NOTEBOOK: Pack's Sun Bowl Win
Here are some final notes from NC State's 52-31 win over Arizona State in the 2017 Sun Bowl.
* The 52 points scored by NC State was the second-most for the Wolfpack in a bowl game and the second-most ever scored in a Sun Bowl (Oregon, 2007). The only time State has scored more in a bowl game was in the 2003 Tangerine Bowl (56) versus Kansas. Current NC State head coach Dave Doeren, a Kansas assistant in 2003, was at both contests.
* Nyheim Hines tied the school record with three rushing touchdowns in a bowl game with against the Sun Devils.
Stan Fritts also rushed for three against West Virginia in the 1972 Peach Bowl. The three rushing scores for Hines were tied for third-most in Sun Bowl history.
* NC State rushed for six touchdowns against Arizona State, the most in Sun Bowl history.
* NC State now has three seasons in school history with both a 1,000-yard rusher and a 1,000-yard receiver. It first happened in 1997 with Tremayne Stephens and Torry Holt and five seasons later in 2002 the duo of T.A. McClendon and Jerricho Cotchery matched the feat. Nyheim Hines and Kelvin Harmon became the third pair in program history after Harmon, who entered the game with 992 receiving yards, pushed past the thousand yard plateau.
* Ryan Finley passed for 318 yards in the Sun Bowl to give him 3,518 for the 2017 campaign. That is the fourth-most in a season in NC State history.
* Stephen Louis finished with three catches for 115 yards. It is the second straight season that NC State had a player go for over 100 yards receiving in a bowl game. In 2016 Jaylen Samuels finished with 104 yards receiving in the Wolfpack’s win over Vanderbilt in the Independence Bowl
Louis averaged 38.3 yards per catch, a new Sun Bowl record.
* Jaylen Samuels finished the Sun Bowl with seven catches for 46 yards. He concludes his college career with at least one reception in 41 straight games, a school-record.
With a 21-yard catch in the third quarter, Samuels also broke Cotchery’s school-record for most career receptions at NC State. The previous record was 200 receptions in a career. Samuels finished his career with 202 catches.
* NC State and Arizona State each scored three touchdowns in the fourth quarter. The 42 points was the most in any quarter in Sun Bowl history.
* The two teams combined to score 31 points (NC State 21, Arizona State 10) in the second quarter, which is the most ever for a second quarter in Sun Bowl history.
* Airius Moore, who finished with a team-best 10 tackles, picked off a pass late in the fourth quarter. It was the final play of his college career.
Niles Clark also had an interception on the final play of his college career a season before in the 2016 Independence Bowl.