Isn’t it kind of weird it’s gotten to the point that it would be both a shock and a disappointment if UCLA lost to USC Saturday?
It’s wild to think about how drastically each program has changed over the past three years. After UCLA’s 50-0 blowout loss to USC in 2011, it’s the Trojans who are on their third coach in three years.
UCLA hung on to win 38-28 two years ago, snapping a streak of five straight losses to USC. In 2013, the Bruins came away with a much more convincing 35-14 victory, notching consecutive wins in the crosstown series for the first time since 1998.
It was enough for coach Jim Mora to proclaim, “We own this town,” to his team in the tunnel after the game, bold words for a team that had won just three of the past 15 matchups against USC.
But in a sense, Mora was right. UCLA has proven that it has been the better Los Angeles team over the past three seasons, and that’s reflected by them being chosen as 3 1/2-point favorites to win Saturday.
Beyond just being on the right side of the spread, the Bruins are acting and being treated as if this is just another game for them.
With Arizona State’s loss last weekend reigniting UCLA’s playoff hopes and giving them a controlling position in the Pac-12 South, the game against USC feels almost like an afterthought in the bigger picture of UCLA’s season. It feels almost a given that, after all the cards that have fallen in the Bruins’ favor, getting a win over the Trojans is the easy part of their path to the playoffs.
A lot has changed in three years.
Just this season alone is enough to tell the story. While the Bruins have gone 8-2 and are now ranked No. 9 in the College Football Playoff rankings, No. 19 USC – while still in contention to win the Pac-12 South with a 7-3 (6-2 Pac-12) record – has seemed dysfunctional and struggled to create positive headlines.
First was redshirt senior defensive back Josh Shaw’s suspension after he lied about how he sustained an injury. Then, senior running back Anthony Brown quit the team and publicly called coach Steve Sarkisian a racist.
On the football field, USC’s recent history of having machine-like efficiency has faded to a distant memory. The Trojans made waves after giving up 452 rushing yards to Boston College while running for just 20 themselves. Even USC’s two “best” wins this year, by three points over Stanford and by two points over No. 15 Arizona, came largely because of its opponents’ mistakes – Stanford squandered multiple red zone opportunities and Arizona missed a 36-yard field goal in the final seconds.
It wasn’t that long ago that USC was a national powerhouse and UCLA was the dysfunctional L.A. team, getting in a fight against Arizona, being shutout 50-0 against USC and stumbling to a rare 6-8 record.
Now, three years later, the Bruins are in prime position to win the Pac-12 South for the third time in four years, have a shot at making the inaugural playoffs and are unequivocally favored to best the Trojans.
Oh, how times have changed.