Philip Rivers was a great quarterback for the North Carolina State Wolfpack.
He parlayed that strong career at NC State into a long-lasting, successful NFL journey between the Chargers and Colts.
And now, Rivers is apparently heavily in the mix to be the new head football coach at his alma mater.
Rivers has been coaching high school football in Alabama with his son Gunnar as his quarterback — and Gunnar is a senior committed to play at NC State.
If the Wolfpack hired Rivers, it’d be a whole family trip to Raleigh to take over the program there.
There’s just less history of such a move working than you might think, and there’s plenty of risk involved here for NC State.
NC State Warned About Hiring Philip Rivers
The Athletic’s Stewart Mandel made a strong case in a new article that the Wolfpack might want to go in a different direction.
“I’m here to convince you this is just the latest example of a school and its fanbase deluding themselves into thinking a big name and/or beloved alum with zero college coaching experience (or, in the case of Russell Wilson, no coaching experience at all) will come in and set the world on fire despite NO HISTORY WHATSOEVER OF THIS WORKING,” Mandel writes.
Mandel was also skeptical when the University of North Carolina hired Bill Belichick, and he reminds his readers of that, too.
“And the wildest thing of all is the most recent, high-profile example has been playing out a half hour from NC State’s campus,” Mandel writes. “If six-time Super Bowl champion coach Bill Belichick struggled to adjust to college football, why would a two-time Alabama Class 4A state semifinalist inspire more confidence?”
Mandel then rattles off a handful of high school coaches who became college head coaches directly, and the results haven’t been great.
Different Approach
Mandel thinks that NC State should instead look at what has worked for the on-the-rise programs across the country.
“It’s not rocket science, NC State,” Mandel writes. “Hire a proven Group of 6 or lower-level head coach. See Indiana (Curt Cignetti), UCLA (Bob Chesney), Wake Forest (Jake Dickert), Arizona (Brent Brennan) or Houston (Willie Fritz), none of whom were big names, all of whom are punching above their weight class like NC State needs to do.”
It’s easier said than done to get the hire right. But Mandel’s point about Rivers certainly does seem to raise some caution about how that might work out.
NC State Warned About Hiring Phillip Rivers as Head Coach