Game week has arrived. NC State is in the midst of preparing for Thursday night’s season opener against East Carolina, a game that could set the tone for the Wolfpack’s 2025 campaign. Although it’s early — the Pack has yet to play a meaningful snap this calendar year — NC State is viewed as a […]
Game week has arrived. NC State is in the midst of preparing for Thursday night’s season opener against East Carolina, a game that could set the tone for the Wolfpack’s 2025 campaign.
Although it’s early — the Pack has yet to play a meaningful snap this calendar year — NC State is viewed as a bowl-eligible team heading into the new season. It shouldn’t be a surprise since Wolfpack coach Dave Doeren has led the team to nine postseason appearances in his first 12 years, but the program is expected to make another bowl this fall.
When looking at the national pundits that project bowl games throughout the college football season, NC State was picked to play in four different postseason contests: Fenway, First Responder, Gasparilla and the Sun Bowls.
The Fenway Bowl (Dec. 27 in Boston) was the most-popular pick for the Wolfpack to land in with four national outlets projecting that outcome. On3’s Brett McMurphy and ESPN’s Mark Schlabach believed that NC State would face Tulane at Fenway Park, while Athlon Sports had Army as the opponent and ESPN’s Kyle Bonagura chose Navy to square off with the Wolfpack.
NC State has not played in the Fenway Bowl in the postseason game’s three-year history. The Wolfpack, however, has played in a baseball stadium-based postseason tilt with its 34-27 win over UCF in the 2014 St. Petersburg Bowl, which was played at the Tampa Bay Rays’ Tropicana Field.
While the Fenway Bowl appeared to be a top option, Sports Illustrated put NC State in the First Responder Bowl (Dec. 26 in Dallas ) against Kansas. CBS Sports, meanwhile, had the Wolfpack in the Gasparilla Bowl (Dec. 19 in Tampa, Fla.) against Vanderbilt, and The Athletic’s Scott Dochertman and Stewart Mandel placed NC State in the Sun Bowl (Dec. 31 in El Paso, Texas) against USC.
Of those latter bowl options, the Sun Bowl against USC would come with a built-in storyline between the two programs. The Trojans are led by coach Lincoln Riley, who spent five seasons as ECU’s offensive coordinator under current NC State special assistant to the head coach Ruffin McNeill.
McNeill, who has become a critical asset for the Wolfpack program, was later Riley’s associate head coach at Oklahoma for three years before moving back to North Carolina to be closer to his sick father. That move opened the door for the 46-year coaching veteran to team up with Doeren and the Wolfpack.
The Pack has appeared in nine bowl games (qualified for 10, but the 2021 Holiday Bowl was canceled due to positive COVID-19 tests within UCLA’s program) under Doeren, but NC State has not won in the postseason since it beat Arizona State 52-31 in the 2017 Sun Bowl. The Pack lost to East Carolina 26-21 in the Military Bowl last season.
The Wolfpack has also played in the Belk, Duke’s Mayo, Gator, Independence and Pop-Tarts Bowls during Doeren’s tenure.
Category: General Sports
