Former Kentucky coach gets promotion and role at NC State

It was announced by NC State today that former Kentucky coach Kurt Roper will be promoted to offensive coordinator for the Wolfpack. He will also be assigned play-calling duties after NC State fired Robert Anae.

Roper was only at Kentucky for one season as the quarterbacks coach. He worked under offensive coordinator and eventual head coach Joker Phillips. The Wildcats' head coach at the time was Rich Brooks. Roper worked with starting quarterback Andre Woodson for the Wildcats that season.

That era isn't always remembered fondly by Kentucky fans, and in 2005, the Wildcats went 3-8 with only two SEC conference wins. The following year is the year that many will remember as Brooks was able to get the program going in the right direction with a 7-5 season followed by an 8-5 in 2007. When Brooks retired in 2008, Philips took over, and the program fell back into a miserable state.

Roper left after his 2005 stint with Kentucky to go be running backs coach at Tennessee. He was there until 2007 when he got an offensive coordinator position at Duke. He moved around a bit after that but has been at NC State since 2019. This will be his first opportunity at play-calling and being the offensive coordinator since 2014 when he was at Florida. Though he was a co-offensive coordinator at South Carolina in 2016-2017 and the interim head coach for the Colorado Buffaloes in 2018. He's had quite the run in college football, and the NC State Wolfpack are giving him another opportunity.

""Kurt has done a great job for us and knows what we need to do to take the next step forward as a program." "

NC State head coach Dave Doeren

Doeren is confident that Roper will bring them back to prominence and help get NC State in the right direction offensively.