In the fourth quarter of Saturday’s game, the Trojan cheerleaders donned rose necklaces on the sideline in celebration.
USC had all but clinched the 24-7 victory over UCLA and earned a trip to the Rose Bowl as the Pac-10 representative.
The Bruins chances of making the Rose Bowl were squashed.
In truth, it is a strange miracle that the chance mathematically existed in the first place.
Coming into Saturday’s game, if the Bruins pulled the upset and Arizona also upset Arizona State, then the Bruins would have been smelling roses.
Coming into the Bruins’ final two games, Dorrell and his players were fighting to make any bowl game at all.
While I would not have been upset to see it , a team struggling to simply become bowl eligible with two games left should not make the Rose Bowl.
And UCLA’s play at the Coliseum stated loud and clear that this team was not a Rose Bowl-caliber squad.
The Bruins totaled 12 yards rushing for the entire game, in comparison to USC’s 231.
For most of the game UCLA was unable to get into any kind of offensive rhythm, with an offense that would struggle mightily in any bowl.
The defense was able to hold strong, but only for so long. Having to spend so much time on the field wore on the unit, and allowed the Trojans to control the pace of the game.
And the Trojans did not even play all that well. There was a sequence Saturday when the teams traded turnovers back and forth.
If USC had capitalized on more of their opportunities, the game would have been a lot less close. Somehow the Bruins were only down 10 at the half, and lost by only three scores.
With the crazy year it has been in the Pac-10 ““ and throughout college football ““ the Bruins were lucky to have their name tossed around in the same breath as the Rose Bowl this late in the season.
To me the Rose Bowl represents a certain upper echelon of college football that should not be available to a team that lost to Notre Dame at home.
Of the Bruins’ five losses this year, four came against teams that won’t even play in a bowl game: Utah, Notre Dame, Arizona and Washington State.
And then there’s the win against Oregon that made UCLA bowl eligible. The players got another taste of winning, and again had high hopes.
“That was one of our goals coming into the season, making it to a BCS championship,” tailback Chris Markey said.
“After we beat Oregon, everything seemed to be in our favor. We were very excited to play this ‘SC team, but unfortunately we weren’t able to come out with a win,” he added.
After the Oregon win, everybody figured out the scenarios and people took a break from ragging on the football team to think about the potential for huge late-season redemption.
Maybe people went a little overboard.
This game brought everyone back to earth. It is always harsh to be forced to have that kind of a realization in the Coliseum with red and yellow everywhere, but the roses on the ground of the stadium as I was leaving hammered it home.
The Bruin team that played Saturday, and throughout the season, did not deserve to be in the Rose Bowl.
If you at least took a little end-of-season solace in Dominique Johnson’s amazing touchdown grab in the end zone, e-mail Gordon at bgordon@media.ucla.edu.