USC vs. UCLA
Trojans -32 1/2 vs. Bruins
In addition to being a perennial football powerhouse, the University of Southern California is also a fine academic institution. As USC sees their national championship hopes crumble before their eyes despite crushing opponent after opponent, there is little doubt that on a dark and forgotten corner of the Los Angeles campus, coach Pete Carroll is instructing an elite group of chemists, physicists and brainiacs on how to build a time machine. With that time machine Carroll could go back into time and right the wrong of the early season loss to Oregon State.
Sadly for Trojan fans, in 2008 time travel is not possible (at least that's what our government tells us) so USC will have to focus on the present and gear up for their cross-town rival UCLA. Barring a collapse of the teams ahead of them in their various conference title games, on New Years Day, USC will be playing in the location they will be playing at Saturday, the Rose Bowl.
USC (10-1, 7-1) has plenty to be proud of this season. With only one hiccup, they have totally dominated nearly every opponent on their schedule, most recently last week against Notre Dame 38-3 at the Coliseum. Thanks to Oregon destroying Oregon State last week, USC can clinch a share of the Pac-10 for the seventh straight season with a victory over hapless UCLA (4-7, 3-5).
Since the September 25 loss, the Trojans have won eight straight by an average of 33.1 points. Only once during the stretch was the margin of victory seven points or less, 17-10 Arizona.
UCLA has had a tough season, but in rivalry week, anything is possible. The Bruins have been dominated by the Trojans ever since Carroll came to Los Angeles. Carroll is 6-1 against UCLA and USC has won eight of the last ten overall. This was after a decade of dominance for UCLA when they won seven out of 10 in the 1990's.
Two years ago in 2006, UCLA finally posted a 13-9 victory over their cross-town rivals for the first time since 1998. That game pushed the then number two USC out of the BCS title game.
UCLA actually has a tougher defense than their record would indicate. Last week's 34-9 throttling at Arizona State was the product of a poor offense rather than the defense. The Sun Devils' defense scored all four of the teams' touchdowns. The Bruins held ASU's offense to 122 yards and two field goals.
An interesting wrinkle to the rivalry materialized this week when Carroll announced his intention for the Trojans to wear their home jerseys inside the Rose Bowl. The practice of both UCLA and USC wearing their colored home jerseys in their games was commonplace until the early 1980's. If USC wears their cardinal-colored jersey while UCLA wears their standard home "true blue" jerseys, USC could face a penalty to open the game and would lose one time out in each half. Carroll stated he was not disrespecting UCLA by surrendering two timeouts and said he spoke with first-year Bruins' coach Rick Neuheisel, who was receptive to the tradition.
