With both teams longing for a win after earning bowl eligibility in their final games of the season, the NC State football team came out victorious with a 41-17 win over Vanderbilt on Monday night at the Independence Bowl in Shreveport, Louisiana.
The Commodores (6-7, 3-5 SEC) had no answer for junior Jaylen Samuels, who set an Independence Bowl record with three receiving touchdowns to go along with 104 yards for the Wolfpack (7-6, 3-5 ACC). NC State’s defense also impressed, logging five sacks, two by junior Airius Moore, and holding Vanderbilt to just 158 passing yards.
Both offenses had their fair share of struggles, as senior Matt Dayes fumbled on NC State’s first drive of the game. Vanderbilt broke the drought with an impressive 52-yard field goal to take an early 3-0 lead. The Wolfpack responded with an 11-play, 72-yard drive, but turned the ball over on downs inside Vandy’s 5-yard line after going for the touchdown on fourth down.
Typically, this would result in positive momentum going for the Commodores, but freshman nickel Trae Meadows picked off Vanderbilt quarterback Kyle Shurmur for the first interception of his young career. This led to a 9-yard pass from redshirt sophomore Ryan Finley to Samuels on a short hook that gave the Pack a 7-3 lead with 9:08 left in the half.
It was all NC State from there, as the Commodores missed a crucial short field goal on the ensuing drive. The Wolfpack then scored on its last drive of the half when Samuels showed off his wheels and took it 55 yards to the house on a tunnel screen to extend the lead, 14-3.
The Pack started the second half the same way it ended the first — on fire. Junior Justin Jones hit Shurmur as he threw, allowing redshirt junior Josh Jones to earn his third interception of the season and set up the team in great field position. This led to a 5-yard rushing touchdown by sophomore Reggie Gallaspy II, giving the Wolfpack a sizable 21-3 lead with 11:50 left in the third quarter.
NC State extended the lead even more on its next drive, as Samuels scored his third touchdown of the game, again coming on a tunnel screen, from 17 yards out to make it a 28-3 game with 5:34 remaining in the third.
Vanderbilt finally showed some life for the first time since the missed field goal early in the second quarter with an 11-play, 75-yard drive topped off with a 30-yard rushing touchdown by redshirt junior Ralph Webb to cut the gap, 28-10.
From here, the Commodores attempted their comeback. Freshman Kalija Lipscomb broke off a 71-yard punt return that set up a 4-yard rushing touchdown by redshirt sophomore Khari Blasingame to make it a 28-17 margin.
However, sophomore Nyheim Hines silenced the comeback attempt quickly with a dynamic 100-yard kick return touchdown. This was just the second time in bowl history that NC State returned a kick for a touchdown, and it came at a crucial time, as this halted the Vanderbilt comeback and extended the lead, 35-17, with just 10:21 left in the game.
The Wolfpack spent the remainder of the game simply running out the clock, which included stopping the Commodores on fourth down twice on back-to-back drives and ended the game on a pick-six by redshirt senior Niles Clark. This marked the second bowl victory for the Pack in the past three years under head coach Dave Doeren.
Finley went 19 of 30 for 235 passing yards and three touchdowns, each of which were to Samuels, in the win. In his final game in a Wolfpack uniform, Dayes rushed nine times for 47 yards seeing minimal playing time in the second half.
This will go down as one of the signature wins for NC State in what was a roller coaster ride of a season. The team is set up for better future success with most of the young playmakers returning next season for the Pack.
