NORTH CAROLINA STATE WOLFPACK NOTES:
GOING BOWLING
The Pop-Tarts Bowl marks NC State’s 36th bowl qualification and will mark its 35th bowl game played. It’s the ninth bowl qualification during head coach Dave Doeren’s 11 seasons with the Wolfpack, although the 2021 Holiday Bowl was canceled on game day, so he’s actually only coached eight bowl games with the Pack. NC State posts a 17-16-1 all-time bowl record and a 5-3 bowl record under Doeren, who has led NC State to more bowl games than any coach in school history.
THE PACK IN ORLANDO
NC State has never played in a bowl that involved Pop-Tarts, but the Wolfpack has played four other bowl games in what is now Camping World Stadium, posting a 3-1 mark in those games. Here are some notes on NC State’s previous visits: • Two legendary quarterbacks played their final game in a Wolfpack uniform in the venue. In 2003, Philip Rivers led NC State to a 56-26 thumping of Kansas in the Mazda Tangerine Bowl, throwing for 475 yards and five touchdowns. In 2010, Russell Wilson led the Pack to a 23-7 win over West Virginia in the Champs Sports Bowl. • The Pack’s three wins in this game were in the 2010 Champs Sports Bowl vs. West Virginia (23-7), the 2003 Mazda Tangerine Bowl vs. Kansas (56-26), and the 1978 Tangerine Bowl over Pitt (30-17). NC State fell to Pitt (19-34) in the 2001 Visit Florida Tangerine Bowl. • Wolfpack head coach Dave Doeren does not have fond memories of playing at Camping World Stadium. He was on the Kansas staff that was on the receiving end of Rivers and the Pack in 2003. • In addition to Doeren, five of NC State’s assistant coaches have previously coached in the bowl Robert Anae – 2002 Tangerine Bowl (Texas Tech) Tony Gibson – 2016 Russell Athletic Bowl (WVU); 2018 Camping World Bowl (WVU) Brian Mitchell – 2017 Camping World Bowl (VT) Kurt Roper – 1997 Citrus Bowl (Tenn.) Charley Wiles – 2012 Russell Athletic Bowl (VT), 2017 Camping World Bowl • Nickels coach Freddie Aughtry-Lindsay was one the leading tackler for the Wolfpack in the win over Kansas in the 2003 Tangerine Bowl with 13.
NOTING THE PACK
• Wolfpack head coach Dave Doeren is now the winningest coach in school history with 81 wins at NC State. • NC State is one of only five teams in the Power 5 that has won eight or more games in each of the last four seasons. The others are Georgia, Alabama, Notre Dame and Clemson. • LB Payton Wilson is the 2023 recipient of the Butkus Award for the nation’s top linebacker and the Bednarik Award, given to the nation’s top defensive player. Wilson leads the ACC in tackles (11.5/game). That mark ranks fifth in the FBS. • In all, the Wolfpack defense ranks in the top 25 of the FBS in 10 defensive categories. • The Wolfpack was ranked No. 18 in the final CFP rankings of 2023. That marks ties as the highest final ranking ever. • True freshman receiver KC Concepcion, one of the top rookies in the country, is a finalist for the Shaun Alexander Award. He has more touchdown grabs than any true freshman in the FBS this year with 10 – that mark ranks 14th in the FBS. • NC State is 24-for-25 inside the 10-yardline this season (19 TDs, 5 FG). One of those unsuccessful trips was at the end of the Wake Forest game as time ran out. • The Wolfpack ranks 18th in the FBS in team sacks and third in interceptions.
BOWLING BACK-TO-BACK (TO BACK TO BACK)
The Wolfpack has qualified for bowls in nine of the past 10 seasons. That is tied as the second-best mark in the ACC in that time frame (Clemson has qualified for bowls in 10 straight years and Miami is tied with the Pack for bowl bids in nine of the past 10 years). Doeren has led NC State to more bowl games than any coach in school history and in his 13 total seasons as a head coach, has qualified for 11 bowls.
