March 17, 2022

Charlotte Touchdown Club and Football Writers Association of America Announce 2022 Bronko Nagurski Awards Banquet Keynote Speaker

Dave Doeren Named Keynote Speaker for 2022 Bronko Nagurski Awards Banquet
presented by LendingTree

Charlotte, N.C. (March 17, 2022) – The Charlotte Touchdown Club in
conjunction with the Football Writers Association of America, officially
announced today Dave Doeren, Head Football Coach at NC State University, as
Keynote Speaker for the 2022 Bronko Nagurski Awards Banquet scheduled for
Monday, December 5th.

“I am honored to be asked to speak at the Bronko Nagurski Awards ceremony,”
said NC State Head Coach Dave Doeren. “I was in attendance when Bradley
Chubb won the award in 2017, so I know what a first-class event the
Charlotte Touchdown Club puts on. I’m looking forward to it.”

“The Charlotte Touchdown Club and Football Writers Association of America
are thrilled to have Coach Doeren provide the keynote address for the 2022
Bronko Nagurski Awards Banquet,” said John Rocco Executive Director of the
Charlotte Touchdown Club. “We look forward to Coach Doeren’s remarks and to
the announcement of the 2022 Bronko Nagurski Trophy winner at our black tie
gala event held December 5th.”

When former Wolfpack quarterback Philip Rivers came back to visit his alma
mater several years ago, he told the football team that at NC State, “We
play hard. We play tough. And we play together.”

Those words resonated with head coach Dave Doeren, who was in his fourth
year leading NC State at that time.  Working hard is in his DNA. As he said
in his introductory press conference in December of 2012, he’s “lined the
fields and driven the bus.”

Tough? He spent countless hours as a house painter in the hot Kansas summer
so that he could afford to pursue his passion when he first realized that
coaching was his calling.

But what he really thrives on is the third part of that statement: together.
Doeren’s love for coaching is his love for those under his leadership – for
seeing a group of young men come together to work toward a common goal. Then
seeing those young men go on to be successful men, husbands and fathers, in
addition to being great players. That, he says, is what makes him wake up
every day, excited about going to work.

That’s the culture that NC State head coach Dave Doeren has built in his
nine seasons at the helm of the Wolfpack football program.  Tough,
hard-working players who play not for individual, but for the collective.

That culture has paid off with success on the field. Doeren has led the
Wolfpack to 64 victories – the second-highest total in school history. In
2021, the Pack qualified for the seventh bowl game during his tenure, the
most under any coach in program history.

Last season, the Pack posted nine regular season victories and was poised to
become just the second 10-win team in school history before UCLA pulled out
of the Holiday Bowl on game day.  Even so, resilient squad finished No. 18
in the final CFP poll, despite losing seven starters to injury during the
season.

The 2021 Wolfpack became the first squad since 1986 (35 years!) to go
undefeated at home and one of just six teams in school history (1967, 1972,
1973, 1974, 1986) to post an unblemished record at Carter-Finley Stadium.

Doeren now has more nine-win campaigns than any coach in school history
(three) and has now led five of his nine NC State squads to seasons with
eight or more victories.  In the past two years, NC State ranks second only
to Clemson in the ACC in league wins, posting a 13-5 record.

In terms of overall victories, Doeren has put NC State in elite company, as
the only Power 5 teams with more wins than NC State over the past two years
are Alabama, Notre Dame, Georgia, Oklahoma, Oklahoma St., Clemson, Ohio
State and Texas A&M. Between 2017-20, 14 of his players have been drafted by
the NFL  – including an ACC-best seven in 2017 – the sixth-highest total
nationally.

Between 2017-21, 14 of his players have been drafted by the NFL  – including
an ACC-best seven in 2017 – the sixth-highest total nationally. And Doeren’s
players aren’t just prepared for the NFL. During his tenure, 262 members of
his team have graduated and NC State’s graduation success rate for football
is at an all-time high and continues to rise.

A Wolfpack player has been a consensus first-team All American in three of
the last five seasons and his squad has boasted 42 Academic All-ACC
performers under his guidance and in 2018 had a player named to the
prestigious NFF National Scholar-Athlete Team.

In 2020, with five new coaches on staff (not to mention a global pandemic to
contend with), the Wolfpack made one of the most inpressive turnarounds in
college football, posting an 8-4 record and earning the sixth bowl bid of
his Wolfpack tenure.  Doeren led his resilient squad to seven ACC victories
– a new school record.

