the Wolfpack in position to make noise, but has always fallen just short.
The Wolfpack look poised to make a run in 2024, and their coaching staff will have a lot to do with that if it happens.
NC State Wolfpack Coaching Staff
Head Coach, Dave Doeren
Doeren is entering his 10th year at the helm of the Wolfpack and he’s been very successful at NC State, with winning seasons in eight of the last nine years.
Doeren was hired at NC State after just two years as a head coach with Northern Illinois, but those two years were phenomenal.
In 2011, the Huskies went 11-3, rattling off nine straight wins after starting 2-3. They wound up winning the MAC Championship. The next season, they started 0-1, won 12 straight games, and made the Orange Bowl, but Doeren moved to NC State before that game.
Doeren was Wisconsin’s defensive coordinator before coaching at Northern Illinois. In his final season with the program, he helped the Badgers win a Rose Bowl. He spent five seasons with the Badgers in Madison.
Known for his tough, hard-working style, Doeren has also spent time at Kansas, Montana, USC, and Drake since getting his start in 1995.
Offensive Coordinator/Inside Receivers/Tight Ends, Robert Anae
Robert Anae is entering his second year at NC State, having spent the last nine seasons in the ACC. Anae graduated from BYU, where his career really took off.
Anae was originally an offensive line coach, coaching at Ricks College, Boise State, and UNLV throughout the mid-1990s as he gained experience. In 1998, Anae’s second year at UNLV, he added a run game coordinator title before taking a year off in 1999.
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When he returned to coaching in 2000, Anae joined Mike Leach’s initial staff at Texas Tech as offensive line coach, a position he held until 2004. That’s when Anae joined Bronco Mendenall’s first BYU coaching staff, this time as offensive coordinator and inside receivers coach. He held that position until 2010.
Anae left for two years to coach at Arizona but returned for Mendenhall’s final three seasons at BYU, following the coach to Virginia in 2016. Anae stayed at Virginia until 2021, spent a year at Syracuse, and then joined Doeren’s staff in Raleigh.
Defensive Coordinator/Linebackers, Tony Gibson
Tony Gibson spent most of his coaching career in the state of West Virginia, where he played for Glenville State from 1991-94. After a couple of years at Cumberland University, Gibson returned to the Mountain State to coach at West Virginia Tech (1999-2000) and then West Virginia (2001-07).
Gibson was a defensive backs coach and special teams coordinator at Michigan before short stints at Pittsburgh and Arizona, where he coached with Anae.
Gibson returned to West Virginia to coach various defensive positions from 2013-18 before moving to NC State in 2019. He’s shifted roles once but has been with the Wolfpack since then.
Special Teams Coordinator/Running Backs, Todd Goebbel
Todd Goebbel has coached in a variety of roles on both sides of the ball in his 25-year coaching career, but he has spent the largest duration of his coaching career in two separate stints at Marshall.
The first of those was from 2005-09 in a variety of offensive roles, culminating with a two-year stint as co-offensive coordinator. The second was after a five-year hiatus spent at Ohio Dominican, as he returned to Marshall in 2015 and coached special teams, tight ends, and was a co-offensive coordinator across four years.
Goebbel then came to NC State to be tight ends coach and special teams coordinator, switching to running backs in 2024.
Quarterbacks/Passing Game Coordinator, Kurt Roper
While Kurt Roper was a defensive back as a player at Rice, he’s known for his work with quarterbacks as a coach. He’s spent nearly his entire career in the ACC and SEC, dating back to three years as a graduate assistant at Tennessee.
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Roper has been a quarterbacks coach at Ole Miss, Kentucky, Duke, Florida, South Carolina, and Colorado, coaching running backs in between at Tennessee. He spent a year with the Cleveland Browns and was the offensive coordinator at his stops with Duke, Florida, and South Carolina.
Roper originally coached quarterbacks at NC State before spending a few seasons as a running backs coach, but he’s back to his more comfortable position in 2024.
Wide Receivers/Assistant Head Coach, Joker Phillips
Joker Phillips is one of the most well-respected wide receiver coaches in the industry, having spent over 30 years at the positon.
He’s best known for his time as head coach at Kentucky from 2010-12. That came as part of an internal promotion after he spent seven years coaching wide receivers for the Wildcats. Phillips has been with the Wolfpack since 2021 when he came over after a stint as Maryland’s offensive coordinator.
Offensive Line/Run Game Coordinator, Garrett Tujague
Garrett Tujague came to NC State in 2023 thanks to his pre-existing relationship with Anae. Tujague played at BYU in the late 1980s and early 1990s with Anae and coached with the offensive coordinator at BYU and Virginia on Mendenhall’s staff.
Tujague is considered an excellent developer of talent and has taken numerous three-star prospects to All-Conference careers.
Defensive Line, Charley Wiles
Nowadays, coaches rarely spend more than a few years at one spot, but Wiles is certainly an exception, having spent over 20 years at Virginia Tech from 1996 to 2019.
Wiles left Virginia Tech and immediately joined Doeren’s staff at NC State as defensive line coach, a position he’s held since 2020.
Nickels, Freddie Aughtry-Lindsay
NC State is one of the only teams in the country to have three secondary coaches, choosing to separate their nickels, outside corners, and safeties. Freddie Aughtry-Lindsay is considered an excellent recruiter, which may be unsurprising.
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Aughtry-Lindsay has spent his entire career in North Carolina, outside of the 2018 season, in an off-field role at Ole Miss. He played at NC State and has coached at multiple smaller colleges and high schools in the state.
Cornerbacks, Brian Mitchell
After a brief NFL career, Brian Mitchell returned to his alma mater, BYU, where he coached corners from 1995-2005. He spent time at Texas Tech and East Carolina before overlapping with Gibson at West Virginia from 2013-15.
Mitchell has since spent time at Virginia Tech with Wiles and joined the Wolfpack in 2020.
Safeties, Joe DeForest
Joe DeForest is yet another coaching veteran with plenty of experience across the country. He’s coached at Rice, Duke, Oklahoma State, and USC, among others.
He overlapped with Mitchell and Gibson at West Virginia from 2012-2015 where he coached safeties and was the special teams coordinator. He’s also been at NC State since 2020.
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