KANSAS STATE WILDCATS NOTES:
Following an 8-4 regular season and another final College Football Playoff Top 25 ranking, No. 25 Kansas State will be in search of its second-straight season with at least nine victories as it faces 18th-ranked NC State in the Pop-Tarts Bowl on Thursday, December 28 inside Camping World Stadium in Orlando, Florida. The game, which kicks off at 5:45 p.m. (ET), will be shown to a national audience on ESPN. The Pop-Tarts Bowl marks the 25th bowl game all-time for the Wildcats, who are advancing to a bowl for a fourth time in five years under head coach Chris Klieman. This will be Kansas State’s first-ever bowl game in the state of Florida and just the seventh game all-time in The Sunshine State. K-State is looking for its fourth bowl victory in its last six tries for just the second time in school history and in search of ending the season with a winning note for the first time since a 42-20 win over LSU in the Texas Bowl after the 2021 season. The Wildcats have never played a bowl game against an ACC opponent at the time of the game, but did face Syracuse three times and Boston College once when those schools were members of the Big EAST.
A LOOK AT THE WILDCATS
K-State is the only Big 12 team to collect at least eight wins in each of the last three seasons and has reached the mark in three-straight years for the first time since doing so four-consecutive years from 2011 through 2014. The Wildcats’ four losses this season were by a combined 21 points, and three of those four defeats were at the hands of teams that finished in the final College Football Playoff Top 25 in No. 3 Texas, No. 9 Missouri and No. 20 Oklahoma State. The Wildcats started the season with two resounding wins over SEMO (45-0) and eventual Sun Belt Conference Champion Troy (42-13), the latter being a program that has won 11 games prior to its Birmingham Bowl against Duke on December 23. The Wildcats opened conference play with a dominating 44-31 victory over new Big 12 member UCF – which is playing in the Gasparilla Bowl against Georgia Tech on December 22 – before suffering a 29-21 loss at Oklahoma State on a Friday night. K-State rebounded from that defeat by reeling off three-straight convincing victories – a 38-21 win at Texas Tech, a 41-3 blowout of TCU and a 41-0 shutout of another new conference member, Houston. The Wildcats then went to Austin, Texas, looking to take down the top-10 Longhorns. Trailing 27-7 late in the third quarter, the Wildcats outscored UT, 23-6, over the final 15-plus minutes to send the game into overtime. K-State held Texas to a field goal on its first overtime possession, and the Wildcats drove down to the four-yard line on their possession before a sack on 4th down ended the game with a 33-30 defeat. Much like it did following the loss at Oklahoma State, K-State bounced back in a big way by blowing out Baylor, 59-25. The next week at Kansas, K-State trailed, 27-16, but scored the game’s final 15 points to earn its 15th-straight win over the Wildcats’ in-state rival with a 31-27 victory. The Wildcats enter the Pop-Tarts Bowl with a sour taste in their mouth after finishing the regular season with a 42-35 home loss to Iowa State in the snowiest K-State game in recent memory. A new era of K-State football opens in the 2023 Pop-Tarts Bowl as true freshman quarterback Avery Johnson will earn his first start under center for the Wildcats. The top dual-threat quarterback in the Class of 2023, Johnson has played in seven games this year, throwing for 301 yards and three touchdowns on 23- of-35 (65.7%) aim, while he has rushed for 225 yards and six touchdowns on just 45 carries. His six rushing touchdowns this season are tied for third nationally among true freshmen and tied for first among true freshman quarterbacks. Sophomore running back DJ Giddens produced the 19th 1,000-yard rushing season in school history as he enters the Pop-Tarts Bowl with 1,075 rushing yards. It is the third-straight season the Wildcats have had a 1,000-yard rusher (Deuce Vaughn), while it is the third-most rushing yards by a sophomore in school history behind Darren Sproles (1,465 yards in 2022) and Vaughn (1,404 yards in 2021). With 66 rushing yards against NC State, Giddens will enter the school’s top-10 list for single-season rushing yards among all players. Leading the way on the ground is an experienced offensive line in which the five expected starters have combined for 228 career games played in 169 starts. That unit is led by two-time Big 12 Offensive Lineman of the year and Consensus All-American Cooper Beebe, who has started 47 of his 50 career games played. He is the first offensive lineman in school history and 12th player overall to earn Consensus All-America honors, while it is the 14th time a Wildcat has earned the distinction. Young wide receivers in freshman Jayce Brown and sophomore Keagan Johnson came on toward the end of the season as the duo combined for 371 yards and a pair of touchdowns on 27 catches over the final four regular-season games. Brown enters the Pop-Tarts Bowl ranked fifth in school history in receiving yards by a freshman and is 50 yards away from having the most in school history by a true freshman. Defensively, K-State enters bowl season ranked in the top 30 nationally in seven categories, which includes a No. 29 ranking in scoring defense at 21.2 points allowed per game to rank second in the Big 12. Additionally, K-State was one of the most ball-hawking teams over the second half of the season, leading the country with 18 takeaways over the final seven games. Safety Marques Sigle leads five defenders that will be playing in the Pop-Tarts Bowl that have carded at least 35 tackles this season. He is joined on that list by linebackers Austin Moore (59) and Desmond Purnell (47), safety VJ Payne (47) and cornerback Jacob Parrish (38).
