No more horsing around: Rivalry Week starts right now — Because of Turkey Day on Thursday, UCLA’s BeatSC Rally and Bonfire will roast the school of turkeys tonight (Monday night)
It’s finally here. 51 weeks of waiting is over. The Countdown has started for the Kickoff to the annual renewal of the Country’s most heated Crosstown Rivalry: UCLA vs. usc. And out of the 51 weeks, about 48 of them were filled with dread for Bruin fans, because once again, it looked like the Bruins were going to get killed. But a few weeks ago, the Bruins started to play slightly better, and usc started to play a lot worse.
The seeds of hope were actually planted a while back, with what looked like a fluke, when Washington upset sc. But that was in Washington, and the Husky Coaching staff KNEW the trojans inside and out. So it was no big deal when the Bruins beat the Huskies, who had beaten sc. But now, the Bruins have also played Oregon, Washington State, Stanford, and ASU tougher than sc did. So Bruin fans are ALLOWING themselves to dream a little dream.
But listen to Sports Talk Radio at 4:15pm today, KLAA Radio, 830 on your am radio dial, to hear a certain Bruin fan that you all know and love (or hate), who has a more realistic (pessimistic?) outlook on the upcoming match-up…
The spread is not yet posted on Vegas.com as of this update, but rumor has sc favored by anywhere from 10 to 13 1/2 points. Someone is going to have to tackle Joe McKnight in order to keep troy within two TD’s. And someone else is going to have to put pressure on Matt Barkley, or sc will cover the spread just through the air, before Intermission. And someone else is going to have to block for Chane Moline. If he is going to Gerhart through the trojan Defense, he’ll need a lot of help, along with a Passing Attack that isn’t afraid of Taylor “The Headhunter” Mays and the deep ball.
So yeah, obviously usc is vulnerable, and not playing for any of their preset goals, but they are trying to salvage their season. A loss and they are historical laughingstocks in trojan lore for decades to come. On the other side of the field, the Bruins could lose a a fairly close game, and still consider the season a slight “success,” because they exceeded last year’s win total and became Bowl-eligible. Therefore, usc has much, much more to lose, and will play with more desperation, urgency, emotion, and wild abandon. The sad part is that they don’t really need any of that to win. They don’t need to spear Kevin Prince in the jaw, out of bounds, after the whistle, but they probably will. All they have to do is play up to their bloodlines, and they win going away. It’s just that they have been getting stuck in the gate lately, and when Pom Pom goes to the whip-whip, there’s nothing left in the tank.
But with home cesspool advantage, two weeks to prepare (for his mortal enemy Norm Chow), and stronger psychological motivators on his side, is there any possible way that Caroll loses this game?
But don’t bring that sh*t around Westwood tonight. At the Bonfire and Rally, it’s all about hope, confidence, and hatred, and faith in the struggle of good vs. evil.
Speaking of good vs. evil, thank you for all the comments about creepiness and wholesomeness, and here are 5 more shots from Saturday, that made the final cut to be posted on “Night 1,” but ended up like Les Miles and LSU: Time ran out on them. All these photos ENLARGE when you click on them, and they all have mouse-over, hidden captions. Today’s captions concern Kahlil Bell (believe it or not), Darren Collison, and my favorite quote of the year, about Demar Derozan and Homer Simpson’s favorite thing in the World.
Comments
One response to “YOU CAN LEAVE YOUR HATE ON — IT’S BEATsc WEEK!!”
Now is the time to come out in droves and wear our Blue and Gold to try to counteract the University of Spoiled Children and all their egotistical and guady gear that even the most fair-weathered non-fan seems to be sporting today to bandwagon his way into getting into some chick’s pants.
Speaking of University of Spoiled Children, was I the only one who heard Warren Sapp use that phrase on a TV pre-game show a few weeks back? The other commentators tried to sluff it off with a “duh, what thar heck does that mean”? while tell-it-like-it-is Warren stated “Come on, yall tell me you never heard that one before”?
GO BRUUUUUUUUUUUUUUINS!!!!
[T-H’s Note: Hadn’t heard about Sapp. That’s awesome. Thanks.]