If the UCLA football team wants to take back the victory bell, the city championship and by consequence, the Pac-12 South division title, it will have to beat USC on Saturday, something the Bruins haven’t done since 2006.
UCLA coach Rick Neuheisel made a case this week that his program has “closed the gap” with USC, but he acknowledged that the on-field performance on Saturday will determine that.
For Neuheisel’s Bruins, beating the Trojans has been hard enough. Beating them at home has been nearly impossible. UCLA hasn’t beaten USC at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum since 1997.
In Neuheisel’s first three seasons at UCLA, the game has meant little more than bragging rights in the city or playing for pride to salvage a sorry season.
This season, the game means more, but don’t think the Bruins don’t remember the ugliness that unfolded the last time they visited the Coliseum.
Leading 21-7 with the game surely in hand, then-Trojan coach Pete Carroll was content to run out the clock and let Neuheisel’s Bruins hurry back to Westwood with their tails between their legs.
Neuheisel, however, had other plans. After USC took a knee, Neuheisel called a timeout to scheme a way to perhaps get back into the game.
The extra minute or two gave Carroll time to scheme as well. Carroll drew up a play that had then-freshman quarterback Matt Barkley fake a handoff and throw an easy 48-yard touchdown pass which is now infamously known to UCLA fans as “the bomb.”
USC’s players began jumping up and down on the sideline, taunting UCLA’s sideline. Several Bruins came to the center of the field, but an all-out brawl was held off.
Neuheisel still remembers “the bomb” today but says it will have “no bearing” on Saturday’s game.
“That was then and this is now,” Neuheisel said. “Over the course of the years you remember what people do and what they don’t do. This is UCLA v. USC, nothing more needs to be said.”
Redshirt junior Kevin Prince, then a redshirt freshman, started that game but left with a sprained right shoulder in the third quarter.
Prince also missed out on last season’s game because of knee surgery while Barkley carved up UCLA yet again, but Prince is back this year and has two more seasons of experience to bring to the table.
“I definitely feel more prepared now and more comfortable and confident and relaxed,” Prince said.
Several other Bruins who were on the field for one of the uglier installments of the storied rivalry remain on the team. Junior cornerback Sheldon Price bit on the play fake and was forced to give chase to the streaking Trojan.
Price looks back on the play as a learning experience.
“It showed us that you can’t expect someone to run the clock out, especially in a rivalry game,” he added. “You have to stay on your toes. In the long run, I’m kind of glad it happened because it opened my eyes and made the rivalry so much bigger.”
New threads
UCLA athletic director Dan Guerrero confirmed that the Bruins will wear alternate uniforms Saturday, confirming rumors and Internet reports.
The uniform will be used as an alternate road jersey and has been in the works for several months. Guerrero did not confirm that the uniforms would be all-whites. UCLA and USC have each worn their respective home jerseys since 2008.
Neuheisel said he had “no idea” of the alternate uniforms on Sunday.
“I think it’s cool,” Prince said of the switch. “We’re a real traditional school but it’s nice to kind of do something different.”