While some teams declined bowl invitations, why NC State is against opt-outs
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- N.C. State rejects bowl opt-outs and will play Memphis in the Gasparilla Bowl.
- Coach Dave Doeren frames bowls as finishing season, team development, and season reward.
- Quarterback CJ Bailey to play in the bowl game, but his future is uncertain.
Three bowl-eligible Power Four college football teams made headlines last week after opting out of playing postseason football. Even 5-7 teams who received invites to fill spots declined.
N.C. State’s players and head coach find that idea unfathomable.
The Wolfpack will travel to Tampa, Florida, where it will play Memphis in the Gasparilla Bowl on Dec. 19 after achieving bowl eligibility for the sixth straight season and 11th time under head coach Dave Doeren.
“I don’t understand opt-outs, period,” Doeren said Wednesday. “Football is about finishing. I look at football as a gladiator sport, and, to me, that’s throwing in the towel. That’s just not how I’m built.
“I can’t speak for other programs, but I don’t like the word opt out — in life, period. I don’t get that. I’m not wired that way. I hate that [in] football it’s now acceptable for players to do it now, teams are doing it.”
Doeren’s emphasis on “finishing” is something on which he regularly focuses. The mentality is also one of the reasons N.C. State won three of its last four regular season games; to finish on a high note and extend its season.
He believes bowl games are life experiences. Teams get to spend time together away from school, they have another chance to play, and there’s time for additional player development. The Wolfpack won’t get to work with the rookies quite as much due to the truncated timeline, but the staff is still working where it can. Bowl games, Doeren said, are a reward for the work done in the regular season and previous pre-season.
That’s always been important for him and his staff seeks players who share that philosophy.
‘My last college game ever’
Sabastian Harsh, Devon Marshall and CJ Bailey all find meaning in bowl games, even during a time when they may be devalued by others.
The two seniors appreciate the opportunity to suit up for one more game. Harsh transferred from Wyoming and wants to end his already-positive experience with the Wolfpack on a high note, while Marshall spent two years with the program after starting his career at Villanova.
“It’s my last game with this team, with my brothers,” Marshall said. “I’m just gonna go out there and give him all for them, and it’s my last college game ever. It means a lot to me, and then it means a lot to the team that we get a ‘dub’ so they can carry that into next season.”
Bailey, a sophomore, said last year’s bowl game loss and fight against East Carolina was not how he wanted to end his freshman campaign. He said it’s important to win his first bowl game and “find a way to bounce back from all those losses we had.”
That starts now. N.C. State is 3-6 in bowl games under Doeren. It did not play in the 2021 Holiday Bowl after UCLA backed out due to COVID-19. The Pack’s last bowl win came in 2017, when the it defeated Arizona State, 52-31, in the Sun Bowl.
“If we get this one right here, it’s just going to build for the future of the program,” Bailey said. “Let’s go; keep stacking bowl wins, bowl wins, bowl wins. I just want to start off with this one first.”
More changes still needed for college football
Notre Dame was the most notable team to opt out of its bowl game this season. The Fighting Irish declined its invitation to the Pop-Tarts Bowl, where it would have played BYU, after the two teams were left out of the College Football Playoff field.
Kansas State and Iowa State also opted out. Their decisions, however, followed head coaching changes. The Wildcats’ Chris Klieman retired, and Matt Campbell left the Cyclones to take over Penn State.
Doeren believes changes to the football season calendar and rule book are needed to curtail some of the sport’s chaos, of which the bowl opt-outs are only a small portion. Teams need to start earlier and finish earlier, and there should be a window when other schools are prohibited from speaking with coaches, he said. Despite the NCAA moving to one transfer portal window in January, the set-up still isn’t conducive to allowing coaches or players to complete their seasons, he said.
“It’s criminal to me that there’s coaches that have made teams in playoffs and bowl games, and they’re not there anymore,” Doeren said. “I’ve dealt with that. I’ve played in four or five bowl games without coaches because they’re gone. In the NFL, you can’t have conversations with coaches until their seasons are over.”
It will take leadership from the top, Doeren said, to fix the areas in which college football is broken.
“How can a game not be meaningful? Every game matters to me. I want to win every game we play. I want our kids to feel that way, and our coaches to feel that way. None of us should have other people trying to make us not finish the job we were paid to do.”
Will CJ Bailey return to NC State?
The young quarterback was thrust into the starting role as a freshman after Grayson McCall’s two concussions. He expects to play in the bowl game and is preparing as the starter. His future after next week remains uncertain.
Bailey passed for 2,884 yards, 23 touchdowns and nine interceptions this season with a 69.5% completion rate. Through two seasons, he threw for 5,297 yards, 40 touchdowns and 19 interceptions.
Because N.C. State’s bowl takes place before Christmas, instead of after, he plans to return home, take time away and talk with his parents. He is trying not to worry about that until the time comes.
“Just think about this game coming up,” Bailey said. “Let everything else handle itself. I’m not too much into what’s going on outside of what’s in this building right now, and us getting that win in the bowl game.”