A LOOK AT THE WOLFPACK
NC State finished the regular season with a 9-3 overall record and a 6-2 ACC record to finish third in the conference. The Wolfpack enter the Pop-Tarts Bowl on a five-game winning streak, including a 24-17 win over Clemson, which finished at No. 23 in the final College Football Playoff Top 25. Quarterback Brennan Armstrong threw for 1,621 yards and 11 touchdowns on 146-of-234 (62.4%) aim and was also the team’s leading rusher with 544 yards and six touchdowns on 126 carries. The Wolfpack defense is led by linebacker Payton Wilson, the 2023 Chuck Bednarik Award and Butkus Award winner who collected 138 tackles with 17.5 tackles for loss, 6.0 sacks and three interceptions.
WILDCATS HEADED TO POP-TARTS BOWL
• Coming off an 8-4 regular season – including a 6-3 conference mark to tie for fourth in the Big 12 – Kansas State earned its 25th bowl berth all time and fourth under head coach Chris Klieman as the 25th-ranked Wildcats will face No. 18 NC State in the PopTarts Bowl on Thursday, December 28, inside Camping World Stadium in Orlando, Florida. • Of K-State’s 25 total bowl appearances all-time, 23 of those have come since 1993. • The Wildcats hold a 10-14 record in bowl games and are looking to win their fourth bowl game in their last six appearances. It would be the first time since the 1997 through 2002 seasons the Wildcats won four bowls in six tries. • This will mark the ninth different state in which K-State has traveled to bowl games. The most frequent destinations are Arizona (4-Copper/Insight/Buffalo Wild Wings/Cactus, 3-Fiesta) and Texas (3-Cotton, 3-Texas, 2-Alamo).
K-STATE AND THE ACC
• Kansas State will be playing its 19th game all-time against current members of the ACC. • The 2023 Pop-Tarts Bowl will be the first time ever the Cats will play a bowl game against a team in the ACC at the time of the game. K-State did defeat Syracuse, 35-18, in the 1997 Fiesta Bowl and lost in the 2001 Insight.com Bowl and 2010 Pinstripe Bowl when it was a member of the Big EAST. The Cats lost to another Big EAST-turned-ACC member Boston College in the 1994 Aloha Bowl. • This will be K-State’s first game against an ACC member since a 52-13 home victory over Miami in 2012. The Wildcats also defeated the Hurricanes a year prior in Miami Gardens.
K-STATE IN FLORIDA
• K-State is playing its first ever bowl game in the state of Florida and just the seventh overall game in The Sunshine State. • The last time K-State played in Florida was 2011 at Miami, a 28-24 victory. Four of the other five games came in the 1970s as the Wildcats played in Gainesville against Florida (1947 – L; 1973 – L), in Tallahassee against Florida State (1970 – L; 1976 – L) and in Tampa against the University of Tampa (1973 – W).
CATS AND WOLFPACK
• For the second-straight season, Kansas State will see a first-time matchup in a bowl game as the Wildcats and NC State are meeting for the first time ever on the gridiron in the Pop-Tarts Bowl. • Last season in the Sugar Bowl, K-State and Alabama met for the first time. • In fact, this year’s Pop-Tarts Bowl will represent just the fourth time the Cats will face a team from the state of North Carolina. • K-State defeated Charlotte, 55-7, in Manhattan in 2017. The Cats also split road victories against Wake Forest in 1975 (17-16 win in Winston Salem) and 1976 (13-0 loss in Manhattan).
BOWLING AGAIN
• In an era of college football where over 80 teams play in bowl games each year, K-State is one of just 16 Power 5 schools to advance to a bowl in 12 of the last 14 years. • The Wildcats are one of three Big 12 teams to accomplish the feat, joining Oklahoma and Oklahoma State. • Since 1993, Kansas State has advanced to 24 bowl games, which is tied for 16th nationally and fourth in the Big 12.
