Update, Nov. 10: The N.C. State Board of Trustees has meetings scheduled for Thursday, Nov. 12, and Friday, Nov. 13, and Philip Rivers’ contract is expected to go before the board for official approval during those sessions. The hire remains pending until trustees act. Rivers’ season-by-season record at St. Michael and additional career honors have been added below.
FAIRHOPE, Ala. — Philip Rivers appears to be headed home to Raleigh. The St. Michael Catholic High School head football coach, a former North Carolina State quarterback and longtime NFL star, is reportedly finalizing a deal to become the next head coach of the Wolfpack, according to multiple reports published Sunday, Nov. 8.
The reports say Rivers and the university are working to finish an agreement and that the N.C. State Board of Trustees, which has meetings set for Nov. 12 and Nov. 13, is expected to consider and approve the hire this week. Rivers has also reportedly begun reaching out to potential assistant coaches and is already working on assembling a staff and front office.
Neither Rivers nor N.C. State had publicly announced an agreement as of Sunday. But if the move is completed as reported, it would end a six-season run at St. Michael in which Rivers took a young Baldwin County program from near the bottom of the standings to the brink of a state championship.
A vacancy that pointed to Rivers almost immediately
The opening in Raleigh came when N.C. State fired Dave Doeren on Oct. 24, following a 31-28 loss to Stanford. Doeren had led the Wolfpack since 2013 and was in his 14th season with the program when he was dismissed in the middle of the year.
Reports suggesting Rivers was the leading candidate began circulating almost as soon as Doeren’s dismissal was announced. Media outlets in the Raleigh area and across the country identified him as the frontrunner, and the speculation intensified when N.C. State officials, including athletics director Boo Corrigan, traveled to Fairhope on Wednesday, Nov. 4, to meet with him. Rivers confirmed that the meeting took place but declined to discuss what was said.
The Wolfpack’s current season has continued in the meantime. N.C. State lost to Duke 41-3 in Raleigh on Saturday, falling to 4-5 overall and 2-4 in the Atlantic Coast Conference. The team has three games left: a home game against Syracuse this coming Saturday, followed by road trips to Florida State, which is also searching for a new head coach, and to North Carolina.
An emotional end to the St. Michael season
The reports came less than 48 hours after St. Michael’s season ended in the first round of the AHSAA Private Class AA playoffs. Glenwood School of Phenix City beat the Cardinals 42-35 on Friday, Nov. 6, on St. Michael’s home field, leaving the Cardinals with a 6-5 record.
After the game, Rivers would not say whether he would take the N.C. State job or whether it had been offered. He was, however, visibly emotional when asked to reflect on his time at the school.
Rivers said it has been a heck of a six years and he is trying to stay focused on the present, adding that he had been looking forward to the playoff run. He said it all comes to an end tonight, but they will see what the future holds.
Asked whether the decision was a difficult one given his family and his ties to N.C. State, which he had called “a special place” in a postgame interview one week earlier, Rivers acknowledged the weight of it.
He said it is a lot and could be a lot, and that seeing what lies ahead in the coming days is a lot to process, but they will take it one day at a time and see where it goes.
Regarding the meeting with university officials, he said they met and visited, noting he has known some of them for a while, so it was good to see them, but there is nothing else to report at this point.
When asked about a next step, he answered that it could be, and that any potential next step would involve the things referenced, but now is not the time and there is nothing else at this point.
Rivers also spoke about what the program had become, saying they didn’t have a stadium a few years ago. He said if this were the last time, a lot was accomplished and the program will be left better than it was six years ago.
Six seasons that transformed St. Michael football
When Rivers arrived for the 2021 season, St. Michael had a 5-25 all-time record. Under Rivers, the Cardinals went 48-21, according to most published tallies (one report lists his record as 49-20, including a 6-4 mark in the playoffs).
Year by year, the Cardinals’ record under Rivers looks like this:
- 2021: 6-3, the first winning season in school history
- 2022: 5-5
- 2023: 6-5, including the program’s first playoff appearance
- 2024: 12-2, reaching the Class 4A state semifinals
- 2025: 13-1, reaching the Class 4A state semifinals
- 2026: 6-5, reaching the Private Class AA playoffs
The high point came in 2024 and 2025, when the Cardinals went a combined 25-3 and reached the Class 4A state semifinals both years. Their only losses in those two seasons came against Jackson High School, which went on to win the state championship each time.
This year brought a new playoff structure, as the AHSAA separated public and private schools for classification and state championship purposes. St. Michael was considered a favorite in Private Class AA, but the season was shaped by an injury to the team’s star quarterback, Rivers’ son Gunner.
