This will be redshirt senior David Carter’s last game ever wearing true blue and gold, playing in the Rose Bowl or competing against a crosstown rival in front of about 90,000 people. He wants to savor the moment.
The defensive tackle is one of the few on this campus that can say they were a part of the last UCLA football team to take down the mammoth program over at USC, though Carter was still just a redshirting first-year way back in 2006.
“People pay buttloads of money just to sit in the stands for the UCLA-‘SC game,” he said. “I get to be on the field and play and go beat up people, to hit the lineman and tackle quarterbacks. That’s my job.
“It’s an amazing experience and an amazing opportunity to have.”
Though the Bruins officially became ineligible for a bowl game with last week’s loss, and the Trojans are still living under NCAA sanctions that have banned them from the postseason, neither team is claiming any difficulty getting excited for this game.
“We’re not going to a bowl this year, but if we beat ‘SC then I don’t care,” Carter said. “This is the game we look most forward to. It’s the highlight of the year.”
UCLA coach Rick Neuheisel has been involved in his fair share of the 79 games in this storied rivalry ““ sometimes referred to as the Battle of L.A. ““ but he has yet to beat USC as UCLA’s head coach.
“This is that game that conjures up great … emotion, anticipation,” he said. “It’s vital that you channel that into great focus. That’s how you play well in these games.”
The Bruins had the necessary emotion in last year’s contest at the Los Angeles Coliseum, but couldn’t focus when they needed to, Neuheisel said. UCLA trailed just 14-7 in the fourth quarter before USC tacked on two late touchdowns to seal the victory on its home turf for the sixth straight time.
The 2009 game might be best remembered for a tense final few minutes that nearly broke into an on-field brawl between the two teams. Blame for the fracas generally falls on the coach of whichever team you don’t root for.
A late Neuheisel timeout after the USC offense had already taken a knee irked the home crowd, but they were going nuts on the next play, when then-Trojan coach Pete Carroll approved a pass play over the top for a 48-yard touchdown to push the lead to three touchdowns.
When the USC players began jumping up and down, taunting UCLA from their sideline, the majority of the Bruins came out to midfield in what looked like an invitation for an old-fashioned rumble before coaches and referees cooled the situation.
This week, Neuheisel claimed last year’s brouhaha is now just water under the bridge.
“I think that’s behind us,” he said. “I don’t think it merits much conversation.”
But it’s not like the players don’t remember it.
“It was disrespectable,” Carter said. “This team, we have class. Yeah, they got us last year. They got us with that last touchdown. This year we’re going to get them with a “˜W.’
“You want to use it as fuel but not dwell on it.”
Every rivalry is going to have some bad blood running through it. The fact that these two programs divide the allegiances of the nation’s second-largest city makes it unique.
Redshirt sophomore Johnathan Franklin is the Bruins’ top running back. Franklin said his dad will be there, but the USC grad won’t be doing any 8-claps.
“He wants to see me do well,” the younger Franklin said of his father. “But he definitely wants to see us lose.”
Carter predicted there would be some scuffles between plays.
“We don’t like each other, so when we get on the field there’s going to be a lot of anger, probably a couple fights,” he said. “I hope not. I don’t want any of our guys getting kicked out of the game, but it’s just hate.
“It’s like somebody slapped your mom.”
Neuheisel is not in the business of making predictions about game outcomes, but some things never change about the contests in this series.
“I know they are looking forward to ending their season, just as we are, on a positive note,” he said. “It should be, as it always is, a spirited contest.”