Report: NC State hiring D.J. Eliot as defensive coordinator
NC State is expected to hire D.J. Eliot as its next defensive coordinator, ESPN’s Pete Thamel reported Monday. Eliot was most recently the linebackers coach for the Philadelphia Eagles in 2023.
Prior to that, he was also a defensive coordinator at Kentucky, Colorado, Kansas and Temple. He takes over a Wolfpack defense coming off of a 6-7 season.
NC State ranked as the No. 88 overall defense and No. 103 scoring defense this past season. The hired of Eliot comes just after offensive coordinator Robert Anae was fired, and the Wolfpack will have to get to work finding another new coordinator.
Eliot also brings ACC experience, having worked as an assistant at Florida State under Jimbo Fisher. Additionally, he was a graduate assistant at Miami in 2002.
Official bloodied, 8 players ejected following NC State vs ECU melee at Go Bowling Military Bowl
Things took a turn for the worse near the end of Saturday’s Go Bowling Military Bowl between NC State and ECU. A brawl broke out in the final minute of a 26-21 victory for the Pirates, leaving one referee bloody after taking a helmet to his face.
Chaos took over as the benches emptied and several players from both teams got involved in the fight. The official suffered the injury when an ECU player pushed an NC State player in the back, causing him to fall forward into the referee and headbutt him with his helmet.
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Eight players were ejected as a result of the fracas, five from the Wolfpack and three from the Pirates. It took a while to get everything sorted out before the final 38 seconds ticked off the clock and ended the game.
The fight started when ECU receiver Yannick Smith appeared to grab the towel of NC State defensive Back Tamarcus Cooley. Cooley then chased after Smith and grabbed him before other players got involved.
NC State coach Dave Doeren issued an apology in his postgame press conference for the behavior of several of his players who were involved in the fight.
“I would like to apologize for our football team for how that ended,” he said. “I’m embarrassed as a coach and I know our players are, too. That is not how people in this program, players in this program, staff in this program want anything to do with something like that. To me, it was a terrible response to something that happened to one of our players and there’s no excuses for it. So I apologize to ECU and their team.”