UCLA’s Holiday Bowl game versus N.C. State canceled because of COVID issues

They got to feed beluga whales, tour a naval aircraft carrier and see the end zone of a baseball stadium painted in team colors.

They did not get to play football.

Only hours before kickoff, the UCLA Bruins learned their Holiday Bowl matchup against No. 18 North Carolina State on Tuesday evening was canceled because of worsening COVID-19 issues with the team.

“We are deeply disappointed for our young men in the football program that worked extremely hard for this opportunity,” UCLA athletic director Martin Jarmond said in a statement. “My heart goes out to them. The health and safety of our students will always be our North Star.”

The Bruins were particularly thin at defensive line, with Otito Ogbonnia out while recovering from an injury while Tyler Manoa and Jay Toia were also expected to be unavailable. Additionally, defensive back Qwuantrezz Knight and offensive lineman Atonio Mafi were out for the game.

“Can we play 7 on 7?” tweeted Melva Thompson-Robinson, the mother of UCLA quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson.

On the eve of the game, Bruins coach Chip Kelly had said the team was trying its best to play despite the challenges presented by the virus.

“Our whole mindset’s always been, if we’ve got 11, we’re going to go play,” Kelly said. “We talk to our players a lot about protecting the ecosystem, we’re proud of the fact that we played every single one of our games a year ago and the credit goes to our players, you know, they had to make a lot sacrifices and you have to really be a selfless person to accomplish all of those things and obviously we’ve had incidents on our campus — our basketball team has had games canceled, our women’s basketball team has had games canceled, so our players have been doing the best job they can with it and we know how, especially this new variant is, and they’ve been great with it, but again, going up until kickoff [Tuesday] night, we’ve still got our fingers crossed that we’ll have everybody.”