NC State had a 14-7 lead at home against Wake Forest on Saturday. By the time it ended, the Wolfpack had been outscored 31-0 after that point and lost 38-14 at Carter-Finley Stadium. That collapse is the real story, and it should be the last one of Dave Doeren's tenure.
Outside of a blowout of Richmond earlier this season, NC State has been outscored by roughly 60 points after halftime across its other games in 2026. A team that builds leads and then can't hold them is getting out-coached, repeatedly, by different opponents running different game plans. The pattern sits on the coaching staff.
Asked after the game whether the second-half slide reflects an inability to adjust, Doeren waved it off. In his words, it comes down to "execution." That answer might fly after one bad half. It does not fly after five. If NC State's problem were simply players missing blocks and dropping balls, you'd expect it to show up randomly, scattered across quarters and opponents. Instead it shows up like clockwork in the second half, game after game. That's a scheme and preparation problem.
NC State entered Saturday having won back-to-back games for the first time all season and needing this one to keep its conference championship hopes alive. Wake Forest came in with the better record. For a half, NC State looked like the team that belonged in that conversation: CJ Bailey moved the offense, and the defense held Wake Forest's passing game under 100 yards. Then the third quarter happened. Wake Forest outgained NC State by more than a hundred yards in that period alone on the way to the final margin.
A single lopsided home loss in October shouldn't end a long coaching tenure if it's an isolated bad night. This one isn't isolated. This is the same staff that blew a game at Vanderbilt on a late fumble and opened the season getting beaten soundly by Virginia. In-game collapse has become a weekly expectation now. The administration has stood behind Doeren through all of it; the athletic director insists there's no simple fix. That's true. There's also no reason to keep waiting for one.
Wake Forest, for what it's worth, is a fun team to watch right now and played like one that deserved every one of those second-half points. The NC State roster has shown for a half at a time all season that it can compete. The staff keeps failing to get that roster through sixty minutes. Doeren can call it execution all he wants. The buyout NC State would owe him is reportedly in the tens of millions, and that number is probably the only thing standing between him and an immediate end to this. It shouldn't be enough. Pay it.