That successful campaign followed a season that saw the Wolfpack decimated
by injuries with seven players (including five starters) lost for the
season. Because of injuries, a Power 5 conference-leading 45 players started
games in 2019 and the Pack played the nation’s second-highest total of
freshmen.

With nine victories, the 2018 Wolfpack was one of just six teams in the
126-year history of NC State football to post nine or more regular season
wins. It marked the first time since 1991-92 that NC State had posted
back-to-back nine-win seasons and was only the third time in school history
that had been accomplished.

Doeren’s teams qualified for five consecutive bowl games (2014-18) – the
second-longest bowl streak in school history – and he is only the second
coach in school history to take teams to five straight postseason bowls.
Doeren, a candidate for several coach of the year honors in 2017,  has
coached bowl eligible teams in 13 of his 17 years in Division 1.

One of his players won one of college football’s national awards in back to
back seasons. In 2017, defensive end Bradley Chubb won the Bronko Nagurski
Trophy, which honors the top defender in college football, as well as the
Ted Hendricks Award for the top DE. In 2018, Garrett Bradbury was the
recipient of the Dave Rimington Trophy – given to nation’s top center. Both
went on to become First Round NFL Draft picks.

The Wolfpack boasted an ACC-best six first-team all-conference performers in
2018 and became the first team in school history to place two wide receivers
on the first team. His 2017 squad posted nine wins for the season, including
a 6-2 mark in the ACC – the most in 23 years. The squad finished the year
with a resounding win in the Hyundai Sun Bowl. In 2016, while facing a
daunting schedule, his squad won three of its last four games, including a
win at rival UNC and an Independence Bowl victory over SEC opponent
Vanderbilt. Four of the squad’s losses in 2016, including two to ranked
teams, were by seven points of less.

In 2015, Doeren took one of the nation’s youngest teams and went to battle
against three teams that ended the regular season ranked in the top 10.  NC
State won four road games in 2015, more than any Wolfpack squad since 2002.
No other State team has turned in more road victories since 1957.  The team
posted numbers on offense and special teams that were among the top marks in
school history. In 2014, his second year as the head coach at NC State, his
team was the second-most improved in the Power 5 conferences.  The Wolfpack
more than doubled its win total from the previous season, earned a bowl
victory and posted its highest team GPA in program history.

The 2014 Wolfpack squad was only the second in school history to score 40 or
more points in five regular season games and posted its best rushing average
since 1992. Despite the tough league schedule in 2015, the team posted four
40+ point games and an almost identical rushing output.

Doeren has built a program at NC State that prides itself in giving back to
the community. Members of his teams have turned in over 7,000 collective
hours of community service since he took over as head coach.  His team has
won the NC State Athletics Community Service Award twice.

He puts his money and his time where his mouth is. Not only does he set a
high standard for his team when it comes to community service, but he holds
himself to that standard. He and his wife, Sara have raised money and
brought awareness to special needs education in Wake County since coming to
NC State and have been big supporters of 321 Coffee – a nonprofit coffee
shop that is staffed by individuals with intellectual and developmental
disabilities

Doeren has established a culture that develops the person by instituting
“Real World Wednesdays.” Every week from January until the season starts, a
different speaker comes in to speak to the team about his or her experiences
or to help teach real life lessons. Speakers have included former players
from the NFL, the business world and other individuals who have shared their
life experiences.

He believes that giving his athletes all the tools and knowledge they need
to be great leaders is essential to their success, on and off the field. He
knows that it takes strong leaders to develop strong leaders, so the
training starts with himself and the coaching staff. He uses examples from
other programs, university resources and outside speakers to help train his
staff.

He came to NC State after leading the program at Northern Illinois to its
most successful two years in program history.  His first Husky squad won the
school’s first Mid-American Conference Championship since 1983 and tied the
school record with 11 wins.  His second version repeated as league champions
and set a new school record by posting 12 victories for the season and
earned a trip to the Orange Bowl – the first BCS berth ever for a MAC
school.  Doeren was a finalist for several national coach of the year awards
following the 2012 campaign.

Under Doeren’s leadership, NIU boasted the nation’s longest conference
winning streak with 17 straight wins versus MAC opponents.  The Huskies
never lost a home game during his tenure in DeKalb, winning a dozen home
contests in his two seasons to extend the nation’s longest home winning
streak to 21 games.

Prior to his stint in DeKalb, Doeren spent five seasons in the Big Ten at
Wisconsin, where he served as defensive coordinator and linebackers coach.
During Doeren’s time in Madison, the Badgers posted a 49-15 overall mark and
played in the Champs Sports Bowl twice, the Outback Bowl, the Capital One
Bowl and the Rose Bowl.

