Dave Doeren is one win away from leading the North Carolina State Wolfpack to their first 10-win season in almost two decades. Doeren has done a solid job with the program, making NC State a consistent bowl team during his tenure. This will be the UCLA Bruins\u2019 first trip to a bowl in four years under Chip Kelly, but they will look to end their season right in the Holiday Bowl.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The 2021 Holiday Bowl will take place on Tuesday, December 28, 2021, at 8 p.m. ET on ESPN from Petco Park in San Diego, California.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
College Football Betting Odds<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n North Carolina State -1.5<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n UCLA +1.5<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Total 60<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n North Carolina State came close to playing in the ACC Championship Game for the first time this season. The Wolfpack are the only original member of the conference to never win its division, but they beat Clemson in double overtime to kick off conference play. Unfortunately, they lost by a single point to Miami a few weeks later, and a 45-42 loss to Wake Forest in mid-November ended their chances of winning the ACC Atlantic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It was an interesting season for UCLA. The Bruins scored wins against long-time powers LSU, Washington, and USC, but all three of those programs had very down seasons. They were hammered on the road by eventual Pac 12 champion Utah, yet they won each of their last three games by at least 24 points. The over cashed<\/a> in four of the Bruins\u2019 last five games to end the year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When North Carolina State Has the Ball<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Devin Leary is one of the most underrated quarterbacks in the nation. Leary completed 65.7% of his passes for 3,433 yards with 35 touchdowns and five interceptions. He is not a mobile threat, but he doesn\u2019t need to be a runner if he is that effective with his arm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Wolfpack have a very good receiver in Emeka Emezie. He has four touchdown receptions in his last three games. Zonovan Knight and Ricky Person Jr. are a good one-two punch at running back, combining to run for 1,389 yards and eight touchdowns. They have both been decent receivers out of the backfield too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n UCLA is a middle-of-the-pack defense. The Bruins are allowing 26.8 PPG and 387.0 YPG. Mitchell Agude and Quentin Lake were Second Team All-Pac 12 selections, but they aren\u2019t enough to hold this NC State offense at bay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When UCLA Has the Ball<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Dorian Thompson-Robinson has had a nice career at UCLA. He has been Chip Kelly\u2019s quarterback for nearly his entire tenure in Westwood, and he has improved as a passer during his time on campus. Thompson-Robinson is completing 62.2% of his passes and is averaging 8.5 YPA with 21 touchdowns and six interceptions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Bruins run the ball really well, and that\u2019s what Kelly is known for as a coach. Zach Charbonnet and Brittain Brown have teamed up to run for 1,753 yards and 20 touchdowns, and they are averaging 5.7 YPC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This NC State defense has been pretty good. The Wolfpack rank 19th<\/sup> in scoring defense and 25th<\/sup> in total defense. Their strength is in the secondary though, and the front seven is simply above average.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Prediction<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n There\u2019s a good chance this is the most competitive game<\/a> of the day. The Holiday Bowl might not be decided until the final possession, and that means a slight lean towards the over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Follow our <\/em>Twitter account<\/em><\/a> for the latest sports news and wagering odds, and come to<\/em> our <\/em>Instagram<\/em><\/a> for more useful betting info too.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Dave Doeren is one win away from leading the North Carolina State Wolfpack to their first 10-win season in almost…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":14895,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[133],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ncaaf"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20627","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20627"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20627\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20641,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20627\/revisions\/20641"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}