’Cats, Wolfpack can finish on winning note
BOSTON – No. 17 SMU gets an Atlantic Coast Conference prequel when it plays Boston College in the Fenway Bowl on Thursday.
After winning the American Athletic Conference championship in their final season there, the Mustangs get a head start on their ACC membership when they face BC at the home of the Boston Red Sox in a preview of a new league rivalry set to begin next season.
“It’s a neat way to kind of start to welcome you guys into the ACC,” BC coach Jeff Hafley said Wednesday at the Fenway Bowl media day. “It’s not only a future conference opponent. It’s one of the top teams in the entire country who won their conference and would have had a very successful season in the ACC if they were already in the ACC.”
Conference realignment has shaken up college football, and perhaps nowhere is the shuffling weirder than in SMU’s jump to the ACC. The decidedly not Atlantic coast Dallas school is joining along with California and Stanford to create a – for now – 17-team league beginning in 2024. (To garner the invite, SMU agreed to give up its share of the ACC’s television revenues for years.)
In a quote that could only make sense in modern college football, SMU coach Rhett Lashlee said Wednesday: “Normally in bowl games, you don’t play conference foes. And while we’re not yet, we basically are now.”
No one is suggesting that the Mustangs
ORLANDO, Fla. — When it comes to college bowl games these days, storylines often are as much about who’s not playing rather than who actually is going to be on the field.
With many stars choosing to opt out of postseason trips in favor of entering the transfer portal or preparing for the NFL draft, matchups like Thursday’s PopTarts Bowl between No. 19 North Carolina State and Kansas State essentially become showcases for younger players and those older ones relishing an opportunity to take the field one more time.
“I am going to enjoy one last ride with my teammates,” Kansas State All-American guard Cooper Beebe said. “There is a lot to enjoy and I’m excited to see a lot of these young guys step out for the first time and see what they can do.”
(11-2) won’t be able to compete when they step up to the Power Five.
SMU has won nine straight games, including a 26-14 victory over then 17thranked Tulane in the AAC title game to reach a bowl game for the second time in as many seasons under Lashlee. A 12th victory would be the most since the 1935 team won the national championship.
The Mustangs were hoping for a spot in a New Year’s Six bowl game. But with starting quarterback Preston Stone out – he broke his leg in the Nov. 25 regularseason finale against Navy – they were relegated to the Fenway Bowl against BC,
The Wildcats (8-4) will be missing several key players, including quarterback Will Howard, who entered the transfer portal.
They will also be without secondleading rusher Treshaun Ward and safety Kobe Savage.
That leaves freshman quarterback Avery Johnson to lead the Wildcats against a North Carolina State defense that will be without All-American linebacker Payton Wilson, who opted out to begin preparing for the NFL draft.
Johnson appeared in seven games during the regular season, throwing for three touchdowns and rushing for six more.
“I’ve always had the greatest confidence in myself to just be able to go out there and do what I’m capable of doing,” Johnson said. “I have a great support system around me. the 10th-best team in the ACC.
(As one reporter noted: Getting disrespected by the college football powers because of an injured starting quarterback is the most appropriate possible introduction to the ACC.)
“We’re trying to set a tone for the ACC,” said Kevin Jennings, who made his first career start in the AAC title game. “It just really is showing a sense that we belong.”
The comforts of home
BC linebacker Vinny DePalma has spent six years in Chestnut Hill and never
NC State (9-3) will also be integrating several new players into the starting lineup because of absences.
The Wolfpack will miss Wilson, who was the team’s leading tackler as well as ACC defensive player of the year, however there’s still plenty of motivation for NC State to finish strong Thursday with the prospect of a rare 10-win season on the line.
Chance for history
NC State has just one 10-win season in its program history. The Wolfpack went 11-3 in 2002, including a victory in the Gator Bowl.
The Wolfpack won five straight games down the stretch to get into position to finish with double-digit wins. They won two of those games largely without quarterback Brennan Armstrong in the spent any time in the Boston Common, the 17th century cow pasture that is the oldest city park in the United States.
Defensive back Khari Johnson grew up in the Boston neighborhood of Jamaica Plain but had never walked the Freedom Trail, which winds through many of the city’s historic sites.
Center Drew Kendall, a native of suburban Norwell, had never been candlepin bowling.
Playing a bowl game less than five miles from campus has its advantages, and one of them is getting a new look at a city some of the players have lived in all their lives.
“I’m from here. I love it here. So I’m happy to stay,” offensive lineman Ozzy Trapilo said when asked if he was disappointed not to be heading someplace warmer for the week. “It’s awesome to be in Fenway. I mean, we’re basically home. So that’s always a good thing. We’re pretty familiar with the area. We don’t have to go far. We get to use facilities we’re familiar with. So it’s all been a great experience.”
The bowl week festivities included a visit to the home of the Boston Red Sox, where the players took batting practice and threw the horsehide – not the pigskin – around.
“It was cool for our guys to get to go there yesterday and run around and throw the ball around and see it and feel it,” said Lashlee, who was the offensive coordinator for UConn when it played BC at Fenway in 2017. “We found out real quickly, we aren’t a good baseball team.” lineup. NC State, which is appearing in a bowl game for the third time in four seasons, is seeking its first postseason win since 2017.
New play-caller
Kansas State will play its first game under interim offensive coordinator Conor Riley, who was promoted from offensive line coach after Collin Klein departed for Texas A&M earlier this month. Players are excited for Riley to get the opportunity to lead the offense, noting the enthusiasm and fire the coach is known for instilling among the team’s linemen.
Senior Hayden Gillum joked that one of the benefits of the promotion is the linemen won’t have to hear Riley yelling on the sideline Thursday because the interim coordinator will move upstairs to work from the coaching booth.
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