Playing in the “Granddaddy of Them All” — the Rose Bowl Game — comes with some of the grandest pre-game festivities and pageantry in all of college sports. USC and Penn State will take the field Monday afternoon after undergoing a week filled with hype and buildup for the playing of the 103rd Rose Bowl […]
A berth in the Rose Bowl Game was once a Trojan birthright. From 2004 to 2009, USC football took the field in Pasadena following the Rose Parade every single year save one — when the Trojans were busy thumping Oklahoma in Miami to win their (since-vacated) 2005 national championship. No team holds a candle to […]
The first football practice I covered as a staff writer at the Daily Trojan was the one after head coach Steve Sarkisian showed up to a booster event inebriated, went on a drunken, profanity-laced tirade and later apologized for in front of a horde of cameras. This, I learned as a wide-eyed freshman, was just […]
USC took an untraditional route to arrive at its most traditional postseason landing spot historically: the Rose Bowl game, or the “Granddaddy of Them All.” Despite concluding the regular season on an eight-game winning streak, USC failed even receive a berth to the conference title game. But after Washington won the Pac-12 Championship, it also punched its […]
An offensive barrage that saw USC hit its first 6 three-point attempts of the second half against Pepperdine killed off any of the already-futile hopes the Waves had of escaping the Galen Center with a win Sunday. The Trojans defeated visiting Pepperdine (4-6), 93-67, to improve to 9-0 on the season. With the victory, USC […]
It wasn’t how they expected the game to end. For three quarters, the men’s water polo team kept a steady hand over Cal. Their lead wasn’t large, dipping from one point to two and back down to one. But heading into the fourth quarter of the NCAA championship on Sunday, the Trojans had a two-goal lead […]
As his team swarmed onto Avaya Stadium in San Jose on Sunday night to the tune of the final whistle, head coach Keidane McAlpine watched from the sidelines, grinning. The players bounced on their toes, hands scrabbling to touch the wood of the program’s second NCAA trophy, pulling each other in for hugs. But McAlpine took his […]
A season that began for USC with a stinker against Alabama will end with the Trojans smelling sweet roses. In a turnaround few could have predicted, No. 9 USC will play in the Rose Bowl against No. 5 Penn State on Jan. 2 after starting the season 1-3. “We are tremendously excited and proud to be invited […]
Finishing games strong is much more vital than starting games strong. USC lived by this narrative as it bested BYU, 91-84, in front of a crowd of approximately 8,000 at Staples Center Saturday as part of the Hoophall LA basketball showcase. With the victory, the Trojans improved their regular season record to 8-0 — the best […]
It took two minutes of Saturday’s semifinal game against Harvard for the Trojans to prove that they had come into this championship with one goal in mind — an NCAA trophy. With the band booming and a crowd of fans decked out in crimson and gold, the Spieker Aquatics Complex in Berkeley, Calif. felt like a […]