Kansas State and North Carolina State will square off on Thursday, December 27th, in the Pop-Tarts Bowl in a game featuring two teams who had successful seasons but will be shorthanded.
Kansas State came into the season as the reigning Big 12 Champ and had high aspirations of repeating that accomplishment in 2023. Unfortunately, a few one-score games didn’t go their way, and they ultimately ended up finishing in a three-way tie for fourth, but due to tiebreakers, finished sixth in the league at 6-3 and 8-4 overall.
North Carolina State also started the season with high aspirations however got off to a slow start going 4-3 before winning their final five games of the regular season including wins over Clemson, Miami, and North Carolina.
Players Not Playing in the Bowl Game
To this point (five games) the Big 12 has not had a game where a significant number of players opted-out due to transferring or entering their name into the NFL Draft. This will be the first, and likely only time that will happen, which is a testament to the team cultures of the Big 12. It seems most every other P5 around the nation is having multiple guys sit out, but that simply hasn’t been the case in this league, with an exception to Kansas State.
Kansas State will be without starting quarterback Will Howard, who entered the transfer portal and is also considering the NFL. They will also be without second-leading rusher Treshaun Ward and safety Kobe Savage. The Wildcats will be without many other players, but those are the most impactful.
For NC State, they will without All-American and leading tackler Payton Wilson and many other backup players that will negatively effect rotations and rhythm.
How to Watch:
Thursday , December 28th, 6:45 PM ET on ESPN or ESPN+
Prediction for Kansas State vs North Carolina State
The odd makers in Vegas and ESPN’s analytics favor the Wildcats despite the amount of significant opt-outs, particularly on the offensive side of the ball. It is worth noting that freshman quarterback Avery Johnson has played some significant time this season throwing for three touchdowns and rushing for another six, so this won’t a completely new quarterback/feel for this team.
Something else to consider is that Kansas State is probably ranked lower than where they should be. They lost to Missouri on the road by three before everyone knew Mizzou was going to be a Top 15 team. They lost to OK State by a touchdown when everyone was still coming off the shock of the Cowboy’s losing to South Alabama. Texas was an understandable loss. Iowa State was a weird game in the snow where Kansas State ultimately knew the game probably didn’t matter since they were out of the Big 12 Championship Game picture.
NC State on the other hand, gets perhaps a bit more credit than they deserve. They beat Miami when they were still 6-2 (finished 7-5). Their loss to then No. 17 Duke looked like an acceptable loss, but then Duke went on to lose four of their final six games.
When putting all of this together, with the better wins and worse losses, along with the opt-outs and team motivation, it is really tough to get a good read on how this game will go. My final prediction is that Kansas State will find enough points to win this game. Their experience in close games will pay dividends and they will win in a very close game that may come down to the final play.
Final Score: Kansas State 35, NC State 31