UCLA vs. USC: For All The Marbles
By Keith Rivas
Normally the season-ending battle featuring UCLA vs. USC is just a matter of who has the next set of bragging rights — we can expect that and then some at the end of this year.
Without Brett Hundley in the picture anymore, the UCLA Bruins football team will have to turn to young gun Josh Rosen if they expect to go anywhere.
As for the men of Troy, their title hopes will be turned to a now-veteran QB Cody Kessler.
If we know anything about college football, it’s that rivalries mean more than the world to the schools involved.
It’s no different between the Trojan and the Bruins.
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Heading into 2015, UCLA has won the last three battles for the Victory Bell, but the overall record falls in USC”s favor by a tally of 44-31-7.
Both Southern California powerhouses have the same goal but will have to take different roads to get there.
On the Trojans’ side of things, a path to the college playoff will mainly fall against how well they perform against the Notre Dame Figthing Irish and Utah Utes — two teams put at the dead center of their set up for 2015.
Especially Utah.
Notre Dame is going to be giving college football the best it can handle after a roller coaster year in 2014.
Throw in the fact that they’ve got a big rivalry with USC and you’ve got yourself a game with tremendous implications.
The reason that Utah’s game is important is because it’ll help USC prepare for any arrangement of teams in the final four showdown, should they find themselves still alive at that point in the season.
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Utah presents a lot of solid surprises — it’s how they win games — but USC is by far more conventional.
While neither ways of going about your football business are necessarily, playing it conventional can often mean playing it too safe late in a game instead of risking it.
The Trojans have to be ready to give it all or nothing, whether they like it or not.
From the Bruin’s perspective, their last two games against Utah and USC will be brutal.
With the same game plan as they’ll have going up against USC when they face the UCLA crew, the Utes will be ready for absolutely anything the Bruins want to try and throw at them.
Protecting young gun Josh Rosen is going to be the crux of any game the Bruins play this season, let alone against Utah.
Games against Arizona State, Stanford, and Colorado are other key match ups for UCLA.
Arizona State surprised the USC Trojans last year on a miraculous last second Hail Mary to the heavens — this means the Bruins can never afford to let their guard down.
Knowing full well that the Sun Devils will be out to prove everybody wrong and then some, UCLA can’t sleep on their Pac-12 foes.
Stanford and Colorado provide the exact opposite of each other.
Stanford will be the more consistent team, and a win against them means they’ll have the confidence to take on pretty much any team in all of college football.
Bottom Line: This Could Be The Best Battle For SoCal
With the Buffaloes not being as talented as Stanford, going up against Colorado will prep the Bruins for potential sleeper teams that find themselves in the playoff — should they not be the sleeper team themselves.
But then, after all of that, a head-to-head match up like all ways and old times could decide who finds themselves in the upper echelons of all of college football.
It’s just a matter of time.