Wolfpack bowls over Canes

Russell Wilson passes for 220 yards and rushes for 58 more as N.C. State evens its record at 6-6 and becomes eligible for a postseason berth

RALEIGH -- During a spirited postgame celebration, N.C. State senior Andre Brown picked up his helmet and rolled it forward Pete Weber-style.

Teammates DeAndre Morgan, Nate Irving and Willie Young were lined up facing Brown along the sideline, pretending to be bowling pins. They fell down in a joyful heap when the rolling helmet reached them.

Yes, N.C. State is bowl eligible -- and is expected to be invited to a postseason game -- after a 38-28 defeat of Miami on Saturday at Carter-Finley Stadium that completed an improbable four-game winning streak.

Coach Tom O'Brien, whose injury-riddled team limped into an open date with a 2-6 record five weeks earlier, said he hasn't been through a season like this in 35 years.

"To overcome everything this team has had to overcome, it's almost mind-boggling that we're at this point right now," O'Brien said. "We're playing the best of any team in this conference."

As has been the case throughout the winning streak, redshirt freshman quarterback Russell Wilson performed brilliantly for N.C. State (6-6, 4-4 ACC). He passed for 220 yards and two touchdowns, extending his school-record streak of passes without an interception to 226.

He rushed for 58 yards, including 29 on a winding second-quarter touchdown run. He had plenty of help as N.C. State ran for a season-high 219 yards.

Brown, who had tears in his eyes during the "walk of champions" entering Carter- Finley before the game, rushed for 93 yards on 12 carries behind a well-drilled offensive line. And a big-play defense intercepted Miami (7-5, 4-4) four times.

"We went through a whole lot of trials and tribulations, but we pulled it together," said nickel safety Jimmaul Simmons, who had one of the interceptions. "And now I can truly say we are playing like a team, like we were supposed to."

Nobody exemplified that team concept in this game better than N.C. State's safeties. An ankle injury to boundary safety Clem Johnson put former walk-on Bobby Floyd into the starting lineup.

At 5 feet 9 and 211 pounds, Floyd is seven inches shorter and 59 pounds lighter than tight end Richard Morgan, the target on perhaps the biggest play of the game midway through the second quarter.

Floyd deflected a pass away from Richard Morgan at the goal-line, and DeAndre Morgan intercepted the tipped ball. Justin Byers, who replaced Floyd on passing downs, later tipped a pass that Jeremy Gray grabbed for a game-clinching interception.

"I'm just so proud to be around these kids that hang in and play the way they've played," said O'Brien, who received the customary, celebratory Gatorade shower from Brown and Jamelle Eugene in the closing seconds. "We could have gone south a long time ago. But they refused to quit."

It was such an emotional day that wide receiver Owen Spencer, whose 32-yard, third-quarter touchdown catch gave N.C. State the lead for good, got carried away. He said the Wolfpack is playing the best football in the country.

He backed off that a moment later. But just a little.

"We're really young, and we're making strides," he said. "We're playing the best football around here."

Brown played the lead role in most of the celebrating. He danced on the field before he left it for the final time as a player.

He said he would like to go to San Francisco for the Emerald Bowl so he can visit the West Coast. He said he's looking forward to spending the per diem money players receive on bowl trips.

It was a sharp contrast to the previous season, when N.C. State needed to win its finale to get bowl eligible but was embarrassed by Maryland in a 37-0 loss. Reflecting on that 2007 loss, Brown had said N.C. State's seniors wanted to be remembered as the group that helped get the program back on solid ground.

"Everybody kept asking, 'Well, what about last year,' " O'Brien said. "Well, this is a different football team."