Updates: Rivalries

It’s official, and it’s not very surprising. UCLA Athletic Director Dan Guerrero today announced that Karl Dorrell has been fired as the Bruins’ head football coach. Dorrell lasted five years at UCLA, with his best season (10-2) coming in 2005. The Bruins defeated USC just once during that span.
Boise State head coach Chris Petersen, Texas […]

The Rose Bowl is on the line–in more ways than one–as USC hosts UCLA on Saturday at 1:30p at a sold-out Coliseum. Here are the final pre-game comments from the major sources:
Too close for comfort (LA Times)
USC-UCLA games with the Rose Bowl on the line (LA Times)
Tribute planned for Rucker, Danelo (LA Times)
That’s so last […]

The 8th-ranked Trojans (9-2, 6-2) conclude their regular season on Saturday at the Coliseum with their annual cross-town rivalry game against the UCLA Bruins (6-5, 5-3). USC is coming off its best performance of the season–a 20-point win over then No. 7 Arizona State–and is in position to advance to the Rose Bowl should the […]

UCLA’s 16-0 upset victory over 9th-ranked Oregon on Saturday means that the Trojans will win their sixth-straight Pac-10 title and play in the Rose Bowl on New Year’s Day if they are able to defeat the Bruins next Saturday at the Coliseum. Whom USC would play in Pasadena is another question; Big-10 winner Ohio State […]

How can you resist an article entitled “The Worst Football Coach in the Universe,” especially when it is about Charlie Weis? And we quote:
“In the entire history of American sports hype, has there ever been any fraud more grossly fraudulent than Notre Dame football coach Charlie Weis?”
The Worst Football Coach in the Universe (Slate.com)

It certainly is an off year for one of college sports’ greatest intersectional rivalries. Saturday’s 79th matchup between USC (5-1, 3-1) and Notre Dame (1-6) pits a Trojan team that is sinking in the polls against a woeful Fighting Irish squad having one of its worst seasons in recent memory. Both teams have been struggling […]

USC’s fourth-ranked women’s volleyball team fell to 14-2 (3-2 in the Pac-10) on Friday with a loss to crosstown rivals UCLA. The fifth-ranked Bruins (14-2, 4-1) took three out of four games from the Trojans, and earned the first five points in the 2007-08 “Lexus Gauntlet” competition between the two schools.
No. 5 UCLA Defeats No. […]

It seems that there are writers outside of the Pacific time zone who are anticipating the USC/UCLA game on December 1. UCLA’s 13-9 victory over the Trojans last year and their 20 returning starters have opened some eyes, nationally.  Adam Kilgore of the Washington Post profiles the rejuvenated football rivalry.
L.A. Is More Than Trojan Town (Washington Post)

From the “We Thought You Should Know…” files: UCLA wide receivers coach Eric Scott was released on bail today after being arrested along with two other men by Los Angeles County sheriffs yesterday on suspicion of residential burglary. Scott, who also played for the Bruins in the mid-1990s, was just hired in March. The Daily […]

Rivals.com has also announced their first 2008 football recruiting rankings recently (again, seven months prior to signing day!), and USC finds itself ranked 7th on this list. They don’t have to look far to find the current #1 team: UCLA, a school that Rivals lauds for recruiting well in its home state. Of course, they […]