NC State’s Young Players Who Could Impact the Gasparilla Bowl
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The nature of bowl season in college football changed significantly over the last decade, with more and more veteran players choosing to forego their postseason opportunities to get a head start on the NFL draft process or the transfer process. Very few programs escape major floods of opt-outs and transfers before their bowl games.
NC State earned a bid to the 2025 Union Home Mortgage Gasparilla Bowl in Tampa, Florida, for its efforts throughout the regular season. While NC State utilized numerous younger players throughout the regular season, it would be easy to see head coach Dave Doeren take advantage of the Gasparilla Bowl to see the development of some of his younger players.
Not done yet! The Pack is heading to the @GasparillaBowl.
— NC State Football (@PackFootball) December 7, 2025
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While no key members of the Wolfpack have opted out of the game so far, that could change as late as game day. This could thrust a few true and redshirt freshman into some larger roles against the Memphis Tigers.
On this episode of the NC State Insider Podcast, find out which young members of the Wolfpack, including redshirt freshman running back Duke Scott and true freshman linebacker Ke'Von Carter, could be in line for more playing time when the Wolfpack takes the field on Friday.
Watch the episode
Bowl games still matter to Doeren
For Doeren, the value of bowl games hasn't diminished, even in a season when programs that missed out on the College Football Playoff chose to forego bowl season altogether. NC State lost each of the bowls it participated in since it won the 2017 Sun Bowl, so Doeren wants to snap that difficult stretch during the postseason.
"You come here to play football, and I've always looked at bowl games as a reward that you earn," Doeren said. "It's a life experience for these guys, you know, getting to go somewhere and have the Bowl experience... togetherness, team camaraderie, all of that."
The word "Finish" is a common thread throughout NC State's football program, beginning with Doeren and trickling all the way down to the bottom. It's a programmatic philosophy. That word helped NC State fight to end the season with a 3-1 record in November and ultimately get the reward, in Doeren's eyes, of playing in the Gasparilla Bowl.
"How can a game not be meaningful? Every game matters to me," the coach said. " I want to win every game we play, and I want our kids to feel that way, and our coaches to feel that way. And none of us should have other people trying to make us not finish the job we were paid to do."
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Tucker Sennett graduated summa cum laude with a B.A. in Sports Journalism from the esteemed Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University. A former basketball player, he has gained valuable experience working at Cronkite News and brings a deep passion for sports and reporting to his role as the NC State Wolfpack Beat Writer On SI.
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