It’s that time of year again where the UCLA Football Bruins take on their oldest and greatest rival, the USC Trojans to decide who owns Los Angeles and bragging rights until next season.
It’s easy to look at the win totals of both of these teams and say clearly the USC Trojans are having a better season than the UCLA Football Bruins. But that only tells a small part of the story that is 2017.
The Bruins have had their season well documented here at GJB but let’s give you an abbreviated version just to get back up to speed. After notching back to back wins over the Aggies and Hawaii the troubles began. Memphis was a defensive blunder and Stanford was a pure beat down. UCLA scored a big conference win over Colorado but following a bye week lost in depressing fashion to a hot Arizona team.
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A win over a down Oregon team helped ease the sting of an up and down season but two straight losses to Washington and Utah that weren’t particularly close only fanned the flames of UCLA Football head coach Jim Mora’s hot seat. The temperature on that seat may have been turned down with a win over ASU but they can go back to high heat if the Bruins lose in ugly fashion to the Trojans.
Across town the Trojans racked up nine wins but some of them were ugly (Western Michigan, Stanford, Texas, Cal and Utah) where USC and it’s embarrassment of riches in terms of talent didn’t play up to expectations but still managed to escape victorious. The losses weren’t good looks for the program either. They fell just short of beating Washington State in week five and then Notre Dame hammered them in South Bend three weeks later. Still they’ve reeled off three straight wins against PAC-12 South opponents, (ASU, Arizona, Colorado) and they’re looking to make it four straight as they’ve already sewn up the division.
Trojan QB Sam Darnold and UCLA Football QB Josh Rosen enter this game with more than the typical pressure associated with a rivalry game. They’re not just battling for Los Angeles but also to prove who is the best QB in the city and potentially who will be drafted first next year in the 2018 NFL Draft.
With pride, ranking and potentially jobs on the line in this game it’s important that the coaches aren’t the only ones with tons of knowledge about this UCLA Football opponent so strap in, get yourself a strong drink or two and let’s dive into the USC Trojans.