Philip Rivers is coming home to Raleigh. The job he’s walking into looks nothing like the one he's leaving in Fairhope, AL.
NC State reached an agreement with Rivers to become its next head coach as he was formally announced today. The school’s Board of Trustees is set to approve the contract at its meeting on Friday, November 13. He replaces Dave Doeren, the winningest coach in program history, who was fired on October 24, seven games into his 14th season.
Rivers, 44, has spent the last six seasons at St. Michael Catholic HS (Fairhope, AL), a program he helped build from the ground up. The Cardinals reached the state semifinals in 2024 and 2025. His season ended last Friday with a 42-35 first-round playoff loss to Glenwood.
As many have pointed out at this point, the former star NFL quarterback has never coached in college or the NFL.
His playing resume needs no introduction in Raleigh. He started 51 straight games for Chuck Amato from 2000 to 2003 and set ACC career records with 13,484 passing yards. He led the 2002 team to a program-best 11-3 record and was named ACC Player of the Year as a senior. He went fourth overall in 2004 and made eight Pro Bowls over 17 seasons with the Chargers and Colts. Then, in December 2025 he dusted off the cleats and came out of retirement to start three games for Indianapolis in an effort to help them make a playoff push, and just a few months later he interviewed for the Buffalo Bills head coaching job in January before eventually withdrawing.
Here are the five biggest issues he's facing stepping into an ACC head coaching job from the high school ranks.
1. Building a college staff from scratch
Rivers has never been a college assistant or coordinator, so he has never hired a college staff. His connections as an NFL veteran may be helpful to a point, but who he hires for a staff, starting with his strength coach and coordinators, is going to warrant a lot of attention.
According to reports, Rivers asked for an assistant salary pool big enough to land coaches with college experience. He had also started putting together a coaching and front office staff before he signed and that plan surely won over any critics or we wouldn't have gotten to the point we're at today.
Rivers also isn't a typical high school coach making the jump. He had a long and successful NFL career as a quarterback, has carried that success with him to the high school level where he built something special at St. Michael Catholic, and now gets the opportunity to build on what Doeren did at a place where his name carries a ton of weight.
His coordinators, his strength coach, general manager and personnel director and his decision on interim coach Todd Goebbel will shape the first year and ultimately chart the course for his FBS head coaching tenure.
2. A roster rebuild on a tight clock
NC State is 4-5 with three regular season games left, starting with Syracuse on Saturday. Rivers has to find a way to hold the current roster together, keep the 2027 class intact and work the transfer portal. The tough part for him will be to do all that with minimal relationships in the college recruiting space.
A number of outlets have shared that donors plan to fund portal additions so the Wolfpack can compete right away in 2027, and the Rivers name will create a unique draw that will attract some.
The 2027 home opener is at home against North Carolina A&T.
3. The money
NC State spent an estimated $22 million to $26 million on its roster this season, sitting right in the middle of the pack for the ACC, according to The Athletic. Miami, Clemson, Virginia Tech and Florida State all spent more, and while that may be expected to a large degree, the Wolfpack still took a L's this fall from Stanford, Wake Forest and Duke - three of the league’s four lowest spenders.
NIL support had to be a central part of the conversation, and with multiple local reports putting Rivers' contract at 5-years and $3.25 million per season, there should be plenty of resources left to allocate to roster spending and securing the right staff.
4. Running the whole operation
At St. Michael, Rivers built everything himself. A Power Four head coach has a very different day-to-day, responsible for a staff of dozens, a personnel department, revenue share contracts, compliance, media obligations and a donor base that expects results.
The two most recent comparisons point in different directions. Trent Dilfer jumped from high school to UAB and it didnt' go well and Dilfer brought much of his high school staff at the time. Deion Sanders jumped from high school, to the FCS level, to Colorado and has had one winning season in four years despite a staff filled with big name experience.
The comparison of Rivers to those two recent examples will continue until the results roll in.
5. Gunner, and NC State football history
Gunner Rivers is a four-star quarterback who committed to NC State back in February. He enrolls in January after a knee injury cost him most of his senior season. His father is now tasked with managing a quarterback room with his son in it, and will need to recruit other quarterbacks to join that dynamic.
Then there’s the history around NC State football. NC State hasn’t won a conference title since 1979 and has never finished a season in the AP top 10. With the College Football Playoff expanding to 24 teams in 2027, teams like NC State are looking at being able to punch their ticket to a playoff just by being ranked among the top 24 teams in the CFP rankings at the end of the year - which is an attainable goal for a program like NC State.
As a high school head coach, I’ll say this. Running a program, from the weight room to the parents to Friday night, teaches you more about being a head coach than most people outside the profession realize. A Power Four staff, roster and budget is a different animal, and the people Rivers surrounds himself with will ultimately tell the story of this hire.
Now the work starts in Raleigh, where a fascinating storyline a lot of folks are rooting for is set to take shape.
Stay tuned to The Scoop for the latest on his staff.