NC State coach Dave Doeren pulls a Ryan Day, calls out Steve Smith after win over Clemson
Steve Smith tried to end a feud with Denver Broncos wide receiver Jerry Jeudy on Friday. He unknowingly started one with NC State head coach Dave Doeren on Saturday.
The Carolina Panthers great appeared as the guest picker on ESPN's "College GameDay," which was visiting his alma mater of Utah, and chose Clemson to beat the Wolfpack. He cracked a joke about NC State being a basketball school in the process:
"Clemson has been struggling," Smith said. "They're not the Clemson that we've loved over the years. But NC State, unfortunately, they're waiting for basketball to start."
Doeren apparently saw that and did not appreciate the joke. NC State proceeded to beat down Clemson 24-17, resulting in Doeren profanely telling off Smith to the CW's broadcast during his postgame interview.
"Tell Steve Smith in the studio this ain't a basketball school. He can kiss my ass," Doeren said.
It should be noted that Smith does not work for the CW.
Steve Smith: "NC State, unfortunately, they're waiting for basketball to start."
Dave Doeren after 24-17 win over Clemson: "Tell Steve Smith in the studio this ain't a basketball school. He can kiss my ass." pic.twitter.com/QqOCGmuI6X— Cory Smith (@RCorySmith) October 28, 2023
The moment quickly drew comparisons to Ohio State head coach Ryan Day's irate and out-of-nowhere rant against former Notre Dame head coach Lou Holtz, who had criticized the Buckeyes' toughness in an interview earlier in the week.
Doeren later expanded on his thoughts in his postgame news conference, accusing Smith of disrespecting his program.
"For a guy who lives in Charlotte, he clearly has his head faced west to Utah all the time, which I understand. No disrespect to him, but he disrespected our program and I'm not going to let people do that. These kids have worked their butt off, we've won a lot of football games.
"In my tenure, I think we're second or third in the ACC in wins in football. He can take that and put it where it belongs. This is not a basketball school. This is a great, great school. It has great sports and football's one of them. If he wants to come see me, we can come talk about that, but do your homework before you start talking s***."
Unfortunately, Doeren also appears to be guilty of not doing his homework before he started talking s***.
NC State is not "second or third in the ACC" in football wins since Doeren took over, as he claims. By total wins since 2013, they are sixth. By wins in ACC play, they are currently eighth. Or ninth if you include Notre Dame's 44 wins over ACC teams (across much fewer games) in that span.
Here is the full ACC conference win leaderboard since 2013 (with Notre Dame included):
Clemson: 75
Florida State: 54
Miami: 50
Pitt: 49
UNC: 46
Virginia Tech: 45
Notre Dame: 44
Louisville: 41
NC State: 40
Georgia Tech: 38
Duke: 33
Boston College: 33
Wake Forest: 32
Virginia: 30
Syracuse: 26
Maybe that's not important, but it's a bit rich Doeren accused Smith of not paying attention to the ACC immediately before massively fudging his own program's place in the ACC over the last 11 years.
Smith has never been one to take pokes like these lying down, though he also showed some contrition in the Jeudy feud this week. We'll see what he has to say.
