North Carolina State routs Vanderbilt in the Independence Bowl

Jaylen Samuels caught three touchdown passes from Ryan Finley, Nyheim Hines returned a kickoff for a 100-yard touchdown and North Carolina State beat Vanderbilt 41-17 on Monday night in the Independence Bowl.

North Carolina State (7-6) won three of its final four games to finish with a winning record. The Wolfpack built a 28-3 lead by midway through the third quarter — largely thanks to Samuels’ touchdown catches of nine, 55 and 17 yards — and then held off a brief Vanderbilt rally.

Finley completed 19 of 30 passes for 235 yards. Samuels’ three touchdown catches were an Independence Bowl record.

Vanderbilt (6-7) had a lot of momentum going into the game thanks to surprising wins over Mississippi and Tennessee to end the regular season. But the Commodores’ offense — which scored a combined 83 points against the Rebels and Volunteers — struggled for most of the night.

Vanderbilt’s Kyle Shurmur completed just 19 of 46 passes for 158 yards with three interceptions. Even so, the Commodores briefly made things interesting, closing their deficit to 28-17 early in the fourth quarter.

But that’s when Hines responded with his big kickoff return to put the game out of reach.