Staff Writer
While head coach Dave Doeren will return in 2025, NC State football will have new faces at offensive and defensive coordinator. Quarterbacks coach Kurt Roper will take over the play-calling duties on offense, replacing Robert Anae who was fired after an underwhelming 2024 campaign.
Meanwhile, replacing coaching standout Tony Gibson is former Baylor analyst DJ Eliot, who will be the Pack’s new defensive coordinator, with safeties and nickels coach Freddie Aughtry-Lindsay serving as co-defensive coordinator. Given Roper and Eliot’s questionable performances as coordinators in the past, the hires don’t inspire much confidence for the 2025 season.
Roper has nine years of experience as an offensive coordinator, but struggled to find consistency. He produced just one offense in the top half of the ACC during his six years at Duke and severely struggled at Florida and South Carolina, finishing no better than 12th in total offense at each SEC stint. Roper hasn’t called plays since 2017 at South Carolina so there’s a chance he’s improved, but his track record is far from promising.
The one major positive with Roper is his ability to work well with quarterbacks — a key factor since NC State has its own rising star in freshman quarterback CJ Bailey. The freshman showed plenty of potential and could be the next quarterback Roper sends to the NFL. Under Roper’s guidance, quarterbacks like Eli Manning, Thad Lewis and Sean Renfree have gone on to the next level. Roper’s offenses typically have high passing production, including the ACC’s top passing attack at Duke in 2009.
The problem that has consistently plagued Roper and his offenses is the run game. At Duke, Roper finished with the bottom-ranked rushing offense in the conference in three out of six seasons. At South Carolina, Roper’s two offenses ranked 13th and 12th in the run game. With multiple starting offensive linemen out of eligibility after this year, the Wolfpack would have greatly benefitted from a play-caller with a successful track record in the run game. Instead, the red-and-white will gamble on Roper, hoping he can produce a better run game than he did at his previous stops.
On the other side of the ball, there was no doubt that it’d be difficult to replace Gibson. Under Gibson, the Wolfpack was always one of the best-coached teams defensively in the ACC. With Eliot, the Wolfpack is bringing in someone with nine years of coordinating experience, although questionable results. In a way, the hire is similar to Roper’s promotion — a lot of experience but limited success.
The case for Eliot as a defensive coordinator is his ability to dial up pressure against opposing quarterbacks. At his most recent stop as a coordinator, Temple, Eliot’s defense struggled in almost every category, except for sacks. The Owls led the AAC with 38 sacks in 2022, which was Eliot’s lone season at Temple. In the seasons immediately before and after Eliot’s time at Temple, the Owls finished 10th in the conference in sacks, further proof that Eliot can help generate a pass rush. As a position coach and coordinator helped several pass rushers reach the NFL, including Bud Dupree, Josh Allen and Za’darius Smith.
Unfortunately for NC State, Eliot’s track record dips significantly outside of his season at Temple. At Kentucky from 2013 to 2016, Eliot’s defenses surrendered at least 400 yards per game in all but one year and ranked in the bottom three in the SEC for run defense each season. Eliot performed slightly better at Colorado, but still struggled to contain the run. At Kansas, Eliot’s defense once again failed to stop the run and in 2019 and 2020 it was the only team in the Big 12 to surrender over 200 yards per game on the ground. As a result, Kansas gave up 36.1 and 46.0 points per game during Eliot’s two seasons with the Jayhawks — not a recipe for success.
Roper and Eliot could certainly outproduce their histories and turn out to be successful hires. However, based on their track records as coordinators in the past, neither hire inspires much confidence. With an important year for both Doeren and the NC State program, Roper and Eliot both have major red flags as coordinators that could cost the Pack this upcoming season. For Roper, the inability to establish the run is a major concern, while Eliot’s past struggles to stop the run can’t be overlooked. Much of NC State’s success in 2025 will certainly depend on Roper and Eliot and whether they can outperform their previous work.
Staff Writer
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