By Matt Willens
For the better part of the last 10 years, the annual
"crosstown rivalry" between the UCLA Bruins and the USC Trojans
has not been much of a rivalry at all. Due to USC's superiority on
the football field and UCLA's inability to establish a winning program, in the
past decade USC has won nine out of ten times. To give an
example of USC's dominance since 2002 versus their rivals in
Westwood, in the 2005 game at the Coliseum USC routed UCLA 66-19. After that
victory, USC went on to play for the National Championship at the Rose Bowl. In
last year's game at the Coliseum, the Trojans made it very clear to college
football fans throughout the nation who was the powerhouse program in the city
of angels. USC went on to shut out the Bruins 50-0 in what many college football
historians consider to be the most lopsided victory in the 82-year history of
the rivalry. Last winter, UCLA replaced former head coach Rick
Neuheisel with Jim Mora Jr.. Mora had the reputation of being a strict
disciplinarian with a no-nonsense coaching style, which was much needed after
former coach Neuheisel's loosy goosy, lax and casual approach to coaching and
leadership. Apparently the change in personnel, along with Coach Mora's tight
reign, has proved to be just what the program needed.
Take a drive down the 405 and get on the 110 and you'll see some
sad faces after what was hoped to be the season that turned USC back into the
national power that they were in the early 2000's. Two Saturdays from now
the Bruins and the Trojans will face off in what could be a defining moment in
the history of this heated rivalry. Not only is pride at stake, but a Rose Bowl
birth may be on the line as well. Could the result of the game at the Rose Bowl
on November 17th be the beginning of the end of USC's dominance of
their neighbors from the Westside or will the Men of Troy prevail and
keep their stranglehold of LA's college football landscape intact.
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