North Carolina State: 2025 Gasparilla Bowl Champions

 

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) CJ Bailey threw for 221 yards and two touchdowns, and scored another on the ground as NC State took down Memphis 31-7 in the Gasparilla Bowl on Friday.

North Carolina State: 2023-24 Atlantic Coast Men's Basketball Champions

 

WASHINGTON — It must be March.

North Carolina State capped a miraculous conference tournament run with an 84-76 win over North Carolina on Saturday night, stealing a spot in the NCAA Tournament on the eve of Selection Sunday.

The Wolfpack, which lost seven of its last nine regular-season games, arrived in Washington as the No. 10 seed in the ACC tournament, needing to win five games in five days to prolong its season. And with an upset of Duke, an overtime victory over Virginia and its smothering of the Tar Heels on Saturday night, it managed to do just that.

NC State last won the ACC tournament in 1987 under legendary coach Jim Valvano.

"Everybody expected this to be Carolina and Duke," Wolfpack coach Kevin Keatts said Friday. "Well, it's Carolina and NC State. We play pretty good basketball at NC State, too."

The Wolfpack were led by fifth-year guard DJ Horne, who racked up 29 points on 9-of-15 shooting while navigating foul trouble for much of the second half. He fouled out with a little more than a minute remaining.

DJ Burns Jr., who is listed at 275 pounds, also caused frequent issues for the Tar Heels with his bruising play in the post, finishing with 20 points, seven assists and four rebounds.

With the win, NC State injected a bit of chaos into the NCAA Tournament field less than 24 hours before the bracket is revealed. The Wolfpack is expected to join North Carolina, Duke and Clemson as the ACC teams in the field; Its win could amount to disaster for Virginia, which was among the key teams on the bubble.

North Carolina State: 2017 Sun Bowl Champions

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EL PASO, Texas -- North Carolina State's offense came up big in a Sun Bowl matchup that was supposed to be about defense.

Nyheim Hines had three of North Carolina State's Sun Bowl-record six rushing touchdowns to help the Wolfpack beat Arizona State 52-31 on Friday. Hines' three scoring runs were all from 5 yards.

"It just really goes to show how great our offensive line is," Hines said. "I'll definitely have to treat them when I get back to Raleigh."

Hines was named the game's MVP. He helped the team score on four of five first-half possessions to fuel the rout.

Hines finished with 72 yards on 16 carries for North Carolina State (9-4). The Wolfpack played in their fourth consecutive bowl game and sixth in seven years under coach David Doeren.

"Top 25 (in the College Football Playoff rankings) is the standard we want for this program," Doeren said.

Reggie Gallaspy added 79 yards and two touchdowns on 12 carries for the Wolfpack, Ryan Finley completed 24 of 29 passes for 318 yards and a score, and Stephen Louis had three catches for 115 yards.

Arizona State (7-6) played its final game under fired coach Todd Graham, with former NFL coach Herm Edwards taking over the program. The Sun Devils had four turnovers.

"I don't think we've turned the ball over four times all year," Graham said. "But give them a lot of credit. They're a very good football team. We just couldn't stop them."

Manny Wilkins was 25 of 40 for 352 yards and three touchdowns for the Sun Devils. He also threw three interceptions.

N.C. State played without defensive end Bradley Chubb. Chubb, a projected top-10 pick in the NFL draft, announced before the game that he wouldn't play. It marked the second year in a row that the biggest star at the game didn't play. Last year, Stanford running back Christian McCaffrey skipped it.

THE TAKE AWAY North Carolina State: The team's defensive experience showed. Even without Chubb, the Wolfpack limited ASU to 10 points through three quarters.

Arizona State: Graham called the plays Friday. It wasn't a great showing for him. The offense was unable to run the ball. ASU had 469 yards of offense, but 21 of their points came in the fourth quarter.

CHUBB SITS OUT

N.C. State's Chubb, the ACC Defensive Player of the Year, announced Friday morning he wouldn't play. "I just let them know that the decision I made is not anything about them," Chubb said in a CBS interview. "It's just looking out for myself. They all understood."

AND ANOTHER ONE

Arizona State played without one of its leading tacklers, linebacker Christian Sam, who also sat out to prepare for the draft. Jay Jay Wilson had 13 tackles, but ASU missed Sam. The Sun Devils allowed 491 yards of offense. The Wolfpack ran 73 plays and had a 9:00 edge in time of possession.

