NASHVILLE Four months after N.C. State’s season of promise stumbled at the starting line in Atlanta, the Wolfpack will close things out without any of the anticipation that accompanied that game.

Seven wins and five losses later, including that opening defeat to Tennessee that proved all too telling, the Wolfpack’s season of unfulfilled expectations will conclude Monday in a game that feels less like the culmination of a season and more like an appendix to it.

With Tom O’Brien already fired and Dave Doeren already hired and Dana Bible serving as interim coach, it lacks the tension the opener had, the buzz that usually comes from a measuring-stick game against an SEC team. Even though the stands will be full – Vanderbilt fans not only bought up their allocation of seats, but sent the ticket office back to the bowl for more – the game largely is empty of compelling storylines for N.C. State fans.

It even lacks the drama that otherwise would exist with N.C. State playing against Vanderbilt coach James Franklin, Debbie Yow’s chosen replacement for Ralph Friedgen at Maryland but not a candidate, in her own words, last month when she was replacing O’Brien at N.C. State.

The Yow-Franklin relationship long had spawned speculation that he would take over for O’Brien if that day ever came, but it generated only some awkward moments at the news conference, when she acknowledged communicating with her “good friend” Franklin. It certainly hasn’t created any this week. Maybe it would be different if O’Brien were still around, but he’s not, and Doeren is waiting in the wings to take over, not Franklin.

In fact, the success of Doeren’s former team, Northern Illinois, means this might not even be the most compelling bowl for N.C. State fans this year. That might well be Tuesday, when the Huskies take on Florida State – the only bowl-eligible team the Wolfpack beat this season.

While Doeren won’t be bringing record-setting quarterback Jordan Lynch to N.C. State with him, he will be bringing some variation of Northern Illinois’ spread offense. Even if the personnel is different, it will be interesting to see how the schemes stack up against the Seminoles while imagining how they might look with Manny Stocker or Pete Thomas at quarterback.

(It might be worth watching Wisconsin in the Rose Bowl as well, where new N.C. State offensive coordinator Matt Canada ran a more traditional offense in his one season there after leaving Northern Illinois, although he opened things up in the 70-31 win against Nebraska in the Big Ten title game. That playbook will be on N.C. State’s campus as well.)

The Huskies are a two-touchdown underdog against Florida State, and very little is expected of the Mid-American Conference champions. Even without Doeren, it’s his team, and how the Huskies fare will unavoidably help form the first impression many Wolfpack fans have of what their program is going to look like going forward.

Still, there’s this game to be played, one the ACC needs for its reputation and one the Wolfpack certainly will be motivated to win – for the seniors, for Bible and the outgoing coaches, for O’Brien.

N.C. State fans, though, might find the game that really matters to the future of their program – the one that offers a vision of what might be to come, not what has been – still is 24 hours away.