NC State vs. Vanderbilt, Independence Bowl 2016: Time, live stream, TV schedule, and 3 things to know

Vanderbilt and North Carolina State will meet in the Independence Bowl on Monday in Shreveport, La. The two teams got to bowl eligibility by winning an upset in the last week of the regular season: Vanderbilt over Tennessee (to claim both their state and life championships), and NC State over North Carolina (also to claim a state title, in a manner of speaking).

Now they’re here, and the matchup is actually fairly interesting. This could turn out to be a perfectly nice bowl game, even though it’s on the literal worst day of three bowl games in the history of the sport.

Don’t bank on seeing a great deal of offense. Vanderbilt’s O is downright atrocious, and NC State’s is mediocre. But the defenses are both legitimate. Vanderbilt has SB Nation All-American linebacker Zach Cunningham, who’s a really wonderful player. The Commodores play elite red zone defense and are hard to finish off. NC State has a few athletes of its own, and the Wolfpack do a nice job limiting the run.

Bowl season features many games with high score totals. This will not be one of those games. But if you’re cool with a competently played game between two evenly matched teams sporting strong defenses, then, hey. This might work for you.

TV: 5 p.m. ET Monday, ESPN. The announcers are Mike Couzens, Cole Cubelic, and Kevin Weidl.

Radio: NC State and Vanderbilt

Online streaming: WatchESPN

Spread: NC State opened as a 4-point favorite, and lines have mostly stuck around that number.

Make friends: SB Nation’s Backing the Pack covers NC State, and Anchor of Gold covers Vanderbilt.

1. Watch Zach Cunningham, and he’ll be worth it. The Vandy redshirt junior will be playing on Sundays soon enough, whether that’s next year or the year after. He’s one of those linebackers who’s rangy enough to defend the pass or chase down a running back in the flat, and he’s strong enough to pulverize people once he catches up to them. Cunningham sticks out as the best player on the field, because he is.

2. Do not watch the Vanderbilt offense. It will not be worth it. I don’t mean that literally. The ‘Dores are going to have the ball for approximately half the game. Vandy has a workman-like running back in junior Ralph Webb, the school’s all-time leading rusher as of the end of the Tennessee game. But the passing game is just ... no. The entire product is only worth about 24 points per game.

3. Both teams could exploit weaknesses here. Let’s refer to Bill Connelly’s excellent advanced statistical preview. It tells us that both teams are going to fail miserably when they try to run in short yardage. When Vandy gets into passing downs, the ‘Dores are likely screwed. And when NC State needs a big play, it probably won’t be able to get one. These teams are similar, which means their good and bad elements can work against each other in similar ways. We’ll see a lot of that in Shreveport.