Trojans can’t overlook cellar-dwelling Buffs


I could word this a little nicer, but I’m just going to be blunt. Colorado is really bad.

The Buffaloes’ 4-6 overall record is deceptive, implying that maybe they’re halfway decent, but their conference record tells the real story. At 1-6 in Pac-12 play, Colorado can at least claim not to be the goat of the conference. The Cal Golden Bears own that dubious title after losing to the Buffs to fall to 1-10 overall and 0-8 in the Pac-12 on the season. But that doesn’t mean that Colorado really belongs in the Pac-12. Of those seven losses, Colorado has not been within three touchdowns of a single opponent, with a 45-23 point loss at UCLA serving as the team’s closest final score in the loss column.

So I’m having trouble quantifying the significance of USC’s matchup against Colorado tomorrow. At 22.5 favorites, it shouldn’t take too much to go right for USC to come home from Boulder with a comfortable victory. In fact, even 22.5 points sounds conservative given Colorado’s struggles in the conference, making my decision to pick USC in our Best Bets section on page 10 really easy (and I’m only one correct call behind co-sports editor Nick Selbe in the year-round pool, so I’ve been thinking really hard about all my picks this week). In a conference where it seems like anyone could beat anyone else on any given week — see Washington State and Stanford games as proof — I feel like exceptions can be made for Colorado and Cal, who really look like JV teams, to be honest.

But stranger things in the sports world have happened. Our modern day rivalry with Stanford started when the Cardinal won in the Coliseum as a 41-point underdog in 2007, so the Trojans can’t overlook this week’s game. The crosstown showdown against UCLA will only match the excitement of the Stanford game if the Trojans build on last week’s momentum rather than let it all slip away with a less-than-stellar effort against Colorado.

As a son of two Trojans born in Los Angeles and raised during the pinnacle of the Pete Carroll era, I grew up a huge ’SC football fan. And I couldn’t stand half of the UCLA fans I went to middle school with.

Sure, we matured to the point where we could have intellectual discussions about a matchup without it turning into a shouting match, and now I can honesty say I really respect UCLA as both an athletic program and an academic institution. But I remember participating in extremely heated USC vs. UCLA discussions with some of my classmates in my younger years, which shifted to vicious Facebook comment wars once social media was getting started between seventh an eighth grade.

I had it pretty easy growing up with that rivalry. We basically won every year on the football field. Now, Jim Mora has the UCLA program looking like a legitimate Pac-12 contender for the long run, making the Nov. 30 matchup against the Bruins a brand new kind of exhilarating.

Trojan football finally feels like the team I grew up rooting for. USC finally feels like a football school, not just a party school after experiencing the student section firsthand on Homecoming. It was a feeling I remembered experiencing when deciding to come to USC, but felt I was missing the first three months of my college experience. Even if USC’s recent run doesn’t add up to a Rose Bowl, the pride alone from winning these rivalry games would make 2013 feel like a successful season.

But it’s still not for another week. I wish all the energy — and students — that flowed onto the field at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum last Saturday could just carry straight into what also feels like the biggest game of USC’s season next week. But there’s still an important game the Trojans need to win on the road before thinking about the raucous student section the team will come home to over Thanksgiving break.

 

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