Would be funny if Gunner Rivers flipped.

I think this will go a little better than most think but I still don't think it'll work out and that he'll be fired within 3-4 years. So basically the average HC experience at a lower tier power four school but with a lot more publicity because he's Phillip Rivers.

Scott Frost ruined his reputation at Nebraska by being a bad HC. Rivers taking this job gives him high chances to eventually do the same.

I'm sure he'll have fun coaching his son and that that's a big part of it. I wonder how many of his sons he'll be able to get on the roster at NC State since he does have like 12 kids

2 minutes ago, Jordan Scruggs said:

I think this will go a little better than most think but I still don't think it'll work out and that he'll be fired within 3-4 years. So basically the average HC experience at a lower tier power four school but with a lot more publicity because he's Phillip Rivers.

Scott Frost ruined his reputation at Nebraska by being a bad HC. Rivers taking this job gives him high chances to eventually do the same.

I'm sure he'll have fun coaching his son and that that's a big part of it. I wonder how many of his sons he'll be able to get on the roster at NC State since he does have like 12 kids

Reminds me of Cheaper by the Dozen

5 hours ago, Jordan Scruggs said:

I think this will go a little better than most think but I still don't think it'll work out and that he'll be fired within 3-4 years. So basically the average HC experience at a lower tier power four school but with a lot more publicity because he's Phillip Rivers.

Scott Frost ruined his reputation at Nebraska by being a bad HC. Rivers taking this job gives him high chances to eventually do the same.

I'm sure he'll have fun coaching his son and that that's a big part of it. I wonder how many of his sons he'll be able to get on the roster at NC State since he does have like 12 kids

That's a terrible comparison.

First, Philip Rivers is literally the highest profile football player to ever come out of NC State. Scott Frost abandoned his home state to go to Stanford, transferred back to Nebraska after Bill Walsh resigned, then did help lead Nebraska to their last national championship (shared with Michigan) in 1997.

He was also the person sleeping with Lawrence Phillips' girlfriend when he came upon them. He hid in the closet while Phillips proceeded to put an epic beating on her, dragging her down the stairs.

The Nebraska fan base is desperate for relevancy at this point. If hiring Art Briles would guarantee them regular spots in the college football playoffs, they make that move in a heartbeat. Scott Frost was coming from an undefeated season at UCF, and so was of course going to lead the Cornhuskers back to glory. Favored son and all that. But his profile at Nebraska wasn't that of Philip Rivers at NC State. Heck, Eric Crouch is more beloved than Frost, and he never won a national championship. And neither one touch Tommie Frazier, who Nebraska fans will tell you was the greatest of all time.

NC State is a big nothing when it comes to college football. Doeren is literally their winningest coach at 98-74. Second place is the legendary Earle Edwards, who patrolled the sideline from 1954-1970 and went 77-88 with 8 ties.

If Philip Rivers fails at NC State as the head coach, they're still going to love that guy. They have nothing else.

Let’s take a look at his college coaching resume.

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Always liked Rivers. If he crushes the OC and DC hires I’d imagine this should get the donors excited.

Will help get the NC State alums excited. Nothing else is currently working when it comes to unlocking the financial interest.

They hired Phillip Rivers and Justin Gainey bc Will Wade stabbed them and left after one year. Straight up why they did this. Phillip won’t take another job if he has NC State in the CFP.

With the future of the ACC very uncertain, this is an even more risky hire by NC State. They may be paying Rivers a buyout at the same time the ACC is blowing up and schools like NC State have no guarantees of a soft landing and a lucrative media deal. Why not just hire a real football coach instead of a favorite son gimmick?

How has hiring inexperienced, high profile former professional alums worked for college basketball programs? Chris Mullen, Patrick Ewing, Clyde Drexler, Penny Hardaway, Juwan Howard, etc…

I honestly think this is a terrible hire, but best of luck to him and NC State.

1 hour ago, Glass Joe said:

With the future of the ACC very uncertain, this is an even more risky hire by NC State. They may be paying Rivers a buyout at the same time the ACC is blowing up and schools like NC State have no guarantees of a soft landing and a lucrative media deal. Why not just hire a real football coach instead of a favorite son gimmick?

How has hiring inexperienced, high profile former professional alums worked for college basketball programs? Chris Mullen, Patrick Ewing, Clyde Drexler, Penny Hardaway, Juwan Howard, etc…

How is it risky? NC State is desperate for relevancy.

I don't think the move is going to work out, either, but I don't think any move was going to work out for NC State. But who knows? Texas Tech fired Spike Dykes, which I thought was a mistake, and hired a guy with a law degree with no head coaching experience, who hadn't even played college football. Mike Leach is not only their best coach and led them to relevancy, in many ways he's the reason the football program is where it's at today, since Cody Campbell played under him.

You just never know.

NC State is in a position they have to roll the dice and try something risky. And if Rivers succeeds, they have a better shot of keeping him as the head coach than someone else who would for sure view that job as a stepping stone. Heck, Rivers might. He'll for sure raise the platform for that job.

I'm supportive of the hire. I don't think it's going to work out, but when you're desperate, sometimes you go all in on the roulette wheel.

With NIL and the portal making college football harder then ever for coaches hiring a guy who only has a couple years experience at the high school level has disaster written all over it

7 hours ago, SL Xpress said:

How is it risky? NC State is desperate for relevancy.

I don't think the move is going to work out, either, but I don't think any move was going to work out for NC State. But who knows? Texas Tech fired Spike Dykes, which I thought was a mistake, and hired a guy with a law degree with no head coaching experience, who hadn't even played college football. Mike Leach is not only their best coach and led them to relevancy, in many ways he's the reason the football program is where it's at today, since Cody Campbell played under him.

You just never know.

NC State is in a position they have to roll the dice and try something risky. And if Rivers succeeds, they have a better shot of keeping him as the head coach than someone else who would for sure view that job as a stepping stone. Heck, Rivers might. He'll for sure raise the platform for that job.

I'm supportive of the hire. I don't think it's going to work out, but when you're desperate, sometimes you go all in on the roulette wheel.

The risk is having to pay a $30M-$50M buyout to a guy who has never coached at the college level at the exact same time your conference is imploding as the revenue generating schools leave for the SEC and Big Ten before the next round of media rights deals in 2031.

This is the same theory / move that Colorado made with Deion, except Deion is much higher profile than Phillip Rivers, and at least Deion feigned interest in coaching college football at Jackson St prior to CU. And four years later (after Deion’s son is long gone), Colorado is no better off than before. Maybe even worse as they’ll have to soon pay Deion to go away.

This Rivers move is to get NC State donors to give a bit more money to the program, to alleviate short term financial stress of NIL. Period. It’s not a serious football decsion. It also locks in his son (Gunner Rivers) as the highest ranked QB commit in a generation. This has nothing to do with winning / losing football games, and absolutely nothing to do with the long-term health of the program.

By contrast, NC State could actually try to hire a real college football coach and maybe that guy can take a talent rich area of the country and parlay it into an upper tier ACC program. Both Cignetti and Bob Chesney coached 200 miles from NC State campus before leaving JMU to completely redefine the football programs at IU and UCLA. Those coaches have already brought more revenue and long-term financial health to their programs than Phillip Rivers will ever bring to NC State. Maybe NC State can try to identify a real coach with that type of upside?

And the difference with Mike Leach is that he had lots of college level OC experience, having the #1 offense at two different P4 schools (Kentucky and OU) before taking the Tech job. Phillip Rivers is a high school coach with $100M+ in his bank account, looking to coach his son (QB) at the college level.