Safe to say some on NC State’s team still feel a little animosity toward UCLA over the way last season’s Holiday Bowl was canceled.

Isaiah Moore, a senior linebacker for the Wolfpack, was asked Wednesday if he’d like to see UCLA in a bowl game this season to get revenge. The two teams were slated to play each other last season at the Holiday Bowl but the game was canceled hours before kickoff because of COVID-related issues inside the Bruins’ program. The cancellation denied NC State a shot at their 10th win of the season, a milestone the program has accomplished only one other time in its history.

“I feel like UCLA has to earn the right to get to play us,” Moore said, per ESPN’s David Hale.

Can we just go ahead and schedule the bowl matchup now?

It’s obvious there are still some hurt feelings on NC State’s side. Immediately after news broke of the game’s cancellation, accusations flew.

NC State head coach Dave Doeren met with a small group of reporters that evening and said no one within the Wolfpack program had any inkling UCLA was dealing with COVID-19 issues, adding that the first time he had heard about it was when NC State AD Boo Corrigan told him the game was off.

“Felt lied to, to be honest,” Doeren said then. “We felt like UCLA probably knew something was going on, didn’t tell anybody on our side. We had no clue they were up against that. I don’t feel like it was very well handled from their university. It would have been great to have had a heads up so two or three days ago we could have found a Plan B. Disappointing.”

He called it unfair and claimed his team would have won the football game, had it been played. Mind you, UCLA didn’t have enough available defensive linemen.

“We would’ve won the game, no doubt about it the way our guys prepared,” Doeren said.

With Dorian Thompson-Robinson and Zach Charbonnet back in the Bruins’ backfield, and a remade defense, UCLA is hoping to earn a trip to the Pac-12 title game this season. With the jury still out on how quickly all the changes at USC will translate to winning and traditional powers in the North* dealing with coaching changes of their own, it would seem like there’s a window here for Chip Kelly and his Bruins to build on last year’s eight-win campaign.

NC State is similarly hoping to use its 2021 season as a springboard to more success.

Here’s hoping the two teams do get to meet again in the postseason. It’ll give the Wolfpack a chance to back up all the talking.