UCLA Football to Take on NC State in Holiday Bowl Amid COVID-19 Concerns
It's been four years since the Bruins last made a bowl game, and while they may have accepted an invitation and made the trip to San Diego, the drought won't be over until they actually take the field.
UCLA football (8-4, 6-3 Pac-12) has already had two players confirmed as unavailable for the upcoming Holiday Bowl against No. 18 NC State (9-3, 6-2 ACC) on Tuesday, putting a damper on the team's long-awaited return to the postseason. Striker Qwuantrezz Knight, the Bruins' leading tackler and one of their most vocal leaders, announced he would be missing the game because of COVID-19 protocols late Thursday night, and offensive lineman Atonio Mafi was also placed in quarantine Friday, according to a Facebook post by his father.
The exact number of players who were forced to stick in Westwood has yet to be determined, but the rest of the team has already gone down to San Diego to get settled in for the weekend.
Coach Chip Kelly said he continues to emphasize "Operation 22" – the 22 hours a day players don't spend partaking in team activities – in avoiding any further outbreaks.
"We have them for two hours a day, and what are they doing the rest of the time? I think our kids have done a really good job," Kelly said. "We’ve continued to emphasize that as a group and we’ve got our fingers crossed."
Knight had already gone to two bowl games during his previous stops at Maryland and Kent State, but players like Mafi who have been with UCLA through the last four years have never made it to the postseason at the college level.
Quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson, barring any last-minute changes or positive tests, is one of those players who came in alongside Kelly in 2018 and has finally scratched and clawed his way to a bowl bid this fall. So for the 978 pass attempts and 353 rush attempts he's racked up in his career, Tuesday night will mark his first in a bowl game.
"We’ve been chomping at the bit ever since the last game," Thompson-Robinson said. "I think it brings a level of excitement to the guys to get a change of scenery and get to go out and play in front of some of our fans and stuff like that too."
Taking somewhat of a backseat to the pandemic and postseason hiatus is the Bruins' actual opponent, the Wolfpack.
It's been over 60 years since UCLA and NC State last faced off, with the Bruins winning both meetings in Los Angeles 21-12 and 7-0 in 1959 and 1960, respectively. The Wolfpack will return to Southern California in a very different position than they were in heading into that mid-century series – to that point, they had only ever appeared in one bowl game, which they lost.
NC State has now gone to seven bowls in the last eight seasons, winning three already, and the program has reached nine wins in three of the last five years. UCLA hasn't achieved that feat once, let alone thrice, since 2014.
Coach Dave Doeren is 87-53 with four bowl wins over the past decade, and he has turned the Wolfpack into one of the most consistent offensive teams in the country since taking over in 2013. For the fourth time in the last five seasons, NC State averaged over 30 points per game in 2021, obviously a long ways away from the team that got shut out by UCLA three generations ago.
A key to that prolific offense this season has been quarterback Devin Leary, who ranks third in the ACC with a 157.0 passer rating to go along with his 35 touchdowns and 3,433 yards through the air. Before raving about the Wolfpack's backfield tandem of Zonovan Knight and Ricky Person or their hyperactive defense, Kelly's first thoughts on the team included praising Leary.
"Really good football team, their quarterback’s outstanding," Kelly said. "His TD-to-interception ratio is off the charts."
On the other side of the ball, NC State plays a 3-3 stack designed to prevent big runs, something UCLA has leaned on heavily with Zach Charbonnet, Brittain Brown and an offensive line of future NFL talents.
Thompson-Robinson pointed out linebacker Drake Thomas and safety Tanner Ingle as the most dangerous weapons the Wolfpack boast on defense, leading them in tackles and combining for 17.0 tackles for loss, four interceptions and five pass breakups. NC State has forced 15 interceptions this season, and Thompson-Robinson said he knows he's going to have to be extra careful with his decision making to account for that.
"Really, really good talented squad back there on the back end and can really hurt you that way," Thompson-Robinson said. "They lead in interceptions, so definitely have to be wary of where I pick my spots and where I choose to go with the ball."
The Bruins are 5-3 the last two years when Thompson-Robinson doesn't throw an interception, 4-2 when he throws one and 1-1 when he throws two. The more telling metric may be how well UCLA runs the ball, going 8-1 when they rush for over 200 and 7-0 when they go for over 225 this season.
Brown will be back as part of that ground attack after missing the last two games of the regular season with an injury. Although he only arrived on campus in 2020 after transferring in from Duke, Brown said he knows taking the field in a UCLA jersey for the final time Tuesday will be a special feeling.
"It's an exciting feeling, just having one more to finish out the college career, something I've been looking forward these past couple weeks," Brown said. "Going down there to San Diego, having everybody's family down there is going to have us charged up."
UCLA arrived in San Diego and checked into the team hotel Friday night, and after some team activities as Sea World and the San Diego Zoo over the Christmas weekend, they'll be kicking off against NC State on Tuesday at 5 p.m. in Petco Park.
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