RECORDS

The 42 points scored in the fourth quarter set a Sun Bowl record for points in a quarter. The 45 points in the second half tied a game record, and the 83 total points was the second most in game history.

BY THE NUMBERS

N.C. State is 17-13-1 in bowl games and won its first appearance in the Sun Bowl. Hines is the first Wolfpack rusher to have consecutive 1,000-yard seasons since 1977-78. Receiver Kelvin Harmon had four catches for 24 yards, pushing him over 1,000 yards for the season. All-purpose back Jaylen Samuels had seven catches for 46 yards, setting the team record for catches in a career.

Arizona State is 14-15-1 in bowls and 3-2-1 in the Sun Bowl. Running back Demario Richard had 50 yards to become the first ASU runner with multiple 1,000-yard seasons since 1974-75.

UP NEXT


North Carolina State: Even though they will lose nine seniors on defense, the Wolfpack is still a team to watch in the ACC. They'll return nine starters on offense, including quarterback Ryan Finley, running back Nyheim Hines and four of the five starters on the line. The Wolfpack will open next season on Sept. 1 at home against James Madison.

Arizona State: Edwards takes over the program, and he'll have two new coordinators. Defensive coordinator Phil Bennet declined to return next season, and the team hired San Diego State defensive coordinator Danny Gonzales to replace him. ASU already had promoted quarterbacks coach Billy Napier to the role of offensive coordinator, but then Napier left to become the head coach at Louisiana. The team's new offensive coordinator will be Rob Likens, who was the wide receivers coach. The Sun Devils will open the next season at home Sept. 1 against UT-San Antonio.

North Carolina State: 2016 Independence Bowl Champions

SHREVEPORT, La. -- North Carolina State quarterback Ryan Finley has a simple philosophy when it comes to getting do-everything threat Jaylen Samuels involved with the offense.

"Just give him the ball in as many ways as possible," Finley said.

The method of choice on Monday was by air, and Finley found Samuels for three touchdowns passes in North Carolina State's 41-17 win over Vanderbilt in the Independence Bowl.

North Carolina State (7-6) won three of its final four games to finish with a winning record. The Wolfpack built a 28-3 lead by midway through the third quarter -- largely thanks to Samuels' touchdown catches of 9, 55 and 17 yards -- and then held off a brief Vanderbilt rally.

Samuels was named the game's Most Valuable Player on offense and his three touchdown catches were an Independence Bowl record. Finley, who completed 19 of 30 passes for 235 yards, hit Samuels six times for 104 yards.

North Carolina State coach Dave Doeren said Samuels' big night wasn't necessarily planned, but when Vanderbilt loaded the defense to stop the run, he was the man who was open. The 5-foot-11, 223-pound junior often has had an unorthodox role on the offense and is listed as a tight end and fullback.

"We were just taking what they were giving us," Doeren said. "And then our receivers did a great job of blocking for him."

Vanderbilt (6-7) had a lot of momentum going into the game thanks to surprising wins over Mississippi and Tennessee to end the regular season. But the Commodores' offense -- which scored a combined 83 points against the Rebels and Volunteers -- struggled for most of the night.

"We looked a little rusty," coach Derek Mason said. "All the way around -- special teams, offense and defense. We just didn't look like the Vanderbilt team that came out of the regular season."

Vanderbilt's Kyle Shurmur completed just 19 of 46 passes for 158 yards and three interceptions.

"There's a fine line between being aggressive and careless," Shurmur said. "And I crossed it a few times."

Even so, the Commodores briefly made things interesting, closing to 28-17 early in the fourth quarter. But that's when NC State's Nyheim Hines responded with a 100-yard touchdown on a kickoff return to put the game out of reach.

THE TAKEAWAY

Vanderbilt: The Commodores' offense took a step backward after some late-season improvement. Veteran running back Ralph Webb had another nice game with 111 yards rushing and a touchdown, but Shurmur's struggles throwing the ball were too much to overcome.

NC State: The Wolfpack end a frustrating season with an impressive win. They were fantastic on defense for most of the night and the Finley-to-Samuels connection couldn't be stopped by Vanderbilt.

WEBB BREAKS RECORD, SAYS HE'S COMING BACK

Webb's 111 yards rushing gave him a school-record 1,283 yards for the season. The junior, who already is Vanderbilt's career rushing leader, said during the postgame press conference that he plans to return for his senior season.