The Cardinals lost their first three games without Gunner, then won six straight as they found their rhythm. They closed the regular season with a loss to Foley before falling to Glenwood in the playoff opener.
Gunner Rivers and the road to Raleigh
Gunner Rivers, the oldest son of Philip Rivers, is a four-star prospect who was ranked as the top recruit in Alabama earlier this season and was considered a leading candidate for Alabama Mr. Football entering the year. He committed to N.C. State on Feb. 23, 2026, plans to sign with the Wolfpack in December and is expected to enroll at the university in the spring.
He injured his right knee in the first quarter of the season opener, a nationally televised game against Battle Ground Academy of Tennessee. He returned for the team’s seventh and eighth games but was held out of the final two regular-season contests so the knee could heal further before the playoffs. In all, he played in four games this season.
Gunner played the entire game against Glenwood and threw two touchdown passes. His father said afterward that he played “pretty dang good,” given how little he had played.
Philip Rivers said he thought his son made some good throws but missed a couple of deep balls, and that it was a tough year in that regard. He said as a dad, he wants his son to play every game, but his son handled it well and grew as a person, gaining perspective when something he loves is taken away, and grew more as a man than anything else, which is most important.
Rivers had made clear that, whatever happened with N.C. State, he intended to finish the season on the St. Michael sideline with his son, and he did. Gunner’s commitment means that a move to Raleigh would, in effect, have the father following the son to the Wolfpack.
The chance to return to his alma mater and continue coaching his son appears to have been an opportunity too significant to pass up.
From Athens High to the NFL and back to the sideline
Rivers, a native of Decatur, played high school football at Athens High School in north Alabama, where he was coached by his father, Steve Rivers. He often said during his NFL career that his dream after football was to follow in his father’s footsteps as a high school head coach.
At N.C. State, Rivers started 51 consecutive games from 2000 to 2003. He finished his college career with 13,484 total yards and 95 touchdown passes, and his career passing total still stands as an ACC record more than two decades later. He was named ACC Offensive Player of the Year as a senior, and his No. 17 jersey is retired by the university. He is one of 10 former Wolfpack players to receive that honor; the school retired his number in 2003. He also led the Wolfpack to four straight bowl appearances, was named ACC Athlete of the Year in 2004, was inducted into the N.C. State Athletics Hall of Fame in 2013 and entered the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame in 2022.
The New York Giants selected Rivers fourth overall in the 2004 NFL Draft and traded him to San Diego. He spent 16 seasons with the San Diego and Los Angeles Chargers, earned eight Pro Bowl selections and finished his career with 63,984 passing yards and 425 touchdown passes.
In May 2020, St. Michael announced that Rivers would become its head coach once he retired. He played his final full NFL season in 2020 with the Indianapolis Colts and took over the Cardinals before the 2021 season.
Last December, Rivers made a surprising four-game return to the NFL as a player. Afterward, he interviewed for the then-vacant Buffalo Bills head coaching position before returning to St. Michael. That comeback pushed back his eligibility for the Pro Football Hall of Fame by five years. He had been a Hall of Fame semifinalist the previous year and said in January that the potential delay was not part of his decision.
He said at the time that he was honored to be among the 26 semifinalists but wasn’t holding his breath that it would happen that year. He added that if and when he could ever be among that group, he would be humbled, honored, and thankful, but he doesn’t count down the days and years worrying about it.
Why supporters believe the hire makes sense
Rivers has never coached at the college level in any capacity, and a move directly from high school football to a Power Four head coaching job would be unusual. Even so, many observers have argued over the past several days that he is a strong fit for the Wolfpack.
Supporters point to his football knowledge, his success building the St. Michael program, his deep familiarity with and standing inside the N.C. State program, and the likelihood that his name and reputation will help boost the Wolfpack’s name, image and likeness (NIL) fundraising.
What comes next
The next key step is the N.C. State Board of Trustees, which meets Thursday, Nov. 12, and Friday, Nov. 13, when Rivers’ contract is expected to come up for official approval. Until the board acts and the university makes a formal announcement, the hire remains unofficial. St. Michael has not announced plans for a coaching search, and Rivers has not publicly addressed the reports.
For St. Michael families and Baldwin County football fans, the likely departure marks the end of a remarkable chapter. A program that had won only five games in its history before 2021 now has a stadium, back-to-back semifinal appearances and a winning tradition built by one of the most recognizable names in the sport.
South Alabama News will continue to follow this story and will update readers when N.C. State or St. Michael makes an official announcement.
