So instead of going to the USC game on Saturday, I wussed out
and took the LSAT.
I finished the test at 2:15 p.m. after enduring the
slowest-moving test proctor in the world and had two options: I
could sit in traffic and arrive at the game sometime around the
third quarter, or I could come back to Westwood and watch
everything from the second quarter on.
I made a foolish, foolish choice.
Turning on the radio after jumping on the 10 West to head home,
I heard the score: 7-0 Bruins.
By the time I got back to my apartment, it was 7-2, and I was
bitterly regretting my decision. I watched as the Trojans leapt
ahead 9-7, and then I watched as the Bruins proceeded to shut them
down over the entire second half. I watched Eric McNeal’s
interception and Aaron “the dagger” Perez’s
game-sealing punt.
The point is, I have lost any semblance of objectivity about
this team.
This is my senior year. This was the last chance for me to see a
victory over ‘SC as a student. I couldn’t care less
whether this team gets blown out 60-0 by Florida State in the
Emerald Bowl. This is the most successful season I have seen as a
UCLA student.
There was nothing about this game that wasn’t perfect
““ except, of course, that I wasn’t there. But you know,
if that’s what it takes to get victories over ‘SC, I
will never go to another game.
The look on Pete Carroll’s face after the game was almost
worth the seven years of wandering the desert since UCLA’s
previous victory over ‘SC. The one look showed the gamut of
emotions, from “I-just-got-outcoached-by-Karl-Dorrell”
to
“maybe-DeWayne-Walker-made-a-good-decision-in-going-to-UCLA.”
Carroll has been the bogeyman in UCLA’s nightmares for the
last five years, and seeing him brought low was quite simply one of
the greatest experiences I’ve had in college.
And Dorrell did outcoach Carroll.
USC’s defense is good, but it didn’t get off the
field quickly enough, and Dorrell’s offense has to take
credit for that. Dorrell directed quarterback Pat Cowan to make
plays with his legs before the game, and the value of that advice
could be seen in the first series, when Cowan pretty much just ran
the length of the field for the score.
Dorrell coached the game of his life on Saturday. He was jumping
up and down on the sideline, he led his team out for that epic
staredown in the middle of the field with the hated Trojans, and he
brought us DeWayne Walker (which simply cannot be stated enough).
Simply put, if there was any talk of firing this guy, it has to be
gone now.
This is simply joyous. We (and yes, I’m gonna go ahead and
say “we”) beat ‘SC.
We beat the Trojans when they were playing for the national
championship game. We beat them and caused them pain. This makes me
happy.
We put some added holes in the BCS too. Now Florida and Michigan
both have reasons to want to be in the game, and now it looks like
Michigan is going to be very upset. This also makes me happy.
And although I missed the game, it was not the kind of thing
that you had to be there for.
I could have been wandering the great Mongolian steppe, heard
the score, and been as happy as I would have been if I were getting
tackled at midfield by riot police after the game. Which is to say,
very happy.
These players deserved this win. They simply had more heart than
the Trojans. And what little the Trojans did have, the Bruins
ripped out.
David is now the former UCLA football beat writer. E-mail
him at dwoods@media.ucla.edu.