After finishing out one of their worst seasons in the Dave Doeren era with a 26-21 Military Bowl loss to the ECU Pirates, it was clear that the NC State Wolfpack needed to make some changes.
The Wolfpack looked to be all in this past season with a revamped offense and a veteran-heavy defense, but there’s no other way to spin a 6-7 overall record and 3-5 conference record other than a colossal failure on both sides of the ball.
Even with disruptions due to some key injuries, it was clear that something still needed to give.
The first big decision to be made was the firing of offensive coordinator Robert Anae, who was let go just two days after the end of the season despite having one year remaining on his contract.
“I want to thank Robert and wish him and his family the best,” said Doeren in a press release. “I have great respect for him and appreciate the work he has done.”
Anae spent two seasons with the Wolfpack and despite being heralded as an offensive wizard, his supposed genius never shined at NC State where the offense was just way too inconsistent on a week-to-week basis.
In his place, quarterbacks coach Kurt Roper was named the new OC.
Roper, who will also continue coaching the quarterbacks, has been with NC State for six seasons but has 30 years of coaching experience under his belt.
“Kurt has done a great job for us and knows what we need to do to take the next step forward as a program,” Doeren said. “He has a great relationship with our players, a great knowledge of college football and the ACC, and I’m looking forward to seeing him as a play caller.”
Roper undersaw freshman quarterback CJ Bailey’s massive growth this season which culminated in Bailey finishing the year with the second most yards (2,413) and touchdowns (17) by a rookie QB in program history.
The veteran coach has offensive coordinator experience from three other stops: Duke (2008-2013), Florida (2014) and South Carolina (2016-2017).
In addition, the Pack have named Gavin Locklear as tight ends coach. He had previously served as the offensive quality control coach.
On the other side of the ball, the Pack already needed to replace highly respected defensive coordinator Tony Gibson, who left for the head coaching job at Marshall before NC State’s final game, but there might have been some hard conversations had he decided to stay given the massive step down the defense took this season.
To fill the vacancy though, the Wolfpack decided to look outside the program and brought in 27-year veteran coach D.J. Eliot who will be not only the new defensive coordinator but the linebackers coach too.
NC State’s new DC brings experience from the NFL and four different college conferences to the table for the Pack.
Eliot was most recently a senior analyst, working for Baylor this past season, but his most recent coaching job was with the Philadelphia Eagles in 2023 where he was the team’s linebacker coach.
“D.J. is a great addition to our staff,” Doeren said. “He has worked with some of the greatest minds in college football, mostly recently with Dave Aranda at Baylor. He brings a wide variety of experience schematically and as a former NFL coach, he knows what it takes to develop players so they can make it to the next level.”
Eliot has been a defensive coordinator at four other stops including Kentucky (2013-2016), Colorado (2017-2018), Kansas (2019-2020) and Temple (2022).
After multiple years of dominance, the Wolfpack’s defense was very pedestrian this year, allowing 391.6 yards per game.
The lack of a true difference maker outside of Davin Vann definitely hurt them, but their struggles in third-and-long situations and just the run in general were prolific to say the least, so Eliot is going to have his work cut out for him, especially with the flight of more than a few veteran defensive backs to the portal.
Other changes to the defensive staff include the retirement of safeties coach Joe DeForest and promotion of Freddie Aughtry-Lindsay to co-defensive coordinator. Aughtry-Lindsay served as interim DC for the Military Bowl, but had been the team’s nickels coach for the past five years. On top of his new coordinator duties, he’ll continue to coach the nickels as well as the safeties.
“Freddie has done a great job for us and has earned the respect of our players and coaches. I’m excited to watch him in this new role,” Doeren said.
