Moments after North Carolina State’s 41-7 blowout loss to Miami (Fla.) came to an end, Dave Doeren found himself answering an unexpected question.
“Hey Coach, I’ve gotta hand it to you. Your birthday’s on December 3, right?” a reporter asked the Wolfpack head coach at the start of his postgame press conference. “I have a couple family members [with birthdays] on that day, so it’s a good birthday to have. So I was just sort of noticing that to loosen things up a little bit.”
The reporter proceeded to ask a more relevant question regarding NC State’s mindset entering the game. As Doeren attempted to answer, he admitted he was still distracted by the reporter’s opening line.
“I’m still caught off guard on my birthday question there,” he said with a laugh before offering a boilerplate answer to the football portion of the question.
The exchange was admittedly odd, albeit harmless enough. Doeren, however, clearly didn’t maintain the same appreciation for the question later in his press conference as the same reporter jumped in to clarify the intent behind his birthday comment.
“Coach, the birthday thing was designed to lighten your mood a little bit,” the reporter stated.
“I just got my ass kicked,” Doeren replied. “This ain’t funny to me. Do you understand that? I do this sh*t for a living. OK?”
The reporter confirmed he understood before moving forward with another Miami-related question.
This might have been the weirdest press conference question of all time.
A Miami reporter opened NC State coach Dave Doeren’s Q&A with “Your birthday is like December 3, right?” to try to “lighten the mood.”
He followed up on it later, which Doeren didn’t like after the loss: pic.twitter.com/LVbdmSeCEf
— Noah Fleischman (@fleischman_noah) November 16, 2025
While it’s unclear who exactly the reporter in question was, On3’s Noah Fleischman indicated that it was a member of the Miami beat. Albeit quirky, the initial ice breaker was fine enough. But the reporter returning to the reference later in the press conference clearly struck a nerve with Doeren, who made it clear he was going to need more than a reminder that his birthday is only a few weeks away to lighten the mood following a 34-point defeat.
About Ben Axelrod
Ben Axelrod is a veteran of the sports media landscape, having most recently worked for NBC's Cleveland affiliate, WKYC. Prior to his time in Cleveland, he covered Ohio State football and the Big Ten for outlets including Cox Media Group, Bleacher Report, Scout and Rivals.