Bruins’ remaining hope for 2018: Beat USC
The Victory Bell functions as a tangible symbol of the rivalry between UCLA and USC. Should the Bruins win it Saturday for the first time since 2014, it can also function as a symbolic building block for Year 1 of the Chip Kelly era.
UCLA (2-8, 2-5 Pac-12) had its narrow path to the Pac-12 Championship closed last week in a 31-28 loss at Arizona State. The Bruins finish Kelly’s first season as coach with two games at the Rose Bowl, the first of which is Saturday’s annual cross-town showdown against USC.
UCLA won three straight in the 89-year-old rivalry from 2012 through 2014 but has gone winless in Clay Helton’s time coaching the Trojans. This year, USC (5-5, 4-4) limps into the Rose Bowl with its worst record at this point in the season since 2001.
The Trojans are more vulnerable now than at any point since the 2013 season, when the Bruins rolled to a 35-14 win at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
While UCLA’s bowl hopes are dashed, a Bruins win would deal USC a critical blow in its own effort to get to the postseason. The Trojans wrap up the regular season Nov. 24 against undefeated Notre Dame.
As for UCLA, 2018 nears its conclusion with the Bruins guaranteed to finish below .500 for the third consecutive campaign, sporting a record that — if they fail to win their final two — would be the program’s worst since going 2-7-1 in 1971.
Still, the bevy of underclassmen who contributed in 2018, like defensive Darnay Holmes, Elijah Gates and Quentin Lake, linebackers Krys Barnes and Keisean Lucier-South, and breakout star running back Joshua Kelley, offer a brighter forecast for 2019.
Kelly is opting not to look that far ahead, though. The coach offered early 1990s pop-music duo Milli Vanilli up to reporters on Monday for a frame of reference.
“On top of the world, right?” said Kelly. “Then it all crashed and burned. So we’re not thinking about momentum, we’re thinking about having a really good Monday.”