DEFENSIVE MVP

North Carolina State's Airius Moore was named the game's defensive MVP after leading the Wolfpack with nine tackles, including two sacks.

UP NEXT

Vanderbilt: The Commodores took a major step forward this season by making a bowl game in Mason's third season. Vanderbilt will have a few holes to fill, but should return several key players in 2017.

NC State: The Wolfpack are still struggling to push into the upper tier of the Atlantic Coast Conference. NC State finishes with another winning season under Doeren, but the program feels a little stuck at the moment.

North Carolina State: 2014 St. Petersburg Bowl Champions

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- A turnaround season got a little sweeter for North Carolina State in the Bitcoin St. Petersburg Bowl.

The Wolfpack took another step forward under second-year coach Dave Doeren on Friday night with a 34-27 victory over Central Florida that wasn't as close as the final score.

NC State (8-5) dominated for three quarters before Justin Holman threw a pair of fourth-quarter touchdown passes to help UCF pull within seven.

"This is just the beginning," Doeren told cheering Wolfpack fans listening to a postgame interview over the public address system at Tropicana Field. "Go Pack!"

Jacoby Brissett threw for 262 yards and one touchdown and Matt Dayes scored on runs of 24 and 15 yards for NC State, which won just three games in its first season under Doeren.

"I can't wait for next season, there's no telling how far this team can go," Brissett said. "I'm excited in the direction we're going. This is a great program to be at. Everything is set up for us to have success."

Brissett tossed a 37-yard TD pass to Johnathan Alston to put the Wolfpack ahead for good in the second quarter. Running back Shadrach Thornton got NC State going early with an 18-yard scoring pass to Jaylen Samuels.

UCF (9-4) began the night ranked in the top 10 in fewest yards allowed per game, as well as pass efficiency, rushing and scoring defense. But American Athletic Conference co-champions had no answers for Brissett and a supporting cast that amassed 488 yards of total offense -- over 200 more than opponents averaged against the Knights during the regular season.

Brissett was 15 of 26 with no interceptions, completing passes to eight receivers. Thornton rushed for 96 yards on 17 carries and Dayes finished with 78 yards on 13 attempts to key a ground attack that produced 188 yards.

Doeren thanked his players and coaching staff and talked about Brissett's growth in his first season at NC State after transferring from Florida.

"He takes things so personal. He is such a competitor," Doeren said. "He gives all the credit to his teammates. He learned a lot throughout the season, and we love him."

Holman completed 23 of 53 passes for 291 yards for UCF, including TD passes of 6, 14 and 2 yards to Josh Reese, who had six receptions for 75 yards. Reese's second touchdown cut it to 34-20 with 11 minutes remaining.

The Knights got the ball back three more times, but couldn't get any closer until Holman threw his 2-yarder to Reese with 1:44 left. NC State's Tyler Purvis recovered the ensuing onside kick, and the Wolfpack ran out the clock.

"We just let the game get out of a whack a little bit," UCF coach George O'Leary said. "You can't do that."

UCF is a year removed from arguably the biggest victory in school history, an upset of Baylor in the Fiesta Bowl that capped the Knights' first 12-win season.

Going from appearing in a BCS game for the first time to ending the year in St. Petersburg for the second time in three seasons might have been perceived as a letdown except the Knights have continued to prosper after losing star quarterback Blake Bortles to the NFL draft, where he was the third overall selection by the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Holman's Hail Mary pass to Breshad Perriman as time expired gave UCF a 32-30 victory over East Carolina and a share of its second straight AAC championship.

NC State is in its second season of rebuilding under Doeren, who took over after a highly successful stint at Northern Illinois. The Wolfpack went 0-8 in the ACC and 3-9 overall in 2013, and the four-game improvement in their regular-season record this year matched Mississippi State for the second-biggest in the five power conferences.

The Bitcoin Bowl was a homecoming of sorts for Brissett, who is from West Palm Beach and transferred to NC State from Florida. The 6-foot-4, 231-pound redshirt junior completed 10 of his first 12 passes for 197 yards, including his TD pass to Alston that put the Wolfpack up 14-10 early in the second quarter.

NC State won a postseason game for the first time since winning the Belk Bowl in 2011, ending UCF's three-game winning streak in bowl appearances.

"This is a good springboard to next season because the year before we lost our bowl game and last year we didn't get to one," Brissett said. "But this shows you the level that we can play at, and UCF is a very good team that won the Fiesta Bowl last year. This is a great victory. It's no telling how far this team can go."