2021 Holiday Bowl Cancelled Due to COVID-19
Tonight's game has been cancelled due to COVID-19 protocols within the Bruin program.
Tonight’s Holiday Bowl game between UCLA and North Carolina State has been cancelled due to COVID-19 protocols within the Bruin program.
UCLA made the announcement on Twitter:
Shortly after the announcement was made, UCLA Athletic Director Martin Jarmond issued this statement on his Twitter account:
And, just like that the 2021 football season has come to an end.
UCLA finishes the season with an 8-4 record despite not having beaten a team with a winning record all year.
Now, Chip Kelly and staff will look to finish the recruiting class as we head towards National Signing Day in February. This month has seen the departure of two defensive assistants in Johnny Nansen and Jason Kaufusi.
These coaches have already been replaced with the hirings of Ikaika Malloe and Chad Kauha’aha’a. It would appear that Malloe will probably coach the outside linebackers and Kauha’aha’a will probably coach the defensive line.
It’s worth noting that Malloe does have three seasons worth of experience as a defensive coordinator when he was an assistant at Yale. He also spent the past two seasons at Washington as co-defensive coordinator, which could set him up to possibly earn a promotion to defensive coordinator if UCLA and Jerry Azzinaro part ways in the months ahead.
Personally, I’d like to see Chip Kelly go after a guy like Tony Gibson who has developed the NC State defense into one of the best in the country, but only time will tell what will happen with Azzinaro.
Go Bruins!!!
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Happy New Year's Eve, TMB fam! I'm watching the CFP semifinals and wishing we had an open thread going to watch together and chat about it, because the games themselves aren't super compelling. Cincy looked more competitive v Bama than Michigan is looking right now v Georgia, which is at least good for all the other teams outside the standard top 6-8 teams. Looks like we'll be getting a reset of the SEC title game. Meh.
Curious how it seems zero players are out with covid for the 2 games tonight.
No one at UCLA is too blame. I understand why NC State wants to assign blame to UCLA, but the blame is with the people who refused to get vaxxed without a valid medical excuse. Period.