Bowl season might have lost its luster, but NC State, UNC, Duke seek positive endings

It is not a grumpy-old-man opinion, a longing for the days of yore, to acknowledge what’s become a universal truth in college football: Bowl season long ago lost its luster.

This isn’t to say that bowl season isn’t fun. Sure, it’s fun. It’s fun to watch a coach agree to be doused in mayonnaise (hello, Shane Beamer, who signed up for this after South Carolina’s victory against North Carolina in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl last year). It’s fun, sort of, to try to keep up with the litany of strange corporate sponsorships tied to some of these games.

But the games, themselves? They just don’t mean as much as they used to.

Not in a time when a lot of the best NFL draft-eligible prospects are skipping bowl games altogether. Not in a time when the College Football Playoff has become the only postseason event that truly matters. Not in a time when it has become difficult, even, to keep track of how many bowl games there are (43, apparently, including Middle Tennessee’s 25-23 victory against New Mexico State on Monday in a Quick Lane Bowl that will go down in the annals).

It’s OK to accept the reality that these games, most of them, are nothing more than television inventory during a slow time of year. That’s pretty the extent of their meaning: they’re something ESPN can put on over the holidays. And, you know what? People watch (well, they watch as much or more than anything else that’d be shown during some of these time slots). On the field, though, most bowl games — not all, but most — have become glorified exhibitions.

They’ve become spring games, essentially, that count in the standings. Which is an idea that has gained some measure of momentum recently: Why not move a lot of these games to the spring, when they might carry more weight?

That’s a conversation for another time. For now, run-of-the-mill bowl games are not totally void of meaning. The diehards care, after all. The coaches care, or should, as these games offer a chance to evaluate players for next season. And players hoping to make a move up the depth chart — they have a vested interest, too.

All three of the Triangle’s bowl-bound teams have already played their most important games of the season. UNC lost in the ACC championship game. N.C. State beat UNC at the end of the regular season. Duke won its eighth game with a senior night victory against Wake Forest to put a bow on Mike Elko’s first regular season in Durham. A bowl victory isn’t going to drastically change the tenor of any of their seasons and neither is a defeat — though certainly UNC, after three straight losses, could use some positive mojo to end the season.

As always, though, there’s a gray area. It’s not all black and white. Multiple things can be true at once. For while these bowl games don’t mean as much as they once did, they’re still meaningful, in their own way, to the participants. Here’s a look at what each of the Triangle schools is playing for in the postseason:

Tar Heels’ goal: Take the next step as a program

North Carolina enters the Holiday Bowl on Wednesday, not only riding a three game losing streak into its game against Oregon, but also trying to shake the stench of last season’s bowl loss.

UNC coach Mack Brown said the Tar Heels played like a team that didn’t want to be there in their 38-21 loss to South Carolina in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl. Brown wants to avoid a repeat and notch an elusive 10th win in a game he considers to be a measuring stick like the facing Notre Dame and Clemson this season.

“For us to take another step, we’ve got to start beating really good teams,” Brown said. “Everybody thinks this team’s better than we are and they think they’re a lot better than we are. They’ve earned that… We got to press ourselves and put ourselves in a position to try to play the best teams in the country and try to get our 10th win.”

The Heels will be doing do with a roster depleted by transfers and opt outs. The biggest name not suiting up for Carolina is leading receiver Josh Downs, who decided to turn pro and begin his NFL Draft preparation.

Carolina will have the added pressure of trying to stop the Ducks’ high-powered offense without the pair of its starting cornerbacks. Tony Grimes entered the transfer portal and committed to Texas A&M. Storm Duck decided to leave as a graduate transfer.

That will likely leave freshman Marcus Allen and sophomore Lejond Cavazos starting at corner. The duo started the ACC championship loss to Clemson, as injuries forced them into action.

Freshman Will Hardy also started at safety against the Tigers for Cam Kelly, but Kelly, who announced he’s entered the portal, will likely make a final start for the Heels against the Ducks.

Wolfpack’s goal: bowl victory, 9-win season

Nearly a year after the fact, it still rankles N.C. State: the 2021 Holiday Bowl.

Those in the Wolfpack program remember the details. The trip to San Diego. The bowl outings. The look around Petco Park and the anticipation for the Dec. 28 game against UCLA.

And then a few hours before the game, the bottom fell out. UCLA pulled out, citing too many players with COVID-19 issues and the game canceled.

“Last year was pretty devastating for a lot of guys,” Wolfpack linebacker Payton WIlson said last week. “We were really excited to go out there and show everybody what we had been working on.”

What the Pack was working on was a 10-win season. Beat the Bruins and it would have been only the second team in NCSU history to win 10 or more.

The Wolfpack (8-4) will be about 2,000 miles closer to home this year, playing in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl in Charlotte on Friday with a chance to win a ninth game. The opponent will be Maryland, and the Terrapins (7-5) will play the game.

“We’re super excited,” Wilson said. “After not playing last year, we’re excited for Maryland and we’re ready to go out and compete. We have a chance to go to a bowl game and celebrate not the season we were expecting ... but celebrate with our family and friends.”

A nine-win season would be the fourth for Wolfpack coach Dave Doeren and the fourth in the past six seasons. It would further stamp the N.C. State program as one of the ACC’s more entrenched, one positioned to contend for an ACC title under Doeren.

The bowl game could be the final game for a number of Wolfpack players who have helped lift the program from the 4-8 depths of 2019 to 25 wins over the past three years. Linebacker Drake Thomas announced last week he would enter the 2023 NFL draft. Wilson could do the same.

“It has been, I wouldn’t say emotional, but it has been on everybody’s mind,” Wilson said.

For now, the focus is on Maryland and winning a game.

“Should be a lot of fun,” Thomas said. “We travel well and it will be fun playing in our home state.”

Duke’s goal: Continuing a dramatic turn around

Considering what the Blue Devils endured the last two seasons, any bowl trip this season would be a big deal.

The 13-game ACC losing streak Duke carried into this season, compiled while the Blue Devils went 5-18 over the last two seasons, made football a drudgery at the school.

Mike Elko’s hiring as head coach in December 2021 changed everything as the Blue Devils (8-4, 5-3 ACC) posted their most regular-season wins since 2014, which is also the last time Duke posted a winning record in league play.

Football is fun again and the Blue Devils are happy to be playing anyone, anywhere this week.

“As we continue to build our program,” Elko said, “the young guys, I think, they are starting to see Duke football in a different light. I think they see a program that, really, just in its first year was just on the cusp of doing something really special this year.”

Elko was referring to all of Duke’s losses being by eight points or less. The three losses in ACC play were all by a field goal or less.

Duke’s losses came by a combined 16 points. Of the 12 Power 5 schools with four losses, that margin is the lowest. Texas (18), Illinois (20), Notre Dame (29) and N.C. State (41) round out the top five in the category.

Playing well and beating UCF in Wednesday’s Military Bowl is something the Blue Devils feel is important on their journey to accomplishing even more next season.

“Coach Elko talked about it at the end of practice today and the day before,” Duke graduate student defensive tackle Ja’Mion Franklin said. “All the memories we’re making and everything that we’ve done as far as the bowl events and the party, you remember the bad taste in your mouth if you don’t go out and get the result that you want. So this game is important.”

A win would give Duke just its seventh season with nine or more wins in program history.