Date: Thursday, December 28, 2023
Kickoff: 5:45 p.m. (ET)
Location: Orlando, Fla.
Stadium: Camping World Stadium (65,000)
Series: First Meeting
BOWL PREVIEW
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 ballhawking 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.