For his first two seasons in Madison, he served as co-defensive
coordinator/recruiting coordinator/linebackers coach and in 2008, was named
the primary defensive coordinator.

Doeren arrived at Wisconsin after four seasons (2002-05) at the University
of Kansas, where he served as linebackers coach and recruiting coordinator
for three seasons before being promoted to co-defensive coordinator under
head coach Mark Mangino.

During Doeren’s time at Kansas, the Jayhawks ended a seven-year bowl
drought, earning bids to the 2003 Tangerine Bowl and the 2005 Ft. Worth
Bowl.  The opponent in that first bowl appearance was a Philip Rivers-led NC
State team.

In 2000 and 2001, Doeren coached the secondary at NCAA Division I-AA (now
Football Championship Subdivision) powerhouse Montana, also serving as the
Grizzlies’ recruiting coordinator for one year. Montana advanced to the I-AA
national championship game in 2000, losing by two points, but returned to
win the national title the following season.  The Grizzlies posted a 28-3
record and won two Big Sky Conference championships in his two years with
the program and he coached five All-Americans, four All-Big Sky performers
and two league defensive MVPs.

Doeren grew up right outside of Kansas City, where he watched his
grandfather, Thomas Glennon, coach high school basketball and track. He
loved the respect his grandfather commanded from his players, even after he
retired from coaching.

When he left for college at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, his goals
were to play football, earn a pre-med degree, go to med school and become an
orthopedic doctor.  He accomplished the first two.

He lettered at tight end for the Bulldogs, catching 19 catches for 237 yards
for his career.  He majored in pre-medical biology, earning Academic
All-America honors as a senior.  He took the Medical College Admission Test
(MCAT).  His plans for the future changed, however, during the summer
between his junior and senior years when his former coach at Bishop Miege
High School asked him to lead seven-on-seven drills.

From that moment on, he decided he wanted to be a coach.  He pursued that
goal with a relentlessness that never wavered.  Instead of heading to med
school, he landed his first coaching job in 1994, right there in Kansas at
Shawnee Mission Northwest High School.  His collegiate coaching career began
just a year later, when he was named an assistant coach at Drake, leading
the linebackers from 1995-97 before adding defensive coordinator chores in
1997.   He also earned his master’s degree from Drake in educational
leadership.

Doeren got his first taste of a bowl experience as a defensive graduate
assistant at the University of Southern California.  During his stint with
the Trojans, he began work on his Ph.D.

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The Charlotte Touchdown Club is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization founded in
1990 for the purpose of promoting high school, collegiate, and professional
football in the Charlotte, North Carolina region. Since its inception, the
club has grown as well as diversified boasting a sponsor team of more than
(80) companies. The Club’s activities and services focus community attention
on the outstanding Citizenship, Scholarship, Sportsmanship, and Leadership
of area athletes and coaches. Through individual and corporate support,
nearly $3,000,000 has been raised and donated to benefit the Touchdown
Club’s scholarship efforts.

Founded in 1941, the  <http://www.footballwriters.com/> Football Writers
Association of America consists of the men and women across North America
who cover college football for a living. The membership includes
journalists, broadcasters and publicists, as well as key executives in all
the areas that involve the game. The FWAA works to govern areas that include
game day operations, major awards and an All-America team. Through its
website, the FWAA works to improve communication among all those who work
within the game. The FWAA also sponsors scholarships for aspiring writers
and an annual writing contest.  Behind the leadership of President David
Jones and Executive Director Steve Richardson and a
<http://www.sportswriters.net/fwaa/about/officers.html> board of veteran
journalists, the FWAA continues grow and work to help college football
prosper at all levels. There are now over 1,000 members.

The Bronko Nagurski Trophy is a member of the National College Football
Awards Association (NCFAA), which was founded in 1997 as a coalition of the
major collegiate football awards to protect, preserve and enhance the
integrity, influence and prestige of the game’s predominant awards. The
NCFAA encourages professionalism and the highest standards for the
administration of its member awards and the selection of their candidates
and recipients. For more information, visit the association’s official
website,  <http://www.NCFAA.org> www.NCFAA.org.

The Bronko Nagurski Trophy is presented annually by the Charlotte Touchdown
Club and the Football Writers Association of America to the nation’s most
outstanding NCAA defensive football player at the Bronko Nagurski Awards
Banquet in Charlotte, N.C. All proceeds benefit the Charlotte Touchdown Club
Scholarship Fund. For more information call 704-347-2918 or
<http://www.touchdownclub.mysites.io> www.touchdownclub.mysites.io